William Henry Furness

Trained as a physician, William Henry Furness III became better known for the journeys and observations that shaped his books. He was born in 1866 and died in 1920, and he is remembered as an American ethnographer and author as well as a doctor.

Furness traveled widely and wrote about the people and places he visited in a direct, curious style. He is especially associated with writing on Borneo and on Yap in the Caroline Islands, including the book The Island of Stone Money, which brought lasting attention to Yap's remarkable system of large stone currency.

His writing now sits at an interesting crossroads of travel narrative, anthropology, and early field observation. While the language and assumptions of his era can feel dated today, his books remain valuable for readers interested in exploration, cross-cultural encounters, and the history of ethnographic writing.