Max Henry Ferrars

Max Henry Ferrars (28 October 1846 – 7 February 1933) was a British colonial officer, author, photographer and university lecturer, mainly active in British Burma and later, in Freiburg, Germany. He served for nearly 30 years in the Imperial East India Forestry Service and other public offices in Burma. Together with his wife Bertha as co-author, Ferrars wrote and illustrated an ethnological and photographic study of the native culture and society, entitled Burma, published in 1900.

Max Henry Ferrars was born on 28 October 1846 in Killucan, Ireland. He was the son of an Irish father and a German mother. After studies at Trinity College, Dublin, he moved to Germany in 1870 and specialised in forestry at the Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry (German: Königliche-Sächsische Forstakademie) in Tharandt, Saxony, near Dresden.

Having completed his education, he moved to Burma, where he served for 25 years in the Imperial East India Forestry Service and later also as "Director of Public Instruction" in the British colonial service.

Based on their sound knowledge of Burmese language and wide travels in Burma, he and his wife Bertha Ferrars (née Hensler) published a book entitled Burma in 1900, with detailed ethnological descriptions of the native culture and society and illustrated by more than 400 photographs in black-and-white, taken during the couple's time in Burma. Among many other observations, the authors also took photographs of popular sports and other pastimes of the Burmese people, for example boat races, gambling or the Burmese form of chess.

In 1896, Ferrars returned to Europe and took up residence in the university town of Freiburg on the outskirts of the Black Forest in southern Germany. He joined the advisory committee of the city's Museum for Natural Science and Ethnology (at the time called "Museum für Natur- und Völkerkunde"), offering his knowledge of Burmese culture and donating his collection of photographs, thereby becoming one of the museum's first major sponsors. The Ferrars' collection still constitutes the key part of the museum's holdings on the culture of Burma, presenting over 100 items, among them a large group of traditional and rare Burmese marionettes, pieces of Burmese laquerware and parts of the wooden door of a Buddhist monastery.

From 1899 onwards, Ferrars taught English language in the University of Freiburg's faculty of philology. In his new surroundings, he continued his travels and documentary photography, as is shown by his photograph of a group of girls in a village in the Black Forest.

According to the information given in German on the museum's webpage, Ferrars' position as a British university lecturer in Germany became difficult during the years of World War I. Due to the intervention of the university, however, he could continue his teaching position until his retirement in 1921. Ferrars died on 7 February 1933.

467 half-plate glass negatives of photographs taken with a plate camera of the time by the Ferrars couple, illustrating their book on Burma, have been archived by the Royal Geographical Society, London, and more than 300 of them are available online.

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  Chess players

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  Women and girls from Shan State

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  Burmese traditional marionettes (Yoke thé)

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  Burmese women carrying water