Henry Wellcome’s Egyptian Legacy by Dulcie Engel

Henry Wellcome’s Egyptian Legacy by Dulcie Engel

Introduction

Egypt Centre volunteers are familiar with the story of Sir Henry Wellcome and his significance for the museum, and we frequently mention his name when visitors ask us where our collection comes from. Indeed, the museum’s original name was the Swansea Wellcome Museum, until the purpose-built Egypt Centre was opened in 1998.[1]

In this article we will be looking at our museum, and three others, which benefited from the dispersal of Wellcome’s Egyptian collection from 1969 to 1971.[2] We will consider briefly the life and collecting passion of the man, before discussing the distributions of material after his death, with particular reference to the Egyptian artefacts distributed from the Petrie museum; and then focussing on the Wellcome collections of Egyptological items in Birmingham, Durham, Liverpool and Swansea.[3]

Sir Henry Wellcome (1853-1936)[4]

Henry Solomon Wellcome was born in humble circumstances in Wisconsin in 1853, son of a farmer who went bankrupt a few years later and turned to preaching. As a young man, Henry studied pharmacy and became a successful medical salesman. Fellow American pharmacist Silas Burroughs asked him to join him in setting up a pharmaceutical business in the UK in 1880. Burroughs-Wellcome soon became a multinational enterprise, based on sound scientific research and skilful marketing. Wellcome continued the business alone after the death of Burroughs in 1895. He invented the word ‘tabloid’ (= tablet & alkaloid) to describe his products; he developed light, portable medicine chests for use by travellers (taken by Stanley to Africa, and Scott to the Antarctic for example). He also set up laboratories and funded scientists who made important progress in the development of antihistamines, insulin, and antitoxins for tetanus and diphtheria.

In 1901 he met Syrie Barnardo (daughter of the children’s charity founder), and they married soon after. They had a son, Henry, in 1903. However, it was not a happy marriage. Syrie was 22 years younger than him and they separated in 1909, after which she had a number of affairs. She became pregnant by novelist Somerset Maugham, giving the child (Mary Elizabeth) Wellcome’s surname. In 1915, Henry divorced her, naming Maugham as co-respondent.

One of the reasons for the unhappy marriage was Wellcome’s lifelong obsession with collecting, which took all his spare time, money and space. Collecting was a fairly common hobby among the rich and (later) the bourgeoisie from the 18th to the early 20th century:

‘Collecting things provided entertainment, education, social opportunities and an outlet for creative expression in the home (Larson 2009: 5).

However, as Larson (2009: 3) points out:

‘Wellcome was so organized in his pursuit of the perfect museum that his collection rapidly devolved into a state bordering on chaos…The means overshadowed the end. Collecting became a way of life.’

His main areas of interest were medical artefacts and ethnographic items, and from 1901 onwards, he was increasingly interested in the ancient civilisations of Egypt and Sudan. He contacted leading Egyptologists such as Petrie and Maspero for information and advice. Between 1910 and 1914, he led archaeological excavations at Jebel Moya and Abu Geili in Sudan. He funded archaeologists and anthropologists to collect items for him, including Winifred Blackman, who went to Egypt in 1926. He also bought large amounts of items at auction, usually via his agents, and under false names. This way, he acquired complete collections, including a large part of the MacGregor collection.[5]  His ambition was to found an ethnographical museum like the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, or the Horniman Museum in London. In 1913, ten years after he first had the idea, he put on an exhibition which became the basis of  the Wellcome Historical Medical Museums (WHMM). [6]

‘By the time he died, Wellcome had set up a foundation, a library, a trust, a collection and a host of other organisations that all carried his name’ (McKie, 2011).

Disposals and distributions (1936-1983)[7]

‘Since Wellcome’s death, entire museums have been founded on a fraction of his collection’s treasures’ (Larson 2009: 2)

The Wellcome Trustees were responsible for the distribution of Wellcome’s vast collection following his death in 1936. It became clear by 1943 that the WHMM collection was ‘so colossal and so amorphous it would take years, if not decades, to sort through…It took another forty years to organize and re-home the objects Henry Wellcome had devoted his life to acquiring’ (Larson, 2009: 2).

