Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe-Owen was an exhibition organizer and the Director of the South Kensington Museum in London.
Occupation
exhibition curator
Born
June 8, 1828
Died
March 23, 1894
Overview
Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe-Owen (8 June 1828 – 23 March 1894) was an exhibition organizer and the Director of the South Kensington Museum in London.
Early life
Philip Cunliffe-Owen was a British subject born in Switzerland, the son of Captain Charles Cunliffe-Owen RN (1786-1872) and his wife, Mary Peckwell Blosset, daughter of Sir Robert Henry Blosset, who served as Chief Justice of Bengal.
Biography
At the age of 12, he joined the Royal Navy, served in the Mediterranean and West Indies, but left after five years due to poor health.
In 1854, his elder brother, Henry Charles Cunliffe-Owen, helped him to obtain a position in the newly formed Department of Science and Art. The secretary of the department was Henry Cole (later to be the first Director of the South Kensington Museum). Cole appointed Cunliffe-Owen as one of the superintendents of the British section in the 1855 Exposition Universelle, held at Paris. Cunliffe-Owen was an expert in French, which proved very helpful.
