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Margaret Murray's Life in Archaeology A UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE THE LADY AND THE LOOKING GLASS: MARGARET MURRAY‘S LIFE IN ARCHAEOLOGY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By KATHLEEN L. SHEPPARD Norman, Oklahoma 2010 THE LADY AND THE LOOKING GLASS: MARGARET MURRAY‘S LIFE IN ARCHAEOLOGY A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE BY ________________________________ Dr. Katherine Pandora, Chair ________________________________ Dr. Piers Hale ________________________________ Dr. Suzanne Moon ________________________________ Dr. Sandie Holguín ________________________________ Dr. Dan Snell © Copyright by KATHLEEN L. SHEPPARD 2010 All Rights Reserved. To my mom and dad, who always only want me to be happy. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Fortunately, I am the only one who is surprised that I have accomplished my goal of writing this dissertation and earning my PhD. While my name is given as the author of these pages, none of this research would have been possible without help and support from all areas of my life. Thanks must go to these people and organizations. I have such appreciation for the generous funding while a student at the University of Oklahoma History of Science Department. Through the generosity of the faculty of this department, I held a position as a Graduate Assistant for five years which provided a monthly stipend on which to live as well as valuable experience as part of a professional academic environment. I also received the DeGolyer Fellowship and the History of Science Department Travel Award, both of which allowed me to present portions of this research at the History of Science Society meeting (2008) and the Histories of Archaeology Research Network annual meeting (2008 and 2009). Travel awards from the College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate College, and the Graduate Student Senate at the University of Oklahoma made research travel to England a reality. In my final year of research and writing, the Eddie Carol Smith Scholarship from the Graduate College at the University of Oklahoma made it possible to return to London and Manchester to find Margaret Murray once again. My research assistantship in the Women‘s and Gender Studies Department made my final year at OU enjoyable and survivable. My family has donated countless frequent flier miles for my travels. In my research, I was fortunate enough to come in contact with the most knowledgeable librarians and archivists in the world. Many thanks to the History of Science Collections at the University of Oklahoma, especially the staff and faculty, iv Sylvia Patterson, Dr. Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, Dr. Kerry Magruder and Dr. JoAnn Palmeri; you have instilled in me a respect and reverence for historical documents, and you have trained me and all of the students who pass through your doors how to research well in a special collection, without this invaluable resource and training, my dissertation would not be as rich. I am indebted to libraries and collections all over the world, including: the Special Collections at University College London and the librarians for getting me folders from the back which I am sure no one has looked at in years; the faculty and staff of the Manchester Museum and the Archives, especially Phyllis Stoddart for going above and beyond her duty to help me find sources, Dr. Karen Exell, the Curator of Egypt and Sudan, for talking to me about Margaret Murray and others who have held her post; and Dr. Sam Alberti, for talking to me about museology, walking me around the Museum, and showing me the news clippings I had missed; the faculty at CHSTM at Manchester who invited me to attend their colloquium and to dinner afterwards for good conversation and food, especially Dr. Ian Burney and Dr. Neil Pemberton for sharing an interest in mummies; the archivists at the Cambridge Museum of Ethnology and Archaeology, especially Imogen Gunn and Wendy Stone for taking me in almost unannounced; Tracy Goodman and Dr. Stephen Quirke at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology; Dr. Patricia Spencer and Christopher Naunton at the Egypt Exploration Society for valuable insights and information; and the librarians at the Joseph Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago, for guiding me through the dark stacks. The unbelievable spiritual and emotional support of friends, family and colleagues who have become my friends is the glue that held me together, I cannot express my gratitude in words, but here I must try. Innumerable thanks to go the v members of HARN who have shared with me and let me share with them new research and sources, especially Sara Perry for sharing images, sources, and anxiety, Naomi Farrington for letting me eat her banana, Megan Price for remembering her thesis on Margaret Murray‘s witchcraft, and especially Pamela Jane