Biography
Emil Torday was a Hungarian-born anthropologist who explored equatorial Africa between 1900 and 1909, and studied its peoples. He performed anthropological surveys of the Kwango-Kwilu river basin and the Kasai for the British Museum, and collected many objects, photographs and phonographic records. Many of these are now in the British Museum collections. He was an advocate of indigenous views, and formed a close relationships with the Kuba peoples, who had a very sophisticated kingdom with a strong artistic tradition. He spent the next few years publishing articles, monographs and books on his explorations, and was awarded the imperial gold medal for science and art by the emperor of Austria in 1910. He was also involved with the International African Institute, the Royal Anthropological Institute, and Save the Children International.
Brief biography
anthropologist (1875 - 1931)
