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Winifred Lamb
Winifred Lamb (3 November 1894 – 16 September 1963) was a British archaeologist, art historian, and museum curator who specialised in Greek, Roman, and Anatolian cultures and artefacts. The bulk of her career was spent as the honorary keeper (curator) of Greek antiquities at the University of Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum from 1920 to 1958, and the Fitzwilliam Museum states that she was a "generous benefactor ... raising the profile of the collections through groundbreaking research, acquisitions and publications."
She directed archaeological excavations in Greece and Turkey; was a founding member of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara; and was the author of numerous books on Greek and Roman antiquities, including the 1929 publication Greek and Roman Bronzes, which was standard reading for studies on the subject.
Lamb was born on 3 November 1894 at Holly Lodge, Campden Hill, London. She was the daughter of Edmund Lamb, who was a Member of Parliament from 1906 to 1910, and Mabel Lamb (née Winkworth), an alumna of Newnham College, Cambridge, who was active in the promotion of women's university education and women's suffrage. Lamb was educated at home by governesses and tutors, and from 1913 to 1917 attended Newnham, studying Classics with a specialisation in Classical Archaeology, and earning first-class marks (although at this point women could not receive degrees from Cambridge). While a student she participated in archaeological fieldwork at prehistoric sites near Cambridge led by Thomas McKenny Hughes; she was also active in politics, attending meetings of the Union of Democratic Control, a left-wing group opposed to militarism.
After completing her studies in the summer of 1917, Lamb worked in a hospital for soldiers. In January 1918, she joined 'Room 40', the cryptanalysis section of the British Naval Intelligence Department, where she probably worked on the decipherment of coded messages sent to German submarines, leaving after the end of the war, in December 1918. It was here that Lamb met John Beazley, a renowned archaeologist also working in British Intelligence, who encouraged her in her research. During this time she also attended sales of antiquities, publishing an article in the Journal of Hellenic Studies on a collection of vases she purchased in one sale, as well as carrying out some cataloguing work in the British Museum.
The Greek Department has on show
Statues collected long ago
And rather bad. So turn from these
And view our small antiquities:
The cups that held Athenian wine
With dainty pictures, neat and fine;
Lady from Crete in adoration
(But with a tarnished reputation)
Bronzes superbly patinated
And each one accurately dated!
Products of Rhodes and Thessaly
And colonies across the sea.
And when you're tired of Greece and Rome
Buy picture cards, and study them at home.
Lamb began working at the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge in October 1918, at the invitation of Sydney Cockrell: her initial duties included writing labels for items on display. In 1920, she was appointed as Honorary Keeper (Curator) of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the Fitzwilliam; in this position, she arranged new displays (including the creation of displays focusing on prehistoric and Cycladic material), sorted and catalogued the collections, and enhanced them by acquiring new materials through purchases and donations, as well as donating numerous items herself (especially bronzes and pottery). Key publications from her work at the Fitzwilliam include a book on Greek and Roman bronze statues and two volumes of the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (Corpus of Ancient Vases). Throughout her time at the Fitzwilliam, Lamb also worked as an archaeologist in Greece and later Turkey. By the time she retired from the role of Honorary Keeper in August 1958, she had become one of the museum's greatest benefactors of Greek and Roman antiquities.
Lamb first visited Greece in May 1920, briefly joining the excavations at Mycenae led by Alan Wace. She was admitted to the British School at Athens as a student for the academic year of 1920–1921, and spent the year visiting archaeological sites in Attica, the Peloponnese, and Crete, attending lectures in the British School and other archaeological schools, and working on the frescoes found at Mycenae. In May 1921 she joined the Mycenae excavation team and was made responsible for the excavation of the palace as well as for the publication of the frescoes. In the next excavation season, May–June 1922, Lamb was appointed as second-in-command of the dig, with particular responsibility for excavating the tombs near the settlement (including the tholos Tomb of Aegisthus) and co-authored many of the excavation reports with Wace.
Lamb next joined the British School's excavation at Sparta in spring 1924, and subsequently excavated with Walter Abel Heurtley in northern Greece, at the site of Vardaroftsa near Thessaloniki in 1925 and at Sarátse in 1929. From 1928, she began looking for her own site to direct excavations; her work in northern Greece, with a focus on the links between the southern Balkans, the northern Aegean, and northwest Anatolia, led her to explore the island of Lesbos in the eastern Aegean. After a trial excavation at Methymna, where she found evidence of occupation from at least the seventh century BCE until the Roman period, she and her colleague Richard Wyatt Hutchinson identified prehistoric pottery at the site of Thermi. Lamb led excavations on this site from 1929 to 1933, largely funded at her own expense, discovering a series of prehistoric settlements. She visited the archaeological excavation of Troy in 1930 and 1932, which inspired further work, allowing her to associate Thermi towns IV and V with Troy IIa, and gave a lecture, expanding on these views, as part of the 1936 exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts on British Archaeological Discoveries in Greece and Crete 1886–1936. Lamb published her results from Thermi as a book in 1936 – for which she was awarded a Doctor of Science degree from Cambridge in 1940, examined by V. Gordon Childe and Carl Blegen – and provided a selection of finds from the dig to the Fitzwilliam Museum's prehistoric gallery. She subsequently conducted excavations at Antissa (1931–33; also on Lesbos), where she discovered prehistoric, archaic, classical, and Hellenistic settlements and burials, and at the archaic sanctuary of Apollo Phanaios at Kato Phano on Chios (1934).
