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 Edwards I. E. S. MSS.

Dates of creation of the material 1938-1996.

Extent 5 boxes and 4 rolls.

2. Context

Name of creator Edwards, Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen (1909-1996).

Administrative and biographical history
British Egyptologist. Born, London 1909. Died, London 1996. Educated at Merchant Taylor's school, where he studied Biblical Hebrew, then at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read Arabic and Hebrew, graduating in 1933. Awarded the William Wright studentship in Arabic in 1932. Appointed Assistant Keeper in the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum, taking up the position in 1934. He studied Egyptian under Glanville during his first few years in the Department. He published Hieroglyphic Texts from Egyptian Stelae, etc., viii in 1939. Elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1942, the year he was called up for military service. The first edition of The Pyramids of Egypt was published in 1947 and was reprinted many times. Appointed Keeper of the new department of Egyptian Antiquities in 1955. Made a Fellow of the British Academy in 1962, and awarded the CBE in 1968 for his services to the British Museum. He was instrumental in arranging the Tutankhamun exhibition at the British Museum in 1972. Was involved in the UNESCO rescue of the Philae Temples after his retirement from the Museum in 1974.
See Smith, H. S. in JEA 84 (1998), 181-90.

Custodial history Part of the estate of Dr I. E. S. Edwards.

Immediate source of acquisition The material concerning Australian Museums was presented by Dr Edwards during his lifetime. The rest of the papers was presented by Mrs Edwards after his death in 1996.

3. Content and structure

Scope and content Notes, notebooks, photographs, negatives, proofs, transparencies, xeroxes, and correspondence.

System of arrangement Kept as received.

4. Access and use

Legal status Property of the Griffith Institute.

Access conditions Only the Australian museums material is available at present.

Copyright conditions Copyright Griffith Institute, Oxford.

Language of material English.

Physical characteristics No problems.

Finding aids None.

5. Allied materials area

Location of originals These are originals.

Existence of copies None.

Related units of description None.

Associated material The bulk of the papers of I. E. S. Edwards is kept in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan in the British Museum.

Publications Mostly not published. Some proof sheets for The Treasures of Tutankhamun and The Pyramids of Egypt.

Notes Among the unsorted papers there is a notebook in an unknown hand with notes on the 'Song of the Harper' and other texts.

(July 1, 2003)