The medical material can be found in two dedicated galleries in the Science Museum, London (established in 1980 -1981; named the Wellcome Museum of the History of Medicine)[8], and also, since 2007, at the Wellcome Collection in Euston Road, London.[9]

About one third of the collection consisted of non-medical objects, the most extensive part of these being ethnographical items. The majority of archaeological artefacts from Wellcome’s Sudan excavations were presented to the British Museum in 1946 (Russell 1986: 7).[10] Approximately 1300 cases of material[11] were sent to the British Museum, which was given first choice of the items, and asked to advise on donations to museums which had suffered heavily from losses in the Blitz (notably Liverpool Museum). 1949 marks the first of the so-called ‘ten distributions’ of material from the British Museum to other museums (Russell 1986: 8).

With regards to the Egyptological material in particular, this disposal was organised by the Petrie Museum,[12] based at University College London, which received the collection in 1964 (Russell 1986:10). [13]

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

In 1892, University College London was bequeathed the Egyptology collection of novelist and explorer Amelia Edwards, along with the endowment of a chair in Egyptian Archaeology, which was awarded to Flinders Petrie.[14] His many excavations led to a hoard of material being piled up in University College. In 1915, the college took responsibility for the collection and the museum was opened for study and teaching purposes. Cataloguing did not start till Petrie’s successor took over in 1934, and it took 70 years to complete the records for the 80 000 objects in the museum. During the war, some of the collection was moved out of London, and the rest crated up. The museum was re-housed in its current location from 1949 onwards. In the 1980s, the museum became more outward-looking, and engaged more in public activities. In 1998 the collection was designated as one of national importance. It is still desperately short of space.

‘The collection of Sir Henry Wellcome (1853–1936), the pharmaceutical magnate, arrived in 350 packing cases in 1964. Most of the material was subsequently dispersed to other museums, but a significant proportion, notably Sudanese antiquities from the royal city of Meroe, were officially registered into the collection’ (Stevenson & Challis, 2015: 19)

 

The material included items excavated by Petrie and Garstang. The illustration chosen to appear beside the paragraph quoted above shows one of the Wellcome pieces kept by the Petrie museum: a cippus (protective stela featuring Horus the child), catalogue number UC2341.[15] For AG, the most popular objects in the Petrie from the Wellcome material are the Koptos Lions, which currently flank the entrance to the office of UCL’s Provost.[16]

 

The catalogue brings up 988 results for items from the Wellcome collection. According to AG’s records, the Petrie retained 446 objects of mainly excavated material, and ‘475 objects in 14 crates from Koptos from the Wellcome Collection were later acquired by the Petrie Museum in 1980. The listing of all this material in the Petrie Museum was undertaken by volunteers and overseen by Barbara Adams, and was completed by October 1981’ (AG). This would make a total of 921 objects. [17]

 

Given serious space shortages, ‘a larger proportion were subsequently dispersed from the Petrie Museum to other institutions’ (http://egyptartefacts.griffith.ox.ac.uk). According to Larson: ‘More than 300 crates of material from ancient Egypt were distributed’ (2009: 275).

‘About 1971 (from oral evidence) representatives from museums with large Egyptology collections – Birmingham[18], Durham (Gulbenkian)[19], Liverpool[20] and Swansea[21] – were invited to come and choose material to be loaned to their museums. With the number of cases of material approaching 300[22], it was impossible to make individual choices. Accordingly, specimen cases were opened and others taken sight unseen in blocks of cases …major secondary collections such as the MacGregor collection were split up’ (Russell 1986: 10)

AG has kindly provided the following details from a ‘Summary of the present position of the Wellcome Collection’ (Nov 19^th 1970):

 

‘-Material which has been unpacked, sorted, studied to a greater or lesser extent, and incorporated into the Petrie collection (even though in some cases items may not yet actually have a U. C. number) Nearly all such material has come direct from excavations (many of which Sir Henry Wellcome himself supported) and is therefore in varying degrees contexted and documented. The sites represented include Amarna, Armant (Bucheum), Mostagedda, Meroe, Sanam (Napata), Sennar, and Beth-Pelet. All this material will be retained in University College and, it is hoped, ultimately published

-Unpacked material including from other collections, e.g. the Macgregor and Kennard[23] collections, purchased objects and ‘forgeries’ were presented to Birmingham and Durham

-Boxed material to Liverpool and Swansea’

 

The last two points would explain why Liverpool and Swansea know how many crates they received, whereas Birmingham and Durham do not.

