Collection Hincks MSS - Edward Hincks Collection

Identity area

Reference code

Hincks MSS

Title

Edward Hincks Collection

Date(s)

  • early 1830s-1866 (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent and medium

3 file boxes, 2 small boxes, and 2 hard bound notebooks

Context area

Name of creator

(1792-1866)

Biographical history

Irish Egyptologist, Assyriologist, and clergyman. Born, Cork 1792. Died, Killyleagh 1866. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied Hebrew. BA, 1812. Jnr. Fellow, 1813. MA, 1817. Ordained priest, 1817. BD, 1823. DD, 1829. Rector of Ardtrea, 1819-25. Rector of Killyleagh, 1825-66. Contributed considerably to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs and Babylonian cuneiform. Published many articles and books, including a Hebrew dictionary.

Archival history

The correspondence and a small amount of other papers were in the possession of Hincks's family. Prof. F. Ll. Griffith purchased them in 1932 from Hincks's grandson, Mr E. F. Davidson. The hand copy of an article by Hincks made by W. R. Dawson was in the possession of Sir A. H. Gardiner. The casts and portrait painting came from Mr E. F. Davidson.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Correspondence and other various other papers, part of the bequest of Prof. F. Ll. Griffith. Hand copy of article, part of the bequest of Sir A. H. Gardiner. The casts presumably came directly from Mr E. F. Davidson. The portrait painting came from Mr E. F. Davidson in 1953.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

  • Hincks MSS 1: Correspondence, and Warren Dawson's handwritten catalogue for the same ['Box A', 'Box B' and notebook]
  • Hincks MSS 2: Notes, unfinished lecture ['Box C']
  • Hincks MSS 3: A small number of plaster casts made from Egyptian and Assyrian objects [two small boxes]:
    • Egyptian funerary cones (Davies and Macadam, Nos 3 and 20)
    • Marriage scarab of Amenhotep III [Amenophis III] (perhaps Blankenberg van Delden A18)
  • Hincks MSS 4: A hand copy made by W. R. Dawson of Hincks, 'On Certain Egyptian Papyri in the British Museum', published in Transactions of the British Archaeological Association at its Second Annual Congress held at Winchester, August 1845 [one notebook]
  • Hincks MSS 5: Portrait painting (oil on canvas, 79 x 104 cm, 107.5 x 133 cm with frame) by Richard Hooke (1820-1908)

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Kept as received. Correspondence has been arranged in alphabetical order.

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Property of the Griffith Institute. No restrictions.

Conditions governing reproduction

Copyright Griffith Institute, Oxford.

Language of material

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Latin

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

No problems.

Finding aids

List in 'Mrs Waley's lists' folder. Catalogue for correspondence and other papers by Warren R. Dawson.

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

These are originals.

Existence and location of copies

None.

Related units of description

Publication note

  • Extracts from the correspondence are published in:
    • E. F. Davidson, Edward Hincks: a Selection from his Correspondence and a Memoir (1933) (see Dawson's introduction in Hincks's correspondence catalogue for further information about this publication);
    • K. J. Cathcart (ed.), The Edward Hincks Bicentenary Lectures (1994)
    • K. J. Cathcart in I. R. Netton (ed.), Essays in Honour of Clifford Edmund Bosworth, vol. 1: The Hunter of the East (2000), 375-89
    • K. J. Cathcart, The Letters of Peter le Page Renouf (1822-1897), vols iii (2003) and iv (2004)
    • K. J. Cathcart, The Correspondence of Edward Hincks, 3 vols (2007-2009).

Notes area

Note

  • The portrait painting used to hang on the stairs below the 2nd floor of the old Griffith Institute building and was later kept in storage at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, until November 2018.

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Physical storage

  • Shelf: 0613A