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 A. A. B. Edwards MSS.

Dates of creation of the material 1856-1891.

Extent 3 albums, 1 notebook, 1 packet, and 2 watercolours.

2. Context

Name of creator Edwards, Amelia Ann Blanford (1831-1892).

Administrative and biographical history
British author and Egyptologist. Born, London, 1831. Died, Westbury-on-Trym, 1892. Displayed an early talent for writing, drawing, and opera singing. She pursued a career in journalism, wrote several novels, and also edited art and history publications. During this time she fostered a great interest in Egyptology, which led to her studying hieroglyphs. She visited Egypt in 1873-4, after which she wrote her most renowned publication A Thousand Miles Up the Nile (1877). She founded the Egypt Exploration Fund along with R. S. Poole and Sir E. Wilson, its aim being to excavate and preserve monuments. She gave up all her other interests so that she could concentrate on being the EEF's Secretary and to publicize its cause. She wrote numerous articles including excavation reports. In her will she left provision for the establishment of the first chair of Egyptian archaeology in England, which was at University College London, its first holder being Flinders Petrie.
See Who Was Who in Egyptology (3rd ed. 1995), 137-8 fig. (portrait).

Custodial history Not known.

Immediate source of acquisition Not known. Probably part of the Griffith bequest.

3. Content and structure

Scope and content Album of drawings and watercolours made during Amelia Edwards's visit to the Dolomites. Album of drawings and watercolours made during her visit to Egypt in 1873-4. Album, notebook, and a packet, containing an assortment of drawings, letters, and notes. Two watercolours of the temples on Philae island, assumed to have been painted by A. Edwards.

System of arrangement Most of the material has been kept as received. Some of the loose material from one of the albums has been extracted then kept and numbered separately.

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. Some notes in French and German.

Physical characteristics No problems.

Finding aids Catalogue.

5. Allied materials area

Location of originals These are originals.

Existence of copies None.

Related units of description Diary of Mrs Kate Griffith (née Bradbury), made during the journey to America with Amelia Edwards in 1890 (2 volumes).

Associated material Not known.

Publications Some of the drawings and watercolours in the albums have been used in Amelia Edwards's publications Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys (1873), and A Thousand Miles Up the Nile (1877). Edwards MSS A.E. 343-6 published in Recueil de Travaux iv (1883), 79-81.

(February 20, 2004)