 

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

This museum and gallery is housed in an imposing Victorian building in the centre of Birmingham, and was first opened to the public in 1885. It has 40 galleries displaying art, applied art, social history, ethnography and archaeology. The collection consists of 500 000 items. Since 2012 it has been part of Birmingham Museums Trust, a charitable trust that manages the collections of Birmingham City Council over 9 sites (LB).

The Wellcome Trust loan consists of 4,765 objects; around 60% of the Egyptian collection, and was presented to the museum in 1969 (LB).

The most popular items with visitors from the Wellcome Loan are the figurines and amulets, in particular the animal amulets and recognisably Egyptian ones such as the Wadjet Eye (LB).

The most prized items are as follows:[24]

 

 

 

Object Number[25]	Full Name	Object Description
1969W3735	Relief of royal head	Relief of royal head carved on a dressed block.
1969W3667	Hawk coffin and mummified hawk	Hawk-shaped coffin in two parts with mummified hawk inside. Coffin lid has remains of gesso finish with black paint and gilding on face and breast now very patchy.
1969W3838	Harpocrates figurine
1969W1096	Ushabti	Black stone with three lines of incised text on the body for Baketenkhonsu.
1969W4529	Torso Fragment from Sculpture	Possibly Royal- Seti I

(Table by LB)

It is worth noting an item of particular interest to the Egypt Centre: Ptahotep’s shabti box[26]. The Egypt Centre houses the wooden shabtis[27] which would have originally been placed inside this box. This is a clear example of the separation of items belonging together, which happened at the time of the distribution from the Petrie Museum.

Durham Oriental Museum

Like the Egypt Centre, this is a university museum, with a specifically designated area of collecting, and a close link to academic departments in the university.

The idea of a museum to support the teaching of oriental languages was actively promoted by Professor William Thacker in the 1940s and 50s.[28] In 1949, the university acquired the Ancient Egyptian collection of the Dukes of Northumberland, which forms the core of the collection (RB). Thanks to a donation from the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon[29], the purpose-built Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology, as it was then known, opened in May 1960. An additional mezzanine floor was added in 2000, and there is now a dedicated schools gallery for teaching and learning about Ancient Egypt. The museum houses around 30 000 objects originating geographically from the Near East through to South East Asia.

‘The Ancient Egyptian and Chinese collections are of particular significance and hold ‘Designated Status’, recognising their importance on a national and international scale’[30]

With respect to the size of the Wellcome Trust loan, this is quite hard to estimate as:

‘Two groups of Wellcome material came to the museum. The Egyptology was first and then a group of East Asian material followed some years later. The estimate is that the number of Egyptian objects is around 4000[31] but like many museums we are still working through the Wellcome material to match accession register information with other archival and database sources.  There are currently 3162 records on our database which list Wellcome as the acquisition source but of course this is not the same as number of objects and this does include the non-Egyptian material’ (RB).[32]

The Wellcome Egyptian material is estimated at 40% of the total Egyptian holdings (RB).

