John Bryan Ward-Perkins Photograph Collection

Sub-Fonds

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This extraordinary collection of approximately 50,000 items (prints and negatives) includes John Bryan Ward-Perkins' own photographs as well as those of others. It constitutes an important record of the BSR's archaeological activities during his Directorship between 1946 and 1974. The collection is well organised and annotated and a detailed inventory of the negatives was compiled by Ward-Perkins himself. He or his wife Margaret were used to be putting together pages of prints on card.

The numerous expeditions to Libya he conducted between 1946 and the early 1950s were not only occasions for gathering data of outstanding importance, they also marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with established scholars both from the Italian, the British as well as the international entourage. The creation of an extended network of early career students, professionals and academics helped him bring to completion many ambitious projects. One of these was the systematic collection of photographs depicting the inscriptions from the Tripolitania province for a pioneering publication on the subject in 1952. In this endeavour, Ward-Perkins sought the collaboration of another formidable scholar, the notable archaeologist and epigraphist Joyce Reynolds (1918-2022).

It is the broad scope of this collection that makes it so valuable to scholars as it reflects Ward-Perkins’ many and diverse scholarly interests which include: the archaeology of the Roman world, including North Africa, the Middle East, Asia Minor, Europe, particularly Italy; Roman, Byzantine and Medieval architecture in Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia Minor, particularly Italy; Roman pottery, sarcophagi, northern Italian tomb stones; marbles and quarries; damage to Italian monuments during World War II.

Reference number

PA-JBWP

Dates

1946 - 1974

Creator

Ward-Perkins, J. B. (John Bryan), 1912-1981 (British archaeologist and architectural historian) (Photographer, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

The physical items from the John Bryan Ward-Perkins Collection are accessible by appointment with the archivist.

Biographical / Historical

John Bryan Ward-Perkins was born in Kent in 1912 and died in Cirencester in 1981. He was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford where he obtained a First in Greats in 1934 and he first visited the British School at Rome as Craven Fellow in the same year. He was appointed Assistant at the London Museum under the Keepership of Mortimer Wheeler in 1936 and Professor of Archaeology at the Royal University of Malta in 1939 but after a few months returned home to volunteer as a soldier under the command of his former museum director. The war years took him to North Africa, where he was seconded to organize care of the antiquities under the Military Government in Libya and after rejoining his regiment in Italy, was appointed head of the Monuments and Fine Arts Sub-Commission for Italy, which documented damage to monuments in Italy caused by bombing during the war. He was appointed Director of the British School at Rome, which had been closed during the war years, in May 1945 where he remained until his retirement in 1974.

John Bryan Ward-Perkins was Director of the BSR for 29 years. His long Directorship was as remarkable as that of Thomas Ashby and his many and diverse scholarly interests and archaeological projects reflect those of his predecessor, as does his interest in photography and the importance of photographs as historical documents. His interest in archaeology began as a boy at Winchester and he chose the Iron Age of Britain and France as his topic for advanced study at Oxford. As Craven Fellow in Rome he began studying sculpture and architectural ornament from its classical origins to medieval times and during his time at the London Museum, participated in many excavations.

Extent

circa 33,000 Photographic Prints

circa 13,000 6x6, 6x7, 6x9 cm film negatives

circa 2,300 35 mm negative strips

circa 2,700 Coloured slides

Language of Materials

English

Italian

Additional Description

Abstract

This extraordinary collection of approximately 50,000 items (prints and negatives) includes John Bryan Ward-Perkins' own photographs as well as those of other contributors.

Arrangement

The collection of photographic prints glued on card is mostly arranged topographically, but sometimes by subject or topic. It may include notes, studies, plans and other research materials. At the moment, three series have been identified and properly catalogued and these are the following:

South-Etruria (photographic prints glued on cardboard)
Libya (photographic prints glued on cardboard)
Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania (photographic prints glued on cardboard)

Other Finding Aids

There are several printed and manuscript catalogues to the 6x6, 6x7 and 6x9 cm negative series preserved in the Archive Office. A catalogue to the 35 mm series is also present. Manuscript topographical indexes compiled in the 1980s to facilitate the browsing of both negative collections are also available (Italy and outside Italy).

Custodial History

In the early 1980s, and at John Bryan Ward-Perkins'request before he died in May 1981, the BSR decided to deposit c.5.000 35mm strip negatives of the 1946-1953 period with the Libyan Society, leaving the prints in Rome.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The collection of photographs has been part of the BSR Photographic Archive since the end of Ward-Perkins’s Directorship in 1974 and his family very generously donated his library and archive to the BSR in 1981. Copyright is held by the BSR.