Smith, for her friendship, support and encouragement, for new thoughts about Murray, for showing me around Cambridge, and for sitting in the museum archives with me searching for letters. Most of all, thanks to Katherine Pandora, my adviser, who has always driven me to do my best work, even when it comes out of multiple frustrating drafts of disjointed ideas. Thanks so much to my wonderful friends: Hannah Cordts von Lowis de Menar and Dan Barrett, and Claire Thornhill and Tom Aldred for opening your homes and hearts and making London a second home to me; Hannah has supported me through 3 huge projects and has given me so much advice, tea, and soup to last a lifetime, she is the best; to Salma Bhatti for always being up for a chat over tea and scones with cream; to Michael Bradley, Charlotte Booth, Richard Lunn, and Darren Watts for making my trips back to London always entertaining and educational. To the Arrow Girls: Nancy, Tara, Kelly, Delcy, Pam, Julie and Sherry for prayers and faith that I would finish what I started oh so long ago; The Brackin Family has let me work strange hours and have a great time doing it, all the while making sure I keep myself sheltered and fed; Courtney, Amy, Olivia, and Will have kept me sane over the last 6 years and I love every second of them; Lynnette Regouby, for your encouragement and good thoughts, even though I can‘t always talk to you; Cornelia Lambert, for the morning chats about nothing, your insight, editing, encouragement and always coming back for more; Lisa Torres Stewart, for being here for me even when all I do sometimes is complain, and for coming up with solutions. vi My family, especially Dad and Mom, you have always encouraged me to do what makes me happy even when you don‘t understand it or know where I‘m going, you have given me financial and moral support my whole life and I‘m so grateful for parents like you; Christine and Michael, for phone calls, fun weekends at home, support and a childhood of great memories. Finally to Danny, my partner in life and my best friend, you have been with me from the beginning of this project and you stuck around till now—thank you for your patience, help, hard work, and most of all, your love. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents viii List of Illustrations ix Abstract x ―The Lady and the Looking Glass: Margaret Murray‘s Life in Archaeology‖ Introduction 1-41 Chapter 1 42-86 Chapter 2 87-151 Chapter 3 152-197 Chapter 4 198-256 Conclusion 257-263 Bibliography 264-291 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Margaret Murray and team unwrapping Khnum-Nakht in the Chemistry Auditorium. Photograph courtesy Manchester Museum Archive. page 212 2. Margaret Murray, third from left, and team after unwrapping Khnum-Nakht. Photograph courtesy Manchester Museum Archive. page 212 ix ABSTRACT Margaret Murray (1863-1963) was one of the first female professional Egyptologists in Britain, although her career has received little attention historically and she has been seen mainly in the shadow of Sir William Flinders Petrie (1853-1942), who was her teacher and mentor. In Murray‘s case, this oversight has obscured the significance of her career in terms of her fieldwork, the students she trained, her administration of the pioneering Egyptology department at University College London (UCL), as well as in her work outside of that institution and her published works. This dissertation is an investigation into Murray‘s long career in Egyptian archaeology, which spanned seventy years. Murray‘s two excavation seasons in 1902-03 at Abydos and 1903-04 in Saqqara produced two site reports: The Osirieon at Abydos (1904) and Saqqara Mastabas (1905). Her work in the field serves to demonstrate that it was not only the heroic male field archaeologist who did important excavation work, but that women were also crucial to finding new sites and publishing their work to inform scholars about previously unknown cultural and material history. Both the Osirieon and Saqqara became leading examples in how to structure site reports for scholarly investigations. Due to heavy teaching and administrative duties at UCL from 1905, Murray was no longer able to excavate in the winters in Egypt. However, later on in her career, Murray excavated in the summers in Malta, Minorca and Southern England for Cambridge University. This (lack of) field activity is indicative of the expectations UCL had of her and subsequent responsibilities she took on in addition. Murray‘s situation was not unique in this sense, and her x particular roles will be discussed in further detail within the more general framework of the duties of women within university departments in the early-twentieth-century. Without her tireless administrative work at UCL, the Egyptology department would not have been able to operate, since other departmental archaeologists like Petrie were in the field from October through April each year.
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