RB lists the key objects as follows:

Catalogue No.[33]	Object name	Comments
EG733	New Kingdom mummy mask	relatively rare transitional form
EG732	Ptolemaic mummy mask	popular part of schools gallery
EG5382	Set of frog amulets	very popular with children
EG5259	Painted figure of Duamutef	popular with adult visitors
EG5260	Painted figure of Imsety	popular with adult visitors

RB’s general comments on the Wellcome loan would probably find an echo in Birmingham and Liverpool:

‘However, the value of the collection does not lie in one off pieces but in its breadth and depth.  The number and variety of shabti, examples of cippi, votive statues, predynastic material etc which gives depth to our displays and collections overall, that is what Wellcome brings.  The core of our collection is that formed by the Dukes of Northumberland. This is the collection which includes the standout big bits of impressive stone and so on.  The value of Wellcome is in the everyday items that speak to people as something more human. The kind of thing that someone normal might have owned rather than a Pharaoah. So if you are asking which objects I prize most in the Wellcome material it would be the shabti, cosmetic palettes, amulets and so forth rather than anything rare or of exceptional quality’ (RB).

Liverpool World Museum

‘World Museum is the oldest of the museums and galleries operated by National Museums Liverpool. It first opened on 8 March 1853 in the Ropeworks district of Liverpool, and it moved to its present site on William Brown Street in 1860’[34]

Liverpool Museum started off as a natural history collection and was called the Derby Museum (after the collection’s owner, Lord Derby). A rival Egyptian museum was opened by jeweller and collector Joseph Mayer in 1852, and eventually both collections were combined into a larger municipal museum, to which many more collections were added. The building was devastated in the Blitz in May 1941[35], and did not re-open until 1956. In 1986, the Merseyside museums and galleries became a National Museum, the only one outside London. In 2005, the museum was re-named the World Museum, and a revamped Egyptian gallery opened in April 2017.[36]

With respect to the Wellcome donation (see footnote 20), Liverpool received 90 crates of material in 1971, estimated to contain about 3500 items.[37] There were other donations (much smaller in size) in 1954, 1981 and 1982 (AC). This represents about 23% of the Egyptian collection if the lower estimate of 16 000 items is used (although AC points out that once everything is individually inventoried, the figure could be nearer 18 000).

‘From a curatorial point of view it was an important acquisition to fill gaps in the collection. Much of our pottery was destroyed in the May 1941 Blitz. From the Wellcome Collection we received a good amount of pottery excavated by John Garstang (Liverpool Institute of Archaeology) at sites including Beni Hasan, Esna and Abydos, which has been incredibly helpful in replacing what was destroyed. After the war we were left with hardly any Predynastic pottery of note …The Wellcome Collection gift contained a significant amount of material from EES excavations at Amarna (maybe 500 items) which together with the purchase of most of Norwich Castle Museum’s collection in 1956 has made us a significant repository of material from this site which attracts students and scholars from the UK and overseas’ (AC). These are the key objects for AC:

Catalogue No.[38]	Object name	Comments
1973.1.422	Bes jar[39] from Fayoum, Late Period	Popular with visitors
1973.4.503	Painted mummy shroud	Popular with visitors
1973.1.365	Naqada II jar (decorated with scorpions, snakes & crocodiles)	Stunning example[40]

 

Egypt Centre Swansea

Although, like Durham Oriental Museum, the Egypt Centre is a university museum, it differs from Durham, Birmingham and Liverpool in two significant ways. Firstly, the Egypt Centre is a museum displaying solely Egyptian artefacts,[41] and secondly its foundation is primarily due to the 1971 Wellcome loan, without which the museum would not have been established.

With that loan, a small teaching collection in the classics department was transformed into the Swansea Wellcome Museum[42], which first opened to the public in 1976. It was finally moved to a purpose-built museum in 1998, and was re-named the Egypt Centre.

In 1971, 92 cases (CGB: actually tea chests!) arrived in Swansea, containing around 4533 items which make up 81% of the 5571 items in the collection (CGB). According to AG’s records at the Petrie, ‘Swansea received 92 ‘packing cases’ as well as 4 wall display cases with shelves ‘with keys to follow’ and one unpacked cast of sphinx on 17.9.1972’. I’m assuming just the cast of the sphinx arrived in 1972, as other sources say the date was 1971 for the main loan. However, there is no sphinx in the museum, or in the catalogue. CGB suggests it might refer to EC309: a black copper alloy statuette, replica of an Assyrian type winged figure, with Wellcome number 138477.

