Background
Henry Christy was born at Kingston-on-Thames cn the 26th of July 1810.
Henry Christy was born at Kingston-on-Thames cn the 26th of July 1810.
Henry Christy entered his father's firm of hatters, in London, and later became a director of the London Joint-Stock Bank.
In 1850 he started on a series of journeys, which interested him in ethnological studies.
He travelled in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Mexico, British Columbia and other countries; but in 1858 came the opportunity which brought him fame.
It was in that year that the discoveries by Boucher de Perthes of flint- implements in France and England were first held to have clearly proved the great antiquity of man.
By his will Christy bequeathed his magnificent archaeological collection to the nation.
In 1884 it found a home in the British Museum.
Christy took an earnest part in many philanthropic movements of his time, especially identifying himself with the efforts to relieve the sufferers from the Irish famine of 1847.