Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (5 October 1797 – 29 October 1875) was an English traveller, writer and pioneer Egyptologist of the 19th century. He is often referred to as "the Father of British Egyptology".

Childhood and education

Wilkinson was born in Little Missenden

Little Missenden

Little Missenden is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the Chiltern Hills, about three miles south east of Great Missenden, three miles west of Amersham.The toponym "Missenden" is derived from the Old English for "valley where marsh plants grow"...

, Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

. His father was a Westmoreland

Westmoreland

Westmoreland is a historic county in England. It may also refer to:-Places:Australia*Westmoreland County, New South WalesCanada*Westmorland County, New BrunswickJamaica*Westmoreland, Jamaica, a parishNew Zealand...

 clergyman, the Reverend John Wilkinson, an amateur enthusiast for antiquities. Wilkinson inherited a modest income from his early-deceased parents. Sent by his guardian to Harrow School

Harrow School

Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...

 in 1813, he later went up to Exeter College

Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...

, Oxford in 1816. Wilkinson ultimately took no degree and, suffering from ill-health, decided to travel to Italy. There in 1819 he met the antiquarian

Antiquarian

An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient objects of art or science, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts...

 Sir William Gell

William Gell

Sir William Gell was an English classical archaeologist and illustrator.-Life:Born at Hopton in Derbyshire, the son of Philip Gell and Dorothy Milnes...

 and resolved to study Egyptology

Egyptology

Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...

.

First sojourn in Egypt

Wilkinson first arrived in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 in October 1821 as a young man of 24 years, remaining in the country for a further 12 years continuously. During his stay, Wilkinson visited virtually every known ancient Egyptian site, skillfully recording inscriptions and paintings as a talented copyist and compiling copious notes.

Return to England and honours

Finally returning to England for his health's sake in 1833, succeeding in being elected to the Royal Society

Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

 in 1834, Wilkinson went on to publish his researches in a large number of publications. Although preceded by The Topography of Thebes and General View of Egypt in 1835, Wilkinson's most significant work was Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. First published in three volumes in 1837 and subsequently illustrated by Joseph Bonomi

Joseph Bonomi the Younger

Joseph Bonomi the Younger was an English sculptor, artist, Egyptologist and museum curator.-Early life:Bonomi was born in London into a family of architects...

, this title stood as the best general treatment of ancient Egyptian culture and history for the next half century. Acclaim for this publication brought Wilkinson a knighthood in 1839 and ensured him the title of the first distinguished British Egyptologist.

Further travels and research

The now Sir John Gardner Wilkinson returned to Egypt in 1842, contributing an article entitled "Survey of the Valley of the Natron Lakes" to the Journal of the Geographical Society in 1843. The same year witnessed his publication of a revised and enlarged edition of his Topography, entitled Moslem Egypt and Thebes.

Wilkinson travelled in Dalmatia

Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

, Montenegro

Montenegro

Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...

, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

 during 1844, an account of his observations being published in 1848 (Dalmatia and Montenegro, 2 volumes).

A third visit to Egypt in 1848 to 1849 was followed by a final visit to Thebes

Thebes, Egypt

Thebes is the Greek name for a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile within the modern city of Luxor. The Theban Necropolis is situated nearby on the west bank of the Nile.-History:...

 in 1855. Thereafter, Wilkinson remained in England where he investigated Cornish

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 antiquities and studied zoology

Zoology

Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...

.

Death and legacy

Wilkinson died at Llandovery

Llandovery

Llandovery is a market town in Carmarthenshire, Wales, lying on the River Tywi and the A40 road.The town is served by Llandovery railway station, where there is a park and ride to Llanelli and Shrewsbury via the Heart of Wales Line...

 in 1875, having already bequeathed to his old school, Harrow, his collections with an elaborate catalogue in 1864.

Wilkinson's papers are now held in the Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

, Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, and form an invaluable resource to some of the earliest recorded states (dating to 1821 to 1856, before the advent of widespread tourism and collection) of many Egyptian monuments. Many sites were subsequently damaged or lost altogether, making Wilkinson's work all the more important.

Publications

• Materia Hieroglyphica (1828)
• The Topography of Thebes and General View of Egypt, London, 1835
• Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, including their private life, government, laws, arts, manufactures, religion, agriculture, and early history, derived from a comparison of the paintings, sculptures, and monuments still existing, with the accounts of ancient authors, (6 volumes, 1837-41).
• "Modern Egypt and Thebes: being a description of Egypt; including the information required for travellers in that country." (1843) Full text available on google books.

Further reading

• Sarah J. A. Flynn, Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, Traveller & Egyptologist (1797-1875), Oxford: Bodleian Library, 1997.
• John Jason Thompson, Sir Gardner Wilkinson and His Circle, University of Texas Press, 1992.

External links

• Wilkinson's watercolor of a "Woman in the Tomb at Thebes"

• http://books.google.com/books?id=J4QOAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Modern+Egypt+and+Thebes:+being+a+description+of+Egypt;+including+the+information+required+for+travellers+in+that+country.+By+Sir+Gardner+Wilkinson&source=bl&ots=UZzAMInuga&sig=EG0LsP8bj-0hWTxPctFuyWeTM2w&hl=en&ei=TXSTTY_eM42gtwfeyZFN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDcQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false