 

 

 

The key items for CGB from the Wellcome Loan are:

Catalogue No.[43]	Object name	Comments
W164	Reserve head, Old Kingdom[44]	A rare item
W534, W535	Wooden bird coffins[45]	Quite rare
W8, W9, W10, W11	Amarna collars[46]	Rare if stringing is genuine; popular with visitors

 

I would like to add to this list another item which is of great interest to the public, and received a lot of publicity in the press when it was scanned: the mummified foetus in a coffin (W1013).[47]

A comparative table

In 1964, the Wellcome Trustees handed over a large amount of Egyptological material to the Petrie Museum. About 300 crates remained in store, and in 1969 and 1971, the four museums below received a portion of those crates. These acquisitions were the basis for the creation of one museum; a key gap filler for a badly bombed museum; and for all four institutions, a wonderful resource due to the range and variety of the items, illustrating many aspects of daily life and death in Ancient Egypt.

The table compares the figures from the four museums, plus that of the Petrie, from where the distribution took place. We can see that the four museums received a broadly similar number of items, which however constitute very different degrees of significance for the respective recipients. Not surprisingly, the highest proportion of Wellcome objects is at the Egypt Centre, which owes its very existence to the loan. The relatively small percentage for Liverpool reflects the fact that it holds one of the largest Egyptological collections in the country: at 16 000 plus, it is only preceded by the British Museum (100 000 plus, the largest collection outside Egypt), the Petrie (80 000), and the Ashmolean in Oxford(40 000).[48]

The total number of items gives some indication of the size of Wellcome’s Egyptian collection. However, we must not forget that this is not the total: there were other smaller loans and distributions between 1937 and 1982 to various museums in the UK (Russell; 1986). I believe a rough figure of 19 to 20 000 Egyptian artefacts would be a fair estimation of the extent of the original collection.

 

Museum	Main year of acquisition	No. of crates	No. of items	% of Egyptian holdings
Birmingham	1969	–	4765	60%
Durham Oriental	1971	–	4000	40%
Liverpool World	1971	90	3500	23%
Egypt Centre	1971	92	4533	81%
Petrie	1964	350*	988/446*	0.01%/0.06%
		TOTAL NO OF ITEMS	17 786/17 244

*Petrie received 350 crates but only retained 446 objects from 1964; the total Wellcome material retained is 921/988 objects(see relevant section)

 

Conclusion

This article has illustrated how the obsession of one man has enriched the cultural landscape of Britain; and Henry Wellcome is just one of many collectors whose lifelong passion has formed the basis of our heritage through loans and donations to museums around the country. Some of these collectors have been mentioned here, and it is important to celebrate their contribution to society.

In particular, through an examination of published materials and new, essential contributions by curators, it has been possible to clarify, perhaps for the first time, the complex story of the distribution of the Wellcome Egyptian material, and to note its significance to very different institutions.

I hope this article goes a small way towards nurturing further cooperation between the four museums which now home the bulk of the original collection. I also hope that all five institutions will encourage further research and collaboration on the Wellcome Egyptian legacy.

 

REFERENCES

‘AB110 Cippus’ http://www.egypt.swan.ac.uk/the-collection-2/the-collection/ab110/

‘Beaded Collars’ http://www.egypt.swan.ac.uk/the-collection-2/the-collection/amarna/beaded-collars/

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag/about;

http://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/

Bosse-Griffiths, K. (1978) Beadwork. Pictures from the Wellcome Collection 1 Swansea: Wellcome Museum Copies in HOD& HOL; also for sale in gift shop

Durham Oriental Museum https://www.dur.ac.uk/oriental.museum/about/history ; https://www.dur.ac.uk/oriental.museum/whatshere/egypt/; https://www.dur.ac.uk/oriental.museum/whatshere/discover/

‘EC309 Statuette’ http://www.egyptcentre.org.uk/index.asp?page=item&mwsquery={Identity%20number}={EC309}

‘EC546 Bes vessel’ http://www.egypt.swan.ac.uk/the-collection-2/the-collection/ec546/

