Griffith Institute Archive

Description of material

This description is based on the General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G)

1. Identity statement

Reference code n/a

Title Carter MSS.

Dates of creation of the material 1899 to 1939.

Extent 15 boxes, 1 album, 1package, 55 maps and drawings, 1 watercolour, 1 silver inkwell.

2. Context

Name of creator Carter, Howard (1874-1939).

Administrative and biographical history
British Egyptologist. Born, London 1874. Died, London, 1939. Privately educated. Employed by P. E. Newberry in 1891 working for the Archaeological Survey. Assisted in excavations for the Egypt Exploration Fund 1892-3, was with Petrie at Amarna in 1892, and as a draughtsman to the Deir el-Bahri expedition 1893-9. Appointed Chief Inspector of Antiquities of Upper Egypt 1899-1904. Discovered several royal tombs, including those of Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis IV and Amenophis I. Inspector of Lower Egypt 1905. Employed by Lord Carnarvon from 1909 onwards, to excavate in the Theban necropolis, the Delta and Middle Egypt. His most famous discovery, that of the intact tomb of Tutankhamun, was made in 1922. He spent the next ten years recording the tomb's contents. Most of Carter's records for Tutankhamun's tomb remain unpublished.
See Who Was Who in Egyptology (3rd ed. 1995), 84-5.

Custodial history Carter bequeathed these records to his niece Miss Phyllis Walker in 1939.

Immediate source of acquisition Miss Walker donated the Carter MSS in several groups in 1945, 1946, 1959 and 1972. A watercolour and a silver inkwell were presented anonymously in memory of Charles Wilkinson in 2003.

3. Content and structure

Scope and content Notebooks, notes, maps, drawings, newspaper cuttings, watercolours, and a silver inkwell. Made during Carter's career between 1899-1939. (This is material other than that directly connected with the tomb of Tutankhamun.)

System of arrangement Kept as received. Divided into six groups.

4. Access and use

Legal status Property of the Griffith Institute.

Access conditions No restrictions.

Copyright conditions Copyright Griffith Institute, Oxford.

Language of material English.

Physical characteristics No problems.

Finding aids Catalogue.

5. Allied materials area

Location of originals These are the originals.

Existence of copies Two A3 ringbinders containing copies of maps and drawings (I.G. series).

Related units of description TAA Archive (material concerning the tomb of Tutankhamun). Deir el-Bari drawings (mostly by Carter). Gardiner MSS 11.1-7 (drawings of scenes of the Festival of Opet, from the processional colonnade, made by Carter).

Associated material Not known.

Publications The records of Carter/Carnarvon pre-Tutankhamun work in the Valley of the Kings, see web publication 'The Search for Tutankhamun' 4search.html.

Notes None.

(April 7, 2003)