Lucy Gura Archive

The Archive is a unique record of the Society’s historical contribution to the field of Egyptology from the founding of the EEF (as we were named until 1919) in 1882. A brief history of the Society is available here.

The archive is named after a member, Lucy Gura, whose family made a substantial donation to the EES in 2007 for the digitisation of the oldest photographs in the collection.

Visiting our collections

The EES Lucy Gura Archive is freely accessible to researchers by prior appointment from Monday to Wednesday 10:30-16:30. Office closure dates are available here. You should notify the archivist at least 1 month prior to your preferred visiting date to ensure that we can book you an appointment.

Please note that due to the expectation of meeting our funding goal to redevelop our premises (help our Building the Future campaign here), the physical collections may be less accessible to researchers and visitors for the foreseeable future (access to our online collections via our catalogue and Flickr will continue). There will be potential to consult parts of the archive during the closure period, but this will incur a fee to be paid by the user.

To arrange a visit before we reopen in 2028, please complete an archive material request form and email it to [email protected] as soon as possible to discuss the feasibility of your research and scheduling with the Collections Manager.

Some records preserved within the collections are particularly fragile; please ensure that you have read our handling guide on the request form prior to your arrival.

Related collections

A number of other institutions hold material connected with the Society, related people, and the sites explored since our founding in 1882. These include:
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London (materials relating to sites and people, particularly those related to W M F Petrie)
The Griffith Institute, Oxford (materials relating to sites and people, including watercolours by Howard Carter, and notebooks and journals of early explorers)
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (materials relating to the Society’s American Branch, including the distribution of artefacts from archaeological sites in Egypt)
The British Museum, London (materials relating to distribution of artefacts from archaeological sites in Egypt, and documents relating to the Society’s co-founder Reginald Stuart Poole)
Somerville College, Oxford (materials relating to the Society’s founder, Amelia Edwards including a number of original watercolours)
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva (materials relating to sites and people, particularly those related to É Naville)