Exhibition Season: Annual Archaeological Exhibitions in London, 1880s-1930s

Abstract

Annual archaeological exhibitions were a visible symbol of archaeological research. Held mainly in London during the Season, the displays encapsulated a network of archaeologists, artists, architects and curators, and showcased the work of the first generations of trained archaeologists. The exhibition catalogues and published reviews of the displays provide a unique method for exploring the reception and sponsorship of archaeological work overseas and its promotion to a fascinated, well connected and moneyed public. The exhibitions were a space in which conversation and networking were as important as educational enrichment. This paper analyses the social history of the "annual exhibition" in archaeology, highlighting the development and maintenance of the networks behind archaeological research, the geography of London as a way to examine influence in archaeology, and the utility of exhibitions for archaeological publicity during this period of exploration.

Digging with Petrie: Gerald Lankester Harding at Tell Jemmeh, 1926–1927

“…: Petrie 1930a: pls XXXII, XXXIV). Petrie's approval of Harding can also been seen in their relations after the Jemmeh dig season, where he appears to have kept him working for him in London on a salary of some £200 per year, using him to help organise the annual exhibition (Thornton 2015), prepare publication material and so on. This was enough to allow Harding to continue on in archaeology, support his widowed mother and, it is said, run a car in London and Palestine (Michael Macdonald pers.…”

Why Are Heritage Interpreters Voiceless at the Trowel's Edge? A Plea for Rewriting the Archaeological Workflow

“…For centuries archaeologists, antiquarians, and other interested intellectuals have been producing heritage interpretative resources alongside—or interchangeable with—research publications (e.g., see, among many descriptions, Evans 2008; Garstki 2016; Jeffrey 2015; Moser 2014; Moshenska and Schadla-Hall 2011; Perry 2017a; Thornton 2015). In these cases, varied genres of presentation—for example, seventeenth-century paper museums; nineteenth-century models and dioramas; twentieth-century excavation films, television, and exhibitions; twenty-first-century 3-D reconstructions and prints; and so on—are deployed simultaneously as intellectual tools and entertainment or aesthetic devices.…”

‘A selection of minor antiquities’: a multi-sited view on collections from excavations in Egypt

“…The EEF's founder, the novelist and popular travel-writer Amelia B. Edwards, was an adept promoter of the value of excavated artefacts, and she was equally as instrumental in the construction of the archaeological object as was Petrie' Temporary exhibitions of the results of most seasons' excavations were displayed in locations across London further extending the products of exploration into public consciousness, including at Oxford Mansion on Oxford Street, the Society of Antiquaries Burlington House and University College London. In these spaces the complete shares of finds apportioned to the EEF by the Services des Antiquités were articulated as new coherent wholes for consumption during London's 'exhibition season' (Thornton 2015). While individually many of the finds might not attract the attention that singular works of art might, collectively the density of these displays had a monumental appeal.…”