Oxford and Cambridge Expedition to South America

The Oxford and Cambridge Expedition to South America took place in 1957-8, when teams from Oxford and Cambridge Universities drove overland across South America in three Land Rovers.^[1]

The expedition was the third in a series of overland expeditions undertaken by a joint team from both universities. The first, in 1954, was the Oxford and Cambridge Trans-Africa Expedition, from London to Cape Town, and the second and most famous was the 1955-6 Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition, from London to Singapore.

While on the expedition team member Adrian Cowell met the Villas-Bôas brothers and left the Oxford and Cambridge Expedition to join them on the Centro Geographico Expedition to find the geographical centre of Brazil.^[2]

Ethnographic items collected were donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford by Peter Rivière on behalf of the expedition.^[3]

Team members (partial list)

• Adrian Cowell (Cambridge) (previously a participant on the 1955-6 Singapore expedition)
• John Moore (Cameraman)^[1]
• Nigel Newbery (Oxford) (previously a participant on the 1955-6 Singapore expedition)
• Peter Rivière^[4]