
Identity area
Reference code
De Keersmaecker MSS
Title
Date(s)
- 1965-2019 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent and medium
15 boxes, 11 slip-index boxes, 3 35mm slide-storage boxes
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Roger O. De Keersmaecker, born in Leopoldville (Kinshasa), Belgian Congo, 11 September 1931, and died in Wilrijk (Antwerp), Belgium, at midnight 15-16 June 2020. When he was still very young he became interested in Egyptian art, after reading in a popular magazine about the mystery and the curse after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. For a long time a trip to Egypt was as far away as a trip to the moon. In 1960 he married Helena Beeckman, and both started visiting European Egyptian collections: Brussels, London, Paris, Turin, Leiden, Hannover, Hildesheim. After five years of marriage, in 1965 his long-awaited dream became reality: they both went for a fortnight to Egypt and spent one week in Cairo, another one in Luxor, equipped with three cameras and a lot of film rolls. They made taxi trips to Sakkara, Memphis, Dahshur and Fayum and of course admired the wonderful treasures of Cairo Museum. From Luxor, they went to Dendera, Abydos, Esna and Edfu. In the interior of the pylon of the temple of Edfu, Roger noticed his first graffito of John Gordon 1804. Year after year he went back, only with a year interval caused by the Egyptian/Israelian war. Marie-Paule Vanlathem brought him in contact with H. De Meulenaere, L. Limme, and the late J. Quagebeur. In 1975, during the opening of the great Akhenaten exhibition in Brussels, H. De Meulenaere announced that Roger was selected as a photographer to work for two seasons at the tomb of Padihorresnet in Asasif (Theban necropolis). Later he worked during several seasons with the Belgian archaeological mission at El Kab. Previously, he had already started his research on early travellers graffiti, that took him to Sudan three times. He was a member of the Fondation Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth, Brussels, and of the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East, Cambridge (WWW.ASTENE.ORG.UK), and published several articles in the ASTENE Bulletin. He was the author, printer and the publisher of the "Travellers’ Graffiti from Egypt and the Sudan". Information adapted from: www.egypt-sudan-graffiti.be
Archival history
Everything formerly in the possession of Roger O. De Keersmaecker.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Formally presented by Roger O. De Keersmaecker in October 2019. Material accessioned in January 2020.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
A corpus of traveller’s graffiti from sites and monuments in Egypt, comprising transcriptions and photographs of graffiti that have been collated and published by Roger De Keersmaecker between 1965 and 2019.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Kept as received.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Property of the Griffith Institute. No restrictions.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copyright Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.
Language of material
- Dutch
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
No problems.
Finding aids
None.
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
These are originals.
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Publication note
- See publications file.
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Digital object metadata
Filename
De_Keersmaecker_portrait_from_volume_V.jpg
Latitude
Longitude
Media type
Image
Mime-type
image/jpeg