Egyptology collection

This collection is a veritable who's who in Egyptology for the period during the British administration of Egypt when under the terms of the Entente Cordiale, French archeologists were in charge of the Egyptian Museum and French was the recognized lingua franca in that country.

"There are, for example, 4 letters written by Gaston Maspero (Museum's Director, 1899-1914), many documents signed by Pierre Lacau (Director, 1914-36), and several signed by Reginald Engelbach (Director, 1931-1941). On 6 April 1908, Gaspero announces the death of Émile Galtier, the Museum's librarian, and the appointment of Lacau as his successor to the post. On 20 May 1908, Gaspero engages J. Zerkowitz for 11 months as the European secretary for le Service du Congrès d'Archéologie Classique. On 15 March 1910 and 20 April 1911, he writes to the chief inspectors of antiquities at Sakkara and Assisout and gives his approval for excavations in those areas."

In addition to these documents is a classic work of Egyptology: G. Maspero. Egyptian Archæology. London: H. Grevel and Co., 1887.Translated from the French by Amelia B. Edwards. xii, 328 pp.: illustrations. Large paper edition, limited to 50 copies. Bound in vellum, boards somewhat soiled, both boards warped, small splits at the bottom and top of the spine. Edwards (1831-1892), nicknamed the "Godmother of Egyptology", was an English novelist, journalist, and travel writer. Her signature on a label is affixed to the front free endpaper. 

Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero was a French Egyptologist known for popularizing the term "Sea Peoples" in an 1881 paper. He was a French Egyptologist and director general of excavations and antiquities for the Egyptian government. He was responsible for locating a collective royal tomb of prime historic importance as well as establishing the French School of Oriental Archaeology. He also edited the first fifty volumes catalogs of the museum's Egyptian collection.

Pierre Lacau was a French Egyptologist and philologist. He served as Egypt's director of antiquities from 1914 until 1936, and oversaw the 1922 discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings by Howard Carter.

The correspondents in senior posts at the Museum include Georges Émile Jules Daressy, Campbell Cowan Edgar, and Henri Gauthier. Among the Egyptologists are: James Quibell (4 letters, keeper at the Museum from 1914 to 19240, chief inspector for Delta and Middle Egypt), Pierre Jouquet, Ludwig Borchardt, Hermann Junker, Enoch E. Peterson, James Leslie Starkey, Alexander Scharff, Émile Baraize, Oswald Menghin (printed firmin), Ambrose Lansing, Günter Roeder, Nelson Glueck, Sir Robert Mond, and Étienne Driorton.

There are letters from: the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem; the Egypt Exploration Society; the American School of Orientale Research; the Pennsylvania-Baghdad School Expedition; and the Kaiserlich Deutsches Institut für Ägyptische Altertumskunde. The collection also includes letters from prominent non-Egyptologists such as Dr. D.L. Askren, Foreign Mission of the United Presbyterian Church, and the American architectural historian James D. Van Trump. Many documents in the collection relate to permissions to undertake excavations, reports of discoveries of various artifacts, and Museum activities.

Collection on consignment with LDRB.