Egypt Centre Swansea  http://www.egypt.swan.ac.uk/about/history-of-the-egypt-centre/; http://www.egyptcentre.org.uk/index.asp?page=index

Furmage, A. (2014-15) ‘Lifecycle of an object. W534 Bird Coffin’ http://www.egypt.swan.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Amber_Furmage_W534.pdf

Goodridge, W, (2000) ‘Sir Henry Wellcome’ Inscriptions 3, April 2000: 6-7  http://www.egypt.swan.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/inscriptions3.pdf

Graves-Brown, C. (2013a)’Amarna collars and things’, 15/07/13 http://egyptcentre.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Amarna

Graves-Brown, C. (2013b) ‘Amarna daemons – Beset?’ 22/07/13 http://egyptcentre.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Amarna

Graves-Brown, C. (2014) ‘A mummified baby?’ 01/05/14

http://egyptcentre.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/a-mummified-baby.html?m=1

Graves-Brown, C. (2016) ‘Pseudo mummies or mummified foetuses?’ 20/05/16

http://egyptcentre.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/pseudo-mummies-or-mummified-foetuses.html

Griffiths, G. (2000) Museum Efforts before Wellcome’ Inscriptions 5, December 2000: 6

http://www.egypt.swan.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/inscriptions5.pdf

Gulbenkian Museum https://gulbenkian.pt/museu/en/the-founders-collection/the-collector/

‘Henry Martin Kennard’ http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/collections/antiquities/ancient-egypt/related-person-65552-1.aspx

‘History of the Egypt Centre’ http://www.egypt.swan.ac.uk/about/history-of-the-egypt-centre/

‘History of Wellcome’ https://wellcome.ac.uk/about-us/history-wellcome

Lacovara, P. (1997) ‘The Riddle of the Reserve Heads’ KMT 8 (4): 28-36 Copy in HOD

Larson, F. (2009) An Infinity of Things: How Sir Henry Wellcome Collected the World Oxford: OUP Copy in EC library

Liverpool World Museum http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/; http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/history/; http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/collections/antiquities/ancient-egypt/; http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/visit/floor-plans/ancient-egypt/index.aspx

‘List of museums of Egyptian antiquities’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_museums_of_Egyptian_antiquities

‘London, Wellcome Historical Medical Collection’, Artefacts of Excavation. British Excavations in Egypt 1880-1980 http://egyptartefacts.griffith.ox.ac.uk

McKie, R. (2011) ‘Henry Wellcome: from backwoods boy to medicine man’ The Guardian (09/01/11) https://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/jan/09/henry-wellcome-collection-medicine-man?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Petrie Museum https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/petrie-museum; http://petriecat.museums.ucl.ac.uk

Rogers, B. (2010) ‘The Reverend William MacGregor: an early industrialist collector’, Antiquity Journal Project Gallery 325, September 2010  http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/rogers325/

Russell, G. The Wellcome Historical Medical Museum’s Dispersal of Non-medical Material 1936-1983’, in ‘The Wellcome Non-medical Material’ supplement , Museums Journal 86 : 3-17; plus appendices (p18ff) Copy in EC office

Science Museum http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/plan_your_visit/exhibitions/science_and_art_of_medicine

Stevenson, A. (2015) ‘The lost lions of Koptos’ in Stevenson, A. (ed) (2015)

https://ucldigitalpress.co.uk/Book/Article/3/23/0

Stevenson, A. (ed) (2015) The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology: Characters and Collections London: UCL Press

http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1468795/4/The_Petrie_Museum_of_Egyptian_Archaeology.pdf

Stevenson, A. & D. Challis (2015) ‘Introduction’ in Stevenson, A. (ed) (2015), pp 11-23

https://ucldigitalpress.co.uk/Book/Article/3/27/0

‘W164 Reserve Head’ http://www.egypt.swan.ac.uk/the-collection-2/the-collection/w164/

‘Wellcome’ http://www.egypt.swan.ac.uk/the-collection-2/collectors/wellcome/

Wellcome Collection https://wellcomecollection.org/what-we-do/about-wellcome-collection

Wiseman, L. (2014-15) ‘W534: Bird Coffin’ http://www.egypt.swan.ac.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2013/06/Laura_Wiseman_W534_1.pdf

[1] See ‘History of the Egypt Centre’.

