Born: 14 August 1910, Papua New Guinea
Died: 14 May 1985
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: Elsie McCarthy
This biography has been shared from The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, published by the Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology, under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Elsie Bramell, the first female anthropologist appointed to the Australian Museum, was on the staff from 1933 until 1941 when she was required to resign upon her marriage to fellow Museum anthropologist Frederick McCarthy. She is best known for her work on Aboriginal stone artefacts, collecting and recording sites around New South Wales, usually with her husband and for many years after leaving the Museum. With him and H. V. Noone she published The stone implements of Australia (1946) which recognised the complexity of those tools and proposed a framework for use in describing them. Bramell was among the earliest to advocate protection for Aboriginal sites and artefacts.
Chronology
1933
Education – BA and DipEd, University of Sydney
1933 – 1941
Career position – Scientific Assistant, Department of Anthropology, Australian Museum Scientific Assistant, Department of Anthropology, Australian Museum
1935
Education – Master of Arts (MA), University of Sydney
1935 – 1939
Career position – Member, Anthropological Society of New South Wales
1940 – 1946
Career position – Member, Editorial Committee, Mankind
1941
Career event – Resigned from the Australian Museum