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Winifred Lamb
Winifred Lamb (3 November 1894 – 16 September 1963) was a British archaeologist, art historian, and museum curator who specialised in Greek, Roman, and Anatolian cultures and artefacts. The bulk of her career was spent as the honorary keeper (curator) of Greek antiquities at the University of Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum from 1920 to 1958, and the Fitzwilliam Museum states that she was a "generous benefactor ... raising the profile of the collections through groundbreaking research, acquisitions and publications."
She directed archaeological excavations in Greece and Turkey; was a founding member of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara; and was the author of numerous books on Greek and Roman antiquities, including the 1929 publication Greek and Roman Bronzes, which was standard reading for studies on the subject.
Lamb was born on 3 November 1894 at Holly Lodge, Campden Hill, London. She was the daughter of Edmund Lamb, who was a Member of Parliament from 1906 to 1910, and Mabel Lamb (née Winkworth), an alumna of Newnham College, Cambridge, who was active in the promotion of women's university education and women's suffrage. Lamb was educated at home by governesses and tutors, and from 1913 to 1917 attended Newnham, studying Classics with a specialisation in Classical Archaeology, and earning first-class marks (although at this point women could not receive degrees from Cambridge). While a student she participated in archaeological fieldwork at prehistoric sites near Cambridge led by Thomas McKenny Hughes; she was also active in politics, attending meetings of the Union of Democratic Control, a left-wing group opposed to militarism.
After completing her studies in the summer of 1917, Lamb worked in a hospital for soldiers. In January 1918, she joined 'Room 40', the cryptanalysis section of the British Naval Intelligence Department, where she probably worked on the decipherment of coded messages sent to German submarines, leaving after the end of the war, in December 1918. It was here that Lamb met John Beazley, a renowned archaeologist also working in British Intelligence, who encouraged her in her research. During this time she also attended sales of antiquities, publishing an article in the Journal of Hellenic Studies on a collection of vases she purchased in one sale, as well as carrying out some cataloguing work in the British Museum.
The Greek Department has on show
Statues collected long ago
And rather bad. So turn from these
And view our small antiquities:
The cups that held Athenian wine
With dainty pictures, neat and fine;
Lady from Crete in adoration
(But with a tarnished reputation)
Bronzes superbly patinated
And each one accurately dated!
Products of Rhodes and Thessaly
And colonies across the sea.
And when you're tired of Greece and Rome
Buy picture cards, and study them at home.
Lamb began working at the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge in October 1918, at the invitation of Sydney Cockrell: her initial duties included writing labels for items on display. In 1920, she was appointed as Honorary Keeper (Curator) of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the Fitzwilliam; in this position, she arranged new displays (including the creation of displays focusing on prehistoric and Cycladic material), sorted and catalogued the collections, and enhanced them by acquiring new materials through purchases and donations, as well as donating numerous items herself (especially bronzes and pottery). Key publications from her work at the Fitzwilliam include a book on Greek and Roman bronze statues and two volumes of the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (Corpus of Ancient Vases). Throughout her time at the Fitzwilliam, Lamb also worked as an archaeologist in Greece and later Turkey. By the time she retired from the role of Honorary Keeper in August 1958, she had become one of the museum's greatest benefactors of Greek and Roman antiquities.
Lamb first visited Greece in May 1920, briefly joining the excavations at Mycenae led by Alan Wace. She was admitted to the British School at Athens as a student for the academic year of 1920–1921, and spent the year visiting archaeological sites in Attica, the Peloponnese, and Crete, attending lectures in the British School and other archaeological schools, and working on the frescoes found at Mycenae. In May 1921 she joined the Mycenae excavation team and was made responsible for the excavation of the palace as well as for the publication of the frescoes. In the next excavation season, May–June 1922, Lamb was appointed as second-in-command of the dig, with particular responsibility for excavating the tombs near the settlement (including the tholos Tomb of Aegisthus) and co-authored many of the excavation reports with Wace.
Lamb next joined the British School's excavation at Sparta in spring 1924, and subsequently excavated with Walter Abel Heurtley in northern Greece, at the site of Vardaroftsa near Thessaloniki in 1925 and at Sarátse in 1929. From 1928, she began looking for her own site to direct excavations; her work in northern Greece, with a focus on the links between the southern Balkans, the northern Aegean, and northwest Anatolia, led her to explore the island of Lesbos in the eastern Aegean. After a trial excavation at Methymna, where she found evidence of occupation from at least the seventh century BCE until the Roman period, she and her colleague Richard Wyatt Hutchinson identified prehistoric pottery at the site of Thermi. Lamb led excavations on this site from 1929 to 1933, largely funded at her own expense, discovering a series of prehistoric settlements. She visited the archaeological excavation of Troy in 1930 and 1932, which inspired further work, allowing her to associate Thermi towns IV and V with Troy IIa, and gave a lecture, expanding on these views, as part of the 1936 exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts on British Archaeological Discoveries in Greece and Crete 1886–1936. Lamb published her results from Thermi as a book in 1936 – for which she was awarded a Doctor of Science degree from Cambridge in 1940, examined by V. Gordon Childe and Carl Blegen – and provided a selection of finds from the dig to the Fitzwilliam Museum's prehistoric gallery. She subsequently conducted excavations at Antissa (