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 Gardiner MSS.

Dates of creation of the material From about 1900 to 1963.

Extent 89 boxes, 74 card index boxes, 26 packages, 72 books, offprints and albums.

2. Context

Name of creator Gardiner, Sir Alan Henderson (1879-1963).

Administrative and biographical history
British Egyptologist. Born, Eltham 1879. Died, Oxford 1963. Educated at Charterhouse, then studied Classics, Hebrew and Arabic at The Queen's College, Oxford. Worked with A. Erman on the preparation of material for the Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache and was sub-editor 1906-8. Laycock Studentship, Worcester College, Oxford, 1906-12. Edited many Egyptological publications including the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. Published extensively in the field of Egyptology. Honorary Secretary of the Egypt Exploration Society, 1917-20, Vice President and then President, 1959-63. Many distinctions during his career. Specialized in hieratic texts on papyri and ostraca. Published the 1st edition of Egyptian Grammar in 1927, which is still one of the essential learning aids for Middle Egyptian. Member of the Tutankhamun excavation team, for which he recorded all the inscriptions from the tomb.
See Who Was Who in Egyptology (3rd ed. 1995), 160-2.

Custodial history Bequeathed to the Griffith Institute by Sir A. H. Gardiner.

Immediate source of acquisition The estate of Sir A. H. Gardiner.

3. Content and structure

Scope and content Notebooks, notes, card indexes of the Pyramid Texts and Late Egyptian, copies of inscriptions, corpus of transcribed hieratic ostraca and papyri, photographs, drawings, correspondence, copies of his own publications, and portraits.

System of arrangement Mostly kept as received. Correspondence has been arranged in alphabetical order.

4. Access and use

Legal status Property of the Griffith Institute.

Access conditions Access to correspondence is subject to prior approval by the Keeper of the Archive.

Copyright conditions Copyright Griffith Institute, Oxford.

Language of material English, German, French, and other European languages.

Physical characteristics No problems.

Finding aids Catalogue.

5. Allied materials area

Location of originals These are originals, except where indicated in Gardiner catalogue.

Existence of copies None.

Related units of description None.

Associated material TAA Archive (material concerning the tomb of Tutankhamun).

Publications Publication details indicated in Gardiner catalogue

Notes None.

(April 14, 2003)