via Indonesia and the Malay World, 17 April 2024: Dr Farouk Yahya’s obituary of the late Prof. Elizabeth Moore.
Indonesia and the Malay World is deeply saddened by the recent passing of Elizabeth Moore, Emeritus Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology, School of Arts, SOAS University of London. One of the foremost experts in the field of Southeast Asian art and archaeology, Elizabeth had served as a dedicated member of the editorial board of Indonesia and the Malay World since 1988 (when it was known as Indonesia Circle). She continued to contribute her time and expertise over the past 35 years to advise on matters relating to its running and publications.
…
Elizabeth’s PhD research was underpinned by a collection of more than 5,000 aerial photographs of Southeast Asia taken between 1942 and 1952, mainly by the British Royal Air Force (RAF). They were collected by Peter Darell Rider Williams-Hunt (1919–1953), an aerial photographic interpreter for the British army, who in 1946 was appointed as the first Advisor on Aborigines for the Federation of Malaya. Almost half of the photographs in his collection are of Peninsular Malaysia (2,632 photos; 45%), with the rest comprising images of Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore and other areas. These photographs were crucial to Elizabeth’s research and after much searching she finally found them in the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford (Moore Citation1986 II: 1–2).
