BSA students and the Fitzwilliam Museum

My study of donations to the Fitzwilliam Museum by students of the BSA is now available online.

Gill, D. W. J. 2012. "From the Cam to the Cephissus: the Fitzwilliam Museum and students of the British School at Athens." Journal of the History of Collections: 1-10.

Abstract
The Fitzwilliam Museum holds material brought back to England by some of the early nineteenth-century travellers to Greece, including Edward Daniel Clarke and William Martin Leake. However, it was not until the later nineteenth century, with the founding of such organizations as the British School at Athens and the Cyprus Exploration Fund, that the Museum's collections started to be enriched through material excavated or otherwise acquired in Greece by archaeologists and other students. This article maps the impact of the emerging discipline of archaeology on the Fitzwilliam's collections in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It also demonstrates how the Museum profited from the close connections between students, archaeologists and museum officers of the period.

[Abstract]

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David Hogarth and Cyprus

David Hogarth's Devia Cypria is available online. The context of this trip was within the work of the Cyprus Exploration Fund.

Hogarth, D. G. 1889. Devia Cypria: notes of an archaeological journey in Cyprus in 1888. London: Henry Frowde.

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Henry Arnold Tubbs

The biographical history of Henry Arnold Tubbs (Talbot-Tubbs from at least 1897), one of the BSA students, is unclear. He was born in Lancashire in 1865, and was a scholar at Pembroke College, Oxford (1883-87). Tubbs was awarded a Craven Fellowship and admitted to the BSA for two sessions (1888-89, 1889-90) to work with Ernest Gardner on Cyprus (Cyprus Exploration Fund). During the 1890 season of excavations he had to leave the island to take up office in the Department of Classics at University College, Auckland, New Zealand. He was made a full professor in February 1894 (initially for a period of five years, to 1899).

His time in Auckland was not easy. In January 1896 he was due to have been married in Sydney; however he sustained serious injuries and the marriage was unable to proceed.

Tubbs remained in office until 1907 when he was dismissed. In December 1907 Tubbs (named as Henry Arnold Talbot Tubbs) went to the Supreme Court in Auckland seeking £700 in damages ('Professor claims damages', [Auckland] Evening Post 3 December 1907; 'Professor and university', Otago Witness, 11 December 1907).

In later life he seems to have moved to Australia (New South Wales and Queensland).

Lectures for the Royal Society of New Zealand:

• '"A", a Passage in Archaeology', 30 June 1897 [details] (history and development of alphabetic writing)
  
• 'Greek Painted Vases: their Importance, Form, and Design', 19 August 1901 [details]
  

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BSA Students and Archaeological Work in the Mediterranean Before the First World War

In the period up to the outbreak of the First World War BSA students were involved in archaeological work ranging from Sicily to Syria, from Tripolitania and Egypt to Macedonia (and beyond). Their focus was well beyond mainland Greece, the Aegean islands, and Crete.

Is there a major difference between official BSA archaeological projects and other work supported by students? For example, the excavations of the Cyprus Exploration Fund were directed by Ernest Gardner; and even when archaeological work on the island was taken over by the British Museum, BSA Students took part in the excavations and sometimes even directed (Francis B. Welch). The Asia Minor Exploration Fund, established before the BSA, accommodated BSA students from David Hogarth to the work on Roman colonies by G.L. Cheesman.

The BSA was associated with formal excavations at Megalopolis, Phylakopi on Melos, and at Sparta, as well as less ambitious work at Kynosarges. At the same time exploratory work was conducted at Cyzicus, and it had been hoped to open a site in Lycia, at Datcha or Colophon.

The archaeological impact of the BSA went far beyond the Aegean. It covered the Bronze Age but also firmly embraced Roman remains in Anatolia, Byzantine architecture, and even medieval castles in the Levant.

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Cyprus Exploration Fund: Equipment at Kouklia

Work at the temple of Aphrodite at Old Paphos (Kouklia) started on 1 February 1888. Hogarth (in Gardner et al. 1888: 159) recorded immediate delays:

We had been unable to bring more than the few picks, spades, and baskets which had been in use at Leontari, the Nicosia blacksmiths being incapable of turning out our further order very quickly, and accordingly batches of tools kept arriving about once a week, and our full stock was not on the spot until March 9th. This will explain why we began upon the temple with a small staff only, and why we were compelled to restrict ourselves to trenching for nearly three weeks—in the absence of wheelbarrows or baskets the earth could not be removed.