[2] There were smaller loans and donations from the Wellcome Trust to some of these museums before and after that date. And other museums also benefited from the Wellcome Egyptian material, such as Bolton Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, The Hunterian Museum Glasgow, the Horniman Museum London, and the Ipswich Museum. See Russell (1986: appendices).

[3] This article would not have been possible without the input of the five curators who took time out of their busy schedules in June & July 2017 to answer my questions by email, and indeed, supply me with extra information. So I would like to record here my gratitude to Rachel Barclay (Curator of the Oriental Museum Durham); Lucy Blakeman (Collections Team Leader at Birmingham Museums Trust); Ashley Cooke (Senior Curator of Antiquities, National Museums Liverpool); Anna Garnett (Curator of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology); and Carolyn Graves-Brown (Curator of the Egypt Centre Swansea). I will refer to each by their initials in future references to those email communications: RB, LB, AC, AG, CGB.

My thanks also to Egypt Centre staff for reading my draft copy, and for their perceptive comments: Carolyn Graves-Brown, Wendy Goodridge and Syd Howells.

[4] See Goodridge (2000), Larson (2009), McKie (2011), ‘History of Wellcome’, Wellcome’.

[5] MacGregor (1848-1937) was a prodigious collector of Egyptological items, but sold his vast collection to a London dealer in 1921. The following year, the Sotheby’s MacGregor auction saw 1800 lots (over 8000 items) sold to collectors and museums (see Rogers, 2010).

[6] Indeed, ‘only a portion of his collection was ever housed in the … WHMM’ (http://egyptartefacts.griffith.ox.ac.uk).

[7] See Larson (2009), Russell (1986), ‘London, Wellcome Historical Medical Collection’. Russell gives the date of 1983; the ‘London, Wellcome…’ webpage says that the process was finally completed in 1985. (http://egyptartefacts.griffith.ox.ac.uk).

[8] Actually, this gallery closed permanently in 2015, but a new Medicine gallery will open in 2019. Currently there is a temporary exhibition ‘Journey Through Medicine: Henry Wellcome’s Legacy’. http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/plan_your_visit/exhibitions/science_and_art_of_medicine

[9] https://wellcomecollection.org/what-we-do/about-wellcome-collection

[10] Appendix B (Russell 1986) also notes donations in 1946 from Wellcome’s Sudan excavations to the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, and the London University Institute of Archaeology. However, Appendix C says the Sudan finds (Jebel Moya & Abu Geili) came to the British Museum between 1937 and 1956.

[11] I am assuming this number of cases includes the Sudanese material plus other non-medical material, including Egyptian artefacts.

[12] https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/petrie-museum

[13] Although the ‘London, Wellcome…’ webpage claims: ‘After Wellcome’s death the Egyptian objects were allocated initially to the Petrie Museum’ (http://egyptartefacts.griffith.ox.ac.uk), implying an earlier date.

[14] Main source of historical background: Stevenson & Challis (2015).

[15] See searchable online catalogue: http://petriecat.museums.ucl.ac.uk

There is a similar cippus in the Egypt Centre: AB110. See ‘AB110 Cippus’. However, this is not from the Wellcome loan: it is a donation from Aberystwyth University.

[16] See Stevenson (2015).

[17] The difference between 988 and 921 may be explained by the way artefacts are catalogued. For example, individual potsherds from one pot may be listed individually. Also, there may have been later Wellcome donations.

 

[18] Birmingham received its share in 1969 (LB).

[19] The former name was the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art & Archaeology (https://www.dur.ac.uk/oriental.museum/about/history/).

[20] Liverpool’s share in 1971 was ‘a gift rather than a loan’ from the Wellcome Trustees (AC).

