British Museum (Natural History): Director's Office: Papers and Correspondence of...

This series contains the unregistered correspondence and papers of Charles Edward Fagan (1855-1921). There are files of letters from three successive directors (W H Flower, E Ray Lankester and L Fletcher) as well as correspondence concerning the directorship, notes on administrative matters and miscellaneous letters.

Series held at The Natural History Museum are catalogued more fully in its online catalogue (reference DF DIR/939). Online descriptions of some individual records can also be viewed on Discovery, see DF 939.

Most of Fagan's administrative correspondence is held in: DF 1000

Fagan's outgoing letterbooks are in: DF 1001

Topics

Museums and galleries

Fagan was appointed to the British Museum as a Clerk in 1873, and was transferred to South Kensington in 1881, becoming a 1st Class Assistant in 1887. Fagan quickly proved himself a capable administrator, and Flower was able to leave most of the day-to-day running of the Museum to him. His position was recognised when he was appointed Assistant Secretary in 1889. After E Ray Lankester's departure in 1907, Fagan and the keepers ran the Museum for 18 months until Fletcher was finally appointed Director in July 1909. Fletcher suffered from ill health throughout his directorship and, once again, heavily relied on Fagan's support. A move to have Fagan appointed Director after Fletcher's retirement was defeated by representations from the Royal Society and a letter to The Times signed by leading scientists. Fagan was promoted to Secretary in 1919 and retired in January 1921, dying just two weeks later.