Kathleen Haddon
Kathleen Haddon Rishbeth (13 May 1888 – 6 September 1961) was a British zoologist, photographer and collector of string figures. She was the wife of Australian geographer Oswald Rishbeth.
Also recorded as Kathleen Rishbeth · Kathleen Haddon Rishbeth
Kathleen Haddon
- Name
- Kathleen Haddon Rishbeth
- Birth Name
- Kathleen Haddon
- Born
- 13 May 1888
- Birthplace
- Kingstown, Ireland, British Empire
- Died
- 6 September 1961
- Place of death
- Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
- Education
- University of Cambridge
- Occupation
- * Zoologist
- Nationality
- United Kingdom · United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- Fields
- braiding
- Languages
- English
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Kathleen Haddon Rishbeth (13 May 1888 – 6 September 1961) was a British zoologist, photographer and collector of string figures. She was the wife of Australian geographer Oswald Rishbeth.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Kathleen Haddon (1888–1961) was a photographer and zoologist, of British and British nationality. The photographer was born in Dún Laoghaire and died in Cambridge.
Kathleen Haddon was educated at Newnham College. Activity centred on braiding. Languages used include English.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 30 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Kathleen Haddon. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q4814851 · wikipedia · Kathleen Rishbeth
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Kathleen Haddon Rishbeth • Birth Name — Kathleen Haddon • Born — 13 May 1888 • Birthplace — Kingstown, Ireland, British Empire • Died — 6 September 1961 • Place of death — Cambridge, England, United Kingdom • Education — University of Cambridge • Occupation — * Zoologist • Photographer • Father — Alfred Cort Haddon • Children — 3, including Henry Rishbeth
Early life and education
Early life and education
Kathleen Haddon was born in Kingstown, County Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of anthropologist and zoologist Alfred Haddon. She was educated at the Perse School for Girls and Newnham College, Cambridge, where she began studying Natural Sciences (including zoology and geology) in 1907. She was also a member of the student geological society, the Sedgwick Club. She and her sister Mary accompanied their parents to the United States in 1909, where the sisters helped collect string games from coastal communities in Alaska. As a woman, Haddon was ineligible to receive a degree from Cambridge University in 1911, (although she did eventually receive a degree in 1948) but was appointed to work as a University Demonstrator in Zoology from 1911 to 1914.
Career
Career
In 1914, she travelled with her father as photographer for a three-month survey of the southern coast of Papua, taking covert photographs with a portable folding Vest Pocket Kodak camera, as well as more elaborately prepared photographs with a stand camera. She did not publish her typed manuscript account of the voyage. She died in Cambridge in 1961.
Family
Family
In September 1917, Kathleen Haddon married Oswald Rishbeth, an Australian geographer and classicist who served in the British military in World War 1. They had three children, including the biologist John Rishbeth, FRS and physicist Henry Rishbeth.
Articles
Articles
• 'In Papua with a Piece of String', The Chronicle of the London Missionary Society, July 1915, p. 140. • 'Some Australian String Figures', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, N.S. Vol. 30, No. 2 (1918), pp. 121–36. Melbourne: Ford & Son. • 'In the Gulf of New Guinea', Country Life Vol. 24 (1929), pp. 268–70.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Dún Laoghaire.
Birth place
Cambridge.
Death place
Books
• Cat's Cradles from Many Lands. London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1901.. • Artists in String, String Figures: Their Regional Distribution and Social Significance. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1930.. • String Games for Beginners. 1934..
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Henry Rishbeth (1999) 'Kathleen Haddon (1888–1961)', Bulletin of the International String Figure Association, Vol. 6, pp.1–16.
- 2.1911 England Census
- 3.Ireland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1620–1911
- 4.Beizer, Janet, "Thinking through the Mothers: Reimagining Women's Biographies", Cornell University Press, 2009.
- 5.Joshua V. Bell, 'For Scientific Purposes a Stand Camera is Essential': Salvaging Photographic Histories in Papua, in C. Morton & E. Edwards (eds.) Photography, Anthropology and History: Expanding the Frame, Ashgate, 2009, pp.143–70.
- 6.Deaths. The Times. 1. 8 September 196.
- 7.Mendillo, M., "Henry Rishbeth: A remembrance ", 25th CEDAR Meeting, Boulder, CO., June 2010.
- 8.Wood, R.K.S., "John Rishbeth. 10 July 1918-1 June 1991", Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. 41 (Nov., 1995), pp. 360–376 (17 pages)
- 9.Kathleen Haddon – Oswald H T Rishbeth. slatters.org.uk.
- 10.Obituary, Man, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 62 (Jan., 1962), pp. 10–12 (3 pages)
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Photography
11,392 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Katherine McClellanPhotographer
- Katherine NevillePhotographer
- Katherine StieglitzPhotographer
- Kathleen FriedrichPhotographer
- Kathrin SonntagPhotographer
- Kathryn AbbePhotographer
- Kathryn PrescottPhotographer
- Kathryn ReynoldsPhotographer
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Kathleen Haddon?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.