Arthur Weigall Papers
Arthur Edward Pearse Brome Weigall (1880-1934) was a British Egyptologist. He had a short stint at New College, Oxford, and then studied briefly in Germany, but his role as Sir Flinders Petrie’s assistant and a staff member of the Egypt Exploration Society began his career in Egyptology. It is from that position that he received his initial training in Egyptology and archaeology. Much of his fieldwork was conducted on the West Bank of Luxor in what was ancient Western Thebes and he worked closely with Sir Robert Mond in the Theban necropolis and Theodore M. Davis in the Valley of the Kings. From 1905 to 1913/14 he served as the Chief Inspector of Antiquities for Upper Egypt, a government position that brought him into contact with many scholars of the day. He was a dedicated official registering the monuments of Western Thebes, for example assigning numbers to the tombs of the nobles and initiating the restoration and conservation of the tombs and temples under his supervision, making them accessible to visitors. In his capacity as Chief Inspector, he was sent to tour the region for which he was responsible. From that trip, he authored A Report on the Antiquities of Lower Nubia, the first scientific record of Nubian archaeological sites. He left the Egyptian Antiquities Service, however, in 1914 after a breach with Gaston Maspero, its Director.
Weigall was a prolific writer and, in addition to scholarly publications, he penned many popular books on ancient Egypt and worked in theater. Later he became a journalist and was sent to Egypt to cover the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.
The Arthur Weigall Papers are arranged in the following four series:
Series I: Correspondence 1900–1926
Series II: Notes and Notebooks [not yet available; digitization in progress]
Series III: Manuscripts and drafts of Arthur Weigall’s books and articles [not yet available]
Series IV: Photographs [not yet available]
Legal status: Analog originals are property of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, acquired by purchase in 2012.
Access conditions: Collection is open for research. Researchers are required to use digitized material, when available, for their initial access. Requests for access to original analog material will be reviewed on a case by case basis.
Copyright conditions: Unpublished correspondence and other writings of Arthur Weigall are in the public domain and may be quoted or reproduced without permission. Copyright restrictions may apply to items authored by other individuals; it is the researcher’s responsibility to obtain appropriate permission to quote or reproduce such items.
Cataloging and digitizing the Arthur Weigall Papers is a collaborative project between The Department of Egyptian Art and The Thomas J. Watson Library. Project members were Morena Stefanova, Robyn Fleming, and Dan Lipcan. Special thanks to the following interns, work-study students, and volunteers: Rachel Chin, Scott Clifford, Barbara Dolgin, Danielle Eggers, Alixandria Henderson, Kenny Nguyen, Linda Seckelson, Nunziana Thomas, Jasmine Vojdani, and Jackie Zhang.
Above: Ex Libris of Arthur Edward Pearse Brome Weigall.