[21] This refers not to Swansea Museum (the oldest museum in Wales, founded in 1841), but to what was to become the Swansea Wellcome Museum, also known as the Swansea Wellcome Collection of Egyptian Antiquities (and later, the Egypt Centre), which was not at that point in time in possession of a large Egyptology collection.  The University did however have Egyptology teaching staff with museum experience, and a small collection of classical Greek and Roman objects. Furthermore, when the Wellcome loan did arrive in Swansea, some pieces were displayed at Swansea Museum. Indeed, Kate Bosse-Griffiths was involved with both museums. See ‘History of the Egypt Centre’ and Griffiths (2000).

[22] Note that Larson says ‘more than 300 crates’, and Russell ‘approaching 300’.

[23] The Kennard Collection was purchased by Henry Wellcome in 1912. Henry Martin Kennard (1833-1911) was a collector of Egyptian antiquities who sponsored Petrie’s  and Garstang’s excavations. His collection was sold at Sotheby’s in July 1912 (743 lots). See ‘EC 546 Bes Vessel’; ‘Henry Martin Kennard’.

[24] ‘This is the question I’m most uncertain of – I can only go by highest value from the information I currently have at my finger tips’ (LB). NB there is no current archaeology curator at the museum: LB is  based at another site, and used the collections database to answer my questions.

[25] See searchable catalogue at http://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/

[26] http://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/1969W3635

[27] Catalogue nos W378-397, HOD.

[28] Main source of historical background: https://www.dur.ac.uk/oriental.museum/about/history/

[29] A charitable foundation named after another great collector and philanthropist, Calouste Gulbenkian (1869-1955). The Gulbenkian museum in Lisbon also includes Ancient Egyptian artefacts (which were temporarily cared for at the British Museum from 1936 until the Lisbon museum was ready to house the collection after his death). It opened in 1969(https://gulbenkian.pt/museu/en/the-founders-collection/the-collector/).

[30] https://www.dur.ac.uk/oriental.museum/about/history/

[31] That is, from Wellcome. The total number of objects is over 7000, including over 2000 from the Duke of Northumberland’s collection. See: https://www.dur.ac.uk/oriental.museum/whatshere/egypt/

This would make the c. 4000 Wellcome objects closer to 57% of the collection.

[32] According to AG’s records at the Petrie, ‘Durham received 6 ‘cartons’ on 5.1.1972 for which we have a delivery receipt’

[33] Use the searchable catalogue at https://www.dur.ac.uk/oriental.museum/whatshere/discover/

[34] See http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/history/

[35] There is a famous photo of the damaged Egyptian Gallery after the bombing; it can be viewed at: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/history/

[36] See: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/visit/floor-plans/ancient-egypt/index.aspx

[37] According to AG’s records at the Petrie, ‘ Liverpool received 6 large, 15 medium and 4 small crates (plus one small cardboard box) on 16.9.1971’. This must be just part of the total of 90 crates.

[38] Use the searchable catalogue at : http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/collections/antiquities/ancient-egypt/

[39] The catalogue notes that this Bes jar should be compared to the one in Birmingham City Museum (W1138), also from the Wellcome collection. The Egypt Centre also has a Late Period Bes jar from the Wellcome loan (see ‘EC546 Bes Vessel’).

[40] Part of the MacGregor collection sold at auction in 1922, and bought by Wellcome.

[41] The only Egyptological museum in Wales. I believe the only other solely Egyptological museum in the UK is the Petrie Museum.

[42] See Griffiths (2000), ‘History of the Egypt Centre’

[43] See searchable database at: http://www.egyptcentre.org.uk/index.asp?page=index

[44] See Lacovara (1997), ‘W164 Reserve Head’.

[45] See Furmage (2014-15), Wiseman (2014-15).

[46] See Bosse-Griffiths (1978), Graves-Brown (2013a, b), ‘Beaded Collars’.

[47] See Graves-Brown (2014, 2016).

[48] Figures from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_museums_of_Egyptian_antiquities

The Fitzwilliam Cambridge and the Manchester Museum are also listed at around 16 000 objects.