Henry (Harry) Evans Maude (1906-2006) was a civil servant and anthropologist who spent eighteen years working in the Pacific Islands. Between 1929 and 1948 Maude served as District Officer, Native Title Lands Commissioner and Resident Commissioner to the remote Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony, a widespread collection of coral atolls incorporating the Gilbert and Ellice Islands group, the Phoenix Islands group and also Fanning, Washington, Christmas and Ocean Islands. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1939 for his services in the Colony, particularly in relation to his Phoenix Islands resettlement scheme. Recognising the complexities of island life and the process of cultural change, Maude began to research island history, collecting an extensive array of source materials along the way. The results of much of his research have been published, particularly in the Journal of the Polynesian Society.

The material in this archive has been digitised from the original papers of Henry Maude (MSS 0003).