Steindorff Collection
Bridwell Library purchased the Steindorff Collection in 1952 from the widow of the eminent German Egyptologist, Dr. Georg Steindorff (1861-1951). The collection consists of 1,700 books, over 2,000 reprints and pamphlets, several hundred photographs, and a collection of clippings and private correspondence. Mrs. Fred B. Ingram and Mrs. W. J. Morris, daughters of the late Dr. A. V. Lane, contributed toward purchase of the Steindorff Collection in memory of their father.
Born November 12, 1861, Georg Steindorff outlived all other students
of Adolph Erman, with whom he and Kurt Sethe co-founded the famous
Berlin University School of Egyptology. In 1893 Steindorff who
previously had been assistant to the Director of the State Museum
(Berlin) and lecturer (Privatdozent) in the University of Berlin,
was appointed Professor of Egyptology in the University of Leipzig.
There he founded the famous Ägyptologische Institut, in which he
undertook an ambitious program of education, chiefly along three
lines: 1) basic philological instruction through lecture and
seminar; 2) orientation of the student in the broadest possible
knowledge of the ancient orient, espeically its history, theology,
and languages, as these may [be] drawn from the history, art, and
culture of ancient Egypt; 3) alongside Egyptological and oriental
studies per se, study of classical archaeology is mandatory for
insight into ancient Egyptian and hitherasiatic culture. To this
end, the institute assembled at first a great collection of
photographs of the major Egyptian antiquities (many hundreds of
these reproductions are included in the Steindorff collection
acquired by Bridwell Library). It became obvious, however, that it
was insufficient to portray only Egyptian art; what was needed was a
representation of the entire Egyptian Kulturentwicklung. Steindorff
proposed to fill the Institute from his own excavations. This was
accomplished by many expeditions originating at Leipzig, directed by
Dr. Steindorff, and financed by popular subscription, imperial
support, Leipzig businessmen, and a staggering amount of popular
writing by Steindorff. Six major expeditions, 1895-1908, made the
collection at Leipzig one of the major Egyptian Collections of the world.
Dr. Steindorff held his professorship in the University of
Leipzig for forty-two years. In 1935, after the publication of the
Nuremberg Laws, he was refused admittance to his beloved Egyptian
Museum and Institute, and in 1939 the internal political situation
plus the difficulties attending his Jewish birth drove him to seek
refuge in America, the only consolation being that he managed to
escape with his entire library. At the age of seventy-eight, though
constantly plagued with the necessity of making a living, he set to
work anew in North Hollywood, California. After he was eighty years
old he produced three major works: When Egypt Ruled the East
(a revision of a work he had written before the turn of the century,
Die Blütezeit des Pharoanenreiches). This book,
co-authored with Keith Seele, was the first book in America to
attempt a summary of ancient Egyptian culture. In addition he wrote
the Beginnings of Coptic Language and Literature, forming part of
his revision for the third edition of his standard Koptische
Grammatik. As Egyptological Research Adviser to the Walters Art
Gallery, Baltimore, he produced a Catalogue of Egyptian Sculptures
in possession of that institution; and for the Metropolitan Museum
of Fine Arts he wrote the text of their publication Egypt, which is
a collection of their Egyptian antiquities photographed by Hoymingen-Huene. At the time of his death in January of 1952, aged
91, Dr. Steindorff was actively engaged in the pursuance of several
life-long studies, one of the most notable being the preparation of
a Coptic-Egyptian etymological dictionary.
Excerpt: Decherd Turner Introductory Speech
The Steindorff letters have been re-housed and a finding aid has been created. The TARO finding aid is here and the PDF version of the finding aid is here.
Steindorff Collection Digital Projects
