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Gamble (David P.) papers
LSC.1997
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: David P. Gamble papers
Creator:
Gamble, David P.
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1997
Physical Description:
68 Linear Feet
(54 record cartons, 32 document boxes, 3 flat boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1920-2007
Abstract: Anthropologist David P. Gamble was born in 1920 in Northern Ireland and passed away in California in 2011 after a long career
of research and teaching. The collection contains a variety of material related to Gamble's more than six decades of work
on The Gambia and its peoples. Copies of the anthropologist's publications on Gambian history, economics, languages, and cultures
are included, along with many of the notes, maps, illustrations, primary sources, and secondary sources from which he generated
these studies. Gamble's output was wide-ranging, but of special note are his contributions to the bibliography of The Gambia;
the ethno-linguistic study of Wolof, Mandinka, and Fula; and the early history of the Gambia River region.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are primarily in English and French; some materials in Wolof, Mandinka, Fula, and Jola.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Copyright to portions of this collection has been assigned to the UCLA Library Special Collections. The library can grant
permission to publish for materials to which it holds the copyright. All requests for permission to publish must be submitted
in writing to Library Special Collections. Credit shall be given as follows: The Regents of the University of California on
behalf of the UCLA Library Special Collections.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Collection acquired from David P. Gamble and Linda K. Salmon between 2011 and 2012.
[Identification of item], David P. Gamble Papers (Collection 1997). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Processed by Jesse D. Ruskin in 2013 in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Jillian
Cuellar. Collection has been partially processed. Series 1 to 6 have been processed to the file level, with books and photo
clippings processed to the box level. Series 7 to 12 have not been processed, but general content of each box has been indicated.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user
interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive
processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
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UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9970019423606533
David P. Gamble was born in 1920 in Northern Ireland and passed away in California in 2011 after a long career of anthropological
research and teaching. Completing his undergraduate studies at University College, London in 1941, Gamble spent several years
assisting with archaeological and physical studies of highland communities in Northern Ireland. After a brief stint in the
Royal Engineers, he joined the Colonial Administrative Service in 1944 in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), taking up posts in Tarkwa,
Axim, and Sekondi. At that time, Gamble's academic supervisor Daryll Forde, who was then Director of the International African
Institute, began conceiving a series of studies, later known as the
Ethnographic Survey of Africa, which aimed to fill wide gaps in ethnographic knowledge of the continent. The Gambia was viewed as a site in need of research.
Gamble's other mentor, economic anthropologist Raymond Firth, also conducted a survey of what was then British West Africa
and came to the same conclusion. At Forde's and Firth's urging, Gamble conducted field research among Mandinka, Wolof, Jola,
and Fula communities in The Gambia between 1946 and 1958, initially with the support of a Colonial Research Fellowship and
later as a Research Officer under The Gambia Government. With a dissertation on the socioeconomic conditions of the Mandinka
village Kerewan, Gamble earned his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of London in 1958. The anthropologist returned
to The Gambia for research numerous times between 1963 and 1986. Published in 1967, Gamble's
The Wolof of Senegambia, Together with Notes on the Lebu and the Serer became a valuable addition to Forde's
Ethnographic Survey. Among many other publications, Gamble produced a 52-volume series of studies on Gambian history, society, and culture, titled
Gambian Studies (1977-2007). In 1999, as a culmination of his work on early Gambian history, Gamble edited a scholarly edition of
The Discovery of River Gambra (1623) by Richard Jobson.
Gamble began his academic career with teaching and research appointments at the University of Edinburgh (1959-1963), San Francisco
State College (1963-1965), Queen's University Belfast (1965-1966), and Njala University College in Sierra Leone (1966-1967).
In 1967, he became Associate Professor of Anthropology at San Francisco State University, from which he retired as a tenured
Professor in 1986. He remained Professor Emeritus there until his death in 2011.
The collection contains original and secondary material related to Gamble's more than six decades of research on The Gambia
and its peoples. This includes original notes, illustrations, maps, photographs, and correspondence produced during the anthropologist's
extensive fieldwork among Mandinka, Wolof, Jola, and Fula communities in The Gambia. Copies of the anthropologist's publications
on Gambian history, economics, languages, and cultures are included, along with many of the primary and secondary sources,
including newspapers, photocopies of documents, books and periodicals, and government reports, from which he generated these
studies. At the heart of Gamble's corpus of published work is his monumental 52-volume
Gambian Studies series, a complete set of which is held in the collection.
Gambian Studies is comprised of bibliographies of The Gambia; dictionaries and grammars of Wolof, Mandinka, and Fula languages; collections
of folktales, stories, and proverbs; studies of historical sources; and general ethnographies of the country's people.
Gamble's research is topically wide-ranging and methodologically diverse, reflecting the influence of his mentors and his
own eclectic expertise. Geographically, his work focuses on The Gambia, but extends to Senegal and Sierra Leone. Topics and
issues covered include trade, agriculture, land tenure, law and legal systems, folklore, material culture, verbal and visual
culture, language, life-cycle ceremonies, music, and the colonial encounter. Methods included mapping, census-taking, field
observation, photography, sound recording, analysis of historical documents, and interviews. Gamble treated research projects
iteratively, revisiting ideas and sources numerous times over the course of his career. Date ranges of accumulated research
material can therefore be quite wide within a single subject area. Gamble's publications are, in many cases, present in both
final and draft manuscript forms.
This collection has been arranged in twelve series by subject matter and type of material.
- Series 1: Personal materials, 1920-2000
- Series 2: Wolof research materials, 1920-2007
- Series 3: Mandinka research materials, 1940-2006
- Series 4: The Gambia research materials, 1920-2007
- Series 5: Senegambian music, 1975-2004
- Series 6: Photographs, 1920-2007
- Subseries 6.1: Photo prints and negatives
- Subseries 6.2: Photo clippings
- Series 7: Fula research materials, 1920-2007
- Series 8: Jola, Lebu, Serer, and Serahuli research materials, 1920-2007
- Series 9: Sierra Leone / Temne research materials, 1920-2007
- Series 10: Gambian Studies Series, 1976-2007
- Series 11: Gambian newspapers and periodicals, ca. 1960-2004
- Series 12: Books and theses, 1920-2007
- Subseries 12.1: Theses, 1967-1994
- Subseries 12.2: Books, 1920-2007
Gamble's sound recordings and slide photographs, as well as his original collection indexes, are held in the UCLA Ethnomusicology
Archive: David P. Gamble Collection (2011.08). Selected volumes of Gamble's Gambian Studies series are available for download
through St. Mary's College of Maryland:
http://www.smcm.edu/gambia/david_gamble.html .