Henry Underhill

Henry Michael John Underhill (1855–1920) was an amateur scientist, artist, photographer and grocer from Oxford, England.

Underhill is best known for his hand-painted and photographic lantern slides which illustrate a variety of subjects including entomology, natural history, prehistoric British archaeology and folk tales. Underhill was a founding member of the Oxfordshire Natural History Society (now the Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxfordshire).

Personal life and education Underhill was born in Oxford in 1855. He attended Christ Church Cathedral School and was a private pupil of the artist William Riviere. At one time, he lived at 20 Bardwell Road.

Underhill died on 2 October 1920 aged 65 after a long bout of cancer. He is buried in Wolvercote Cemetery.

Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, Underhill gave eleven lectures to the society on a variety of topics. All of his lectures were illustrated by his hand-painted and photographic lantern slides. His lectures for the society included:

In 1896, Underhill gave a lecture entitled Great Stone Circles on megalithic monuments of South-West Britain, which included hand-painted lantern slides depicting Stonehenge, the Rollright Stones and Avebury. The lecture was attended by British archaeologist Arthur Evans, then keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, and the Hope Professor of Zoology, Edward Poulton.

Underhill also photographed family, friends and society members on leisure outings in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A selection of these photographs has been shown in exhibitions at the Museum of Oxford.