Bibliography
Gardner, E. A., D. G. Hogarth, M. R. James, and R. Elsey Smith. 1888. "Excavations in Cyprus, 1887-8. Paphos, Leontari, Amargetti." Journal of Hellenic Studies 9: 147-271. [JSTOR]

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Cyprus Exploration Fund

The Cyprus Exploration Fund (CEF) was formed in the summer of 1887. The circular explained:

It has long been felt by students that systematic archæological researches ought to be undertaken in Cyprus and it has often been made a subject of reproach against this country that no such researches have been attempted since the island came under English government. Private and casual excavations at various sites have already yielded results of the greatest importance for the study both of Greek art itself and of the foreign influences which surrounded its cradle. Such excavations have lately been prohibited by authority, but not until their fruits had convinced those interested in the subject that regular and scientifically-conducted researches should, if possible, be set on foot under official sanction without delay.

The CEF committee consisted of:

• Sidney Colvin (1845-1927), keeper of prints and drawings in the British Museum (chairman)
• George Augustin Macmillan (1855-1936) (hon. secretary)
• Dr Walter Leaf (1852-1927) (hon. treasurer)
• Edward A. Bond (1815-98), principal librarian of the British Museum
• John Evans (1823-1908), treasurer of the Royal Society and President of the Society of Antiquaries
• Arthur John Evans (1851-1941), keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
• Professor Percy Gardner (1846-1937), Oxford
• Rt. Hon. Sir William H. Gregory (1816-92)
  
• Edward I'Anson (1811-88), president of the RIBA
• Henry Jackson (1839-1921), Trinity College, Cambridge
• Professor Richard Claverhouse Jebb (1841-1905), University of Glasgow
• Rt. Hon Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817-94)
  
• Sir Frederic Leighton (1830-96), president of the Royal Academy
• Rt. Rev. Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1828-89), Lord Bishop of Durham; President of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
• Lord Lilford (1833-96)
  
• Professor John Henry Middleton (1846-96), Slade Professor of Fine Art, University of Cambridge
  
• Alfred Morrison (1821-97)
  
• Alexander Stuart Murray (1841-1904), keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum
• Henry Francis Pelham (1846-1907), University of Oxford
• Sir Frederick Pollock (1845-1937, Secretary of the Dilettanti Society
• John Edwin Sandys (1844-1922), University of Cambridge
  
• Rt. Hon. Sir John Savile (1818-96), Ambassador at Rome
• Rev. Archibald Henry Sayce (1845-1933), Deputy Professor Comparative Philology, University of Oxford
• Rev. Henry Fanshawe Tozer (1829-1916), Exeter College, Oxford
  
• Edward Maunde Thompson (1840-1929), keeper of manuscripts in the British Museum
• Charles Waldstein (1856-1927), Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
  

The CEF was supported by the BSA, the Hellenic Society, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge - each gave £150 to the Fund - as well as private subscribers.

The initial permit was given to excavate at the temple of Aphrodite at Paphos. The second season included work at Poli and Limniti, and the third at Salamis. The balance of the Fund was given to the BSA to support work on Cyprus; J.L. Myres was awarded a grant for excavations on the island in 1894.

Finds from the excavations were shared between:

• The British Museum
• The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
• The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
• Eton
• Harrow
• Winchester
• Rugby
• Charterhouse
• Westminster
• Marlborough
• Clifton

Excavation Reports
Gardner, E. A., D. G. Hogarth, M. R. James, and R. Elsey Smith. 1888. "Excavations in Cyprus, 1887-8. Paphos, Leontari, Amargetti." Journal of Hellenic Studies 9: 147-271. [JSTOR]
Munro, J. A. R., and H. A. Tubbs. 1890. "Excavations in Cyprus, 1889. Second season's work. Polis tes Chrysochou. Limniti." Journal of Hellenic Studies 11: 1-99. [JSTOR]
Munro, J. A. R., H. A. Tubbs, and W. W. Wroth. 1891. "Excavations in Cyprus, 1890. Third season's work. Salamis." Journal of Hellenic Studies 12: 59-198. [JSTOR]
Munro, J. A. R. 1891. "Excavations in Cyprus. Third season's work - Polis tes Chrysochou." Journal of Hellenic Studies 12: 298-333. [JSTOR]
Myres, J. L. 1897. "Excavations in Cyprus in 1894." Journal of Hellenic Studies 17: 134-73. [JSTOR]
Ohnefalsch-Richter, M. H., and J. L. Myres. 1899. A catalogue of the Cyprus museum: with a chronicle of excavations undertaken since the British occupation, and introductory notes on Cypriote archaeology. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Accounts of travels
Hogarth, D. G. 1889. Devia Cypria: notes of an archaeological journey in Cyprus in 1888. London: Henry Frowde.
Smith, R. Elsey. 1890. "Report of a tour in Greece and Cyprus." Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

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BSA Students in Australia and New Zealand

Former BSA students had a major impact on the teaching of classics in England outside Oxford and Cambridge (e.g. Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, London). Three former students held chairs in Australia and New Zealand.

