Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- late 1960s-2010 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
2 oversize boxes and 2 boxes
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
British Egyptologist and museum curator. She was curator at the National Museum of Scotland, 1974-79, and then Senior Assistant Keeper and Curator of the Egyptian and Nubian Collections at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, 1979-2010, where she oversaw one of the UK's most important collections of Egyptian antiquities. Her scholarly interests include Graeco-Roman Egypt, painting and drawing in antiquity, and the post-classical reception of Egyptian antiquities, particularly in the so-called 'Paper Museum' of Cassiano dal Pozzo. This focus extends both to ancient material culture and to the history of European engagement with Egyptian objects from the Renaissance onwards. Whitehouse has published extensively on Egyptian art and artefacts, including the catalogue Ancient Egypt and Nubia in the Ashmolean Museum (2009). She has been an Honorary Research Associate at the Griffith Institute since her retirement.
Archival history
In the possession of Helen Whitehouse.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Donated by Helen Whitehouse in January 2026.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
- MSS 1 (Egyptomania): 12 ring binders, 1 box, and 9 folders of Egyptomania material, including offprints and photocopies of publications, press cuttings, information on exhibitions, photographs, greeting cards, advertising and packaging, etc., some arranged by period or by type (e.g. pyramids, obelisks), with accompanying notes and some correspondence. One of the ring binders contains material relating to Whitehouse's book project on Egyptomania, including notes, some typed pages, and proposed plates/illustrations for the publication as a whole.
- MSS 2 (card index): Card index of occurrences of Egyptomania material (3 small boxes).
- MSS 3 (35 mm slides): 29 sheets of 35 mm colour slides (c. 650), comprising mostly Whitehouse's original photographs, primarily of Egyptomania buildings and monuments in Europe; also including some commercially purchased slides and others made from publications (c. 1969-1989).
- MSS 4 (lectures): Scripts for 20 lectures (1984-2009, five undated).
- MSS 5 (article): Draft article titled "Schiller, Mauro Tesi and the Veiled Statue of Isis", unpublished, with related correspondence, including several rejection letters from publishers (1989).
- MSS 6 (Harris correspondence): Correspondence (letters, postcards, and cards) with John Harris, including discussion of certain objects (c. 1972-1997, but many undated).
- MSS 7 (Seznec's file): Professor John Seznec's (1905-1983) file on an unfinished publication titled On the Impact of Egypt on France/French Imagination in the 19th Century, including research notes, a draft lecture on Isis (likely intended as a chapter of the monograph), offprints and copies of publications, photographs, correspondence with publishers, and additional 1985 correspondence between Whitehouse and Francis Haskell regarding this file.
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
English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
No problems.
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
These are originals.
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Ashmolean Museum:
- A box with documentation related to the Ashmolean Museum, including some catalogue cards, old labels and notes on objects, was passed to the museum at the same time the collection was accessioned.