Access Archive Afternoons Courtney Bobik, Stephanie Boonstra, Porin Šćukanec Rezniček, Siobhan Shinn (2014-2015) Expand While scanning, conserving and rehousing archival material is crucial to its survival for future generations, we were also fortunate to have a group of volunteers in 2014-15 that were passionate about engagement with archival material and the history of the Society. Together they created the Society’s Access Archive Afternoon programme which introduced a lunchtime lecture and archive viewing each month. Though the original group of volunteers have all moved onto further studies, we are glad to continue the Access Archive Afternoon programme which gives volunteers at the Society an opportunity to present their research and visitors the chance to interact with some of our most fascinating archival records.
Cataloguing the artwork John Wyatt (2012-2016) Expand Since 2012 John Wyatt has been cataloguing, numbering, measuring and digitizing the Society’s collection of artwork including watercolours by Howard Carter, Marcus Blackden and Amelia Edwards. This forms part of a wider project including the artwork held in the collections of the Griffith Institute, Oxford. This project was completed in summer 2016 with the help of Erasmus inter, Urska Furlan. The background and catalogue of artwork is now available here. A Collection Highlight on John's work can be read here.
Creating the Egyptian Archaeology Skills School Kelly Accetta (2016) Expand The Egyptian Archaeology Skills School was created in 2016 by Kelly and Deputy Director Carl Graves. EASS was devised as a week long training course at the London office that teaches students various skills that are required on excavations in Egypt, including pottery drawing, GIS, and surveying. Kelly created the first EASS programme, booked speakers, registered attendees, and more.
Creation and cataloguing of the Waddington archive Susan Biddle (2016) Expand In 2015 the Society received a donation of archival material from the family of Hilary Waddington documenting his time on EES excavations at Tell el-Amarna from 1930-36. Some material was already in the Society’s Tell el-Amarna sub-archive, but the extra donation warranted the creation of a distinct TA.WAD sub-archive. Notice of further material was made from the Waddington family in 2016 and Susan kindly took up the challenge to organise and catalogue the Society’s Waddington material to make it available on the library and archive catalogue during 2016-17. Susan writes about the Waddington archive here.
Digitizing the Amara West temple archive Katherine Piper (2015-16) Expand To provide images for the publication of the Amara West temple by Dr Patricia Spencer in 2016, Katherine Piper has been digitizing the entire Amara West pictographic archive. This comprises shots from the excavation of the town area between 1937 and 1949, artefacts discovered during this period, and the 19th Dynasty temple and its decoration. Once these have been published by Dr Spencer, we will make the rest of this archive available online via our Flickr feed.
Relabelling the library Tilly Burton and Barbara Youngman (2014-2016) Expand With over 20,000 items on open shelves in the Society’s Ricardo A Caminos Memorial Library, the task of relabelling and reshelving the entire collection was a major project from 2014 through to 2016. Tilly and Barbara have spent this time relabelling each individual item with a shelfmark reference and author suffix making finding resources much quicker – and reshelving them even easier!
Scanning the Abydos tomb cards Susan Biddle (2015-2016) Expand The Society’s work at Abydos during the early 20th century included the excavation of hundreds of burials in the desert edge cemeteries, many of which are now beneath modern cultivation or urban expansion. Susan Biddle has been scanning the tomb cards recording these burials at Abydos and then uploading these items to the Society’s Flickr feed. Before taking on the huge task of scanning the Abydos tomb cards, Susan had previously worked on the Society’s collection of Balabish and Sawama tomb cards.
Scanning the object cards Louise Atherton, Elissa Day, Anouk Everts, Elina Rodriguez Millan and Katherine Piper (2014-2015) Expand The Society’s archaeological work since 1882 has produced countless artefacts that tell us much about the ancient Egyptians and the material world in which they lived. During 2014 and 2015 a number of volunteers scanned object card records in the Society archives, including those from Amara West, Tell el-Amarna, Armant, Buhen, the Nubian Sondage Survey, and Sesebi. Thousands of cards were digitized and are now all available via the Society’s Flickr feed. Katherine writes about the Tell el-Amarna archive here.
Scanning the office archives Mina Ilic (2016-2017) Expand After 135 years the Egypt Exploration Society has produced a vast archive of documents and reports directly relating to its own business history. In 2016, to compliment the 'cataloguing the correspondence project' and 'digitizing the distribution projects' (see above), Mina started scanning the Annual Reports of the Society. This was completed in December 2016 and the project was expanded to include the Committee Minutes from 1882 until 1982. These documents provide a unique insight into the working of the Society from its foundation to its centenary and preserve countless names of supporters, Egyptologists, archaeologists and those working in related fields - notably committee members.