• H. Arnold Tubbs (born c. 1865; Pembroke College, Oxford) worked with this Cyprus Exploration Fund and had to leave during the final season of excavations in Cyprus in 1890 to take up the position of professor of Classics at University College, Auckland, New Zealand.
• William John Woodhouse (1866-1937; The Queen's College, Oxford) had worked on the Megalopolis excavations and then conducted a survey in Aetolia. He was assistant lecturer in Bangor and then lecturer in St Andrews. In 1901 he was appointed professor Greek at the University of Sydney. He was also the honorary curator of the Nicholson Museum of Antiquities (1903-37).
• Cecil A. Scutt (1889-1961; Clare College, Cambridge) had been admitted to the BSA just before the outbreak of the First World War. He was an assistant master at Repton for two terms (1915-16), and joined Military Intelligence in Macedonia; he was invalided out of the army in 1918. In 1919 he was appointed professor of Classical Philology, University of Melbourne (1920-55).

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BSA and Museum Catalogues

John L. Myres held to prepare a Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum (1899) that presented some of the work of the Cyprus Exploration Fund directed by Ernest Gardner. He subsequently researched the catalogue of the Cesnola Collection in New York.

As part of Bosanquet's work in Laconia, M.N. Tod and A.J.B. Wace prepared A Catalogue of the Sparta Museum (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906). This led to invitation for the BSA to be involved with the production of a catalogue for the Acropolis Museum. One of the key researchers was Guy Dickins (who was killed during the First World War): Stanley Casson had to prepare the second volume for publication in 1921. Dorothy Lamb worked on the terracottas.

References
Ohnefalsch-Richter, M. H., and J. L. Myres. 1899. A Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum: with a Chronicle of Excavations Undertaken since the British Occupation, and Introductory Notes on Cypriote Archaeology. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Tod, M. N., and A. J. B. Wace. 1906. A Catalogue of the Sparta Museum. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Myres, J. L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Dickins, G. 1912. Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Casson, S. (ed.) 1921. Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Excavations: Ernest A. Gardner (1887-95)

Archaeological fieldwork was initiated during the directorship of Ernest Gardner who had gained experience in Egypt with Flinders Petrie at Naukratis. The first major project (from 1887) was on the island of Cyprus, supported by the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies (Cyprus Exploration Fund).

The first excavation on mainland Greece was at Megalopolis. This proved to be controversial over the interpretation of the theatre.

Smaller projects were then attempted, first at Aegosthena in 1893, directed by E.F. Benson. The following year A.G. Bather and V.W. Yorke explored two sites, Abae and Hyampolis, in Phocis.

The financial position did not allow further field projects in the session 1894/95. However, a preliminary excavation at Alexandria was made in April 1895 by David G. Hogarth with assistance from two BSA students, E.F. Benson and Edwyn Robert Bevan.

A regional survey of Aetolia was conducted in 1892 and 1893 by W.J. Woodhouse (who had gained experience at Megalopolis).

Such work was in marked contrast to the other Schools in Greece: for example, the French at Delphi and on Delos, the Americans at the Argive Heraion, and the Germans in Athens itself.

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Architects and the BSA

Architectural students form a significant group at the BSA. This is a preliminary list.

The first arrangements for an architect to be admitted the BSA were made in November 1887. This was the result of an initiative from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) ‘to assist upon architectural work in excavations’.

The first architectural student was Ravenscroft Elsey Smith (1859-1930), son of Thomas Roger Smith (1830-1903), an architect and professor of architecture at University College London (UCL) from 1880. Smith had studied at the Slade School, UCL (1877-78). In Greece he was attached to the work of the Cyprus Exploration Fund (CEF) assisting with the work at Paphos (1887/88). Smith subsequently went into partnership with his father, before holding the chairs of architecture at King's College, London (1900-13) and UCL (1913-20).

Smith overlapped with two architects working on Byzantine monuments: Robert Weir Schultz (Schultz Weir) (1860-1951) and Sidney Howard Barnsley (1865-1926). Schultz was a gold medallist and travelling student of the Royal Academy of Arts. Barnsley was a student of the Royal Academy. They started their association in the London office of Richard Norman Shaw. Apart from working on the architecture of the Erechtheion, they made a major study of Ayios Loukas in Phocis. They were engaged to work on Byzantine architecture in Salonica and at Mount Athos under the patronage of Dr Edwin Freshfield. Schultz later assisted with the work at Megalopolis.

