These papers relate to three large stone collections formed by English amateur scientist Ernest Westlake from about 1870 to 1920: 13,033 Tasmanian Aboriginal stone implements, an estimated 10,000 English paleaoliths, eoliths and fossils and more than 4,000 French eoliths.

The story of Ernest Westlake and the collections he formed is brought to life in the 2017 book by Rebe Taylor, Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search for Human Antiquity.

Ernest Westlake had formal training in geology (University College London 1873-1875) but, as these papers reveal, his wide-reaching research interests included psychical phenomena, cultural evolution and anthropology. This archive represents much of Westlake's life's work, including some papers relating to the project for which he is most famous: the establishment of the alternative Boy Scouts movement, The Order of Woodcraft Chivalry, in 1916.