Parkinson, Richard

Richard Parkinson (full name Richard Heinrich Robert Parkinson 1844, Augustenburg (Alsen Island – 1909) was a Danish explorer and Anthropologist.
In 1875, he became a representative of the Hamburg trading firm J. C Godeffroy & Sohn in Samoa. He was, in part, employed to collect ethnographic material for the Godeffroy Museum.He remained in Samoa until 1882, settling afterwards on the Gazelle Peninsula, New Britain. From there he undertook larger and smaller journeys to the Bismarck Archipelago, then the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. His masterwork Dreißig Jahre in der Südsee, Thirty years in the South Seas, appeared in several editions (first 1907 and 1911). It describes in detail the islands, Neulauenburg ( Duke of York Islands ), Neumecklenburg and New Hanover, St. Matthias Islands, the Admiralty Islands, the German Solomon Islands, their societies, masks and mask dances, legends and fairy tales as well as the languages.He also collected zoological specimens, especially insects.