The BSA recognised the importance of the contributions made by architects and created an architectural studentship. The first holder was Charles Richmond Rowland Clark (b. 1869) (an 'architectural artist') in 1896/97, though he had been in a Greece the preceding year on a studentship from Royal Academy.

Pieter Rodeck (b. 1875) was admitted as a gold medallist and travelling student of the Royal Academy (1896/97). He assisted with the work at the gymnasium at Kynosarges.

Edward Barclay Hoare (1872-1943), the son of Robert Gurney Hoare, a banker, studied at Magdalen College, Oxford (1890-94) and was an architectural student (1897-98). (His brother Charles was a stockbroker.) His architectural work included ecclesiastical projects.

Arthur Edward Henderson (1870-1956) was Owen Jones student of the Royal Institute of British Architects (1897/98) and was admitted to the BSA in 1897/98. He was re-admitted in 1898/99, 1901/02, and 1902/03. He lived in Constantinople until 1904. He assisted Bosanquet with the project at Kyzikos, and Hogarth with his excavations at Ephesus.

Thomas Dinham Atkinson (1864-1948) studied at University College London and had been articled to the architect Sir Arthur Blomfield. After working as an architect in Cambridge, Atkinson was admitted as an architectural student (1898/99). During the year he assisted with the excavations at Phylakopi on Melos. He was later surveyor to the Dean and Chapter of Winchester Cathedral (from 1918) and to the Warden and Fellows of Winchester College (1919-46).

David Theodore Fyfe (1875-1945) trained at the Glasgow School of Art (1885-87, 1890-97). He was admitted as the architectural student at the BSA (1899/1900). He then served as architect to the Cretan Exploration Fund until c. 1905. He returned to work in London, and was then director of the School of Architecture at Cambridge University.

Robert Douglas Wells (1875-1963) studied at Trinity College, Cambridge (1893-96) and was admitted to the BSA on an architectural studentship (1900/01). He worked with Bosanquet at Praesos in eastern Crete (1901).

Charles Heaton Fitzwilliam Comyn (1877-1933) was admitted to the architectural studentship in 1901/02 (and re-admitted 1903/04). As well as working on studies of Byzantine architecture, he excavated in eastern Crete with John H. Marshall (his contemporary at Dulwich College), and with Bosanquet at Palaikastro. He was re-admitted in the spring of 1904 to work on the new Penrose Library and the extension to the hostel.

Edwin Francis Reynolds (1875-1949) was admitted to the BSA in 1902/03 after serving as an architect's assistant in London. He prepared a series of architectural drawings in Greece, Constantinople and Bursa.

James Black Fulton (1876-1922) held a Royal Academy Prize (1899) and was admitted as a Soane Student to the BSA (1902/03) as part of a study tour of Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Palestine and Egypt.

Christian Charles Tyler Doll (b. 1880) was the son of Charles Fitzroy Doll, a London architect. After studies at Trinity College, Cambridge, he took a diploma in architecture at UCL (1903). He was admitted to the BSA 1904/5 and served as architect at Knossos.

Ramsay Traquair (1874-1952), son of Ramsay H. Traquair, keeper of the Natural History collections in Edinburgh, was admitted as an architectural student to the BSA in 1905/06. He was also a student of the Byzantine Fund. He worked on the survey of Laconia and on the architectural project in Constantinople. He was subsequently professor of architecture at McGill University, Montreal.

Frank George Orr (b. 1881) trained at the Glasgow School of Art (1898-1901, 1902-03), and was admitted to the British School at Rome (1904) and the BSA (1905/06).

Walter Sykes George (1881-1962) was a travelling student in architecture from the Royal College of Art, and a Soane Medallist of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was admitted to the BSA in 1906/07, and then in 1908/09, 1909/10 (as a student of the Byzantine Research Fund), and 1912/13. He worked on architectural projects in Constantinople, and assisted with the excavations at Meroe in the Sudan.

W. Harvey was a gold medallist and travelling student of the Royal Academy and was admitted to the British School at Rome and the BSA in 1907/08.

Lionel Bailey Budden (1887-1956) trained at the Liverpool School of Architecture (1905-09), and was admitted to the British School at Rome and the BSA in 1909/10. He returned to Liverpool as associate professor (1910-33) and then Roscoe Professor of Architecture (1933-52).

Harry Herbert Jewell (1882-1974) was admitted to the British School at Rome and the BSA in 1909/10. He worked with F.W. Hasluck on Paros.

George Esslemont Gordon Leith (1886-1965) had worked in South Africa as an architect with Sir Herbert Baker on the Union Buildings before being admitted as the first Herbert Baker Student at the British School at Rome (1911). He subsequently was admitted to the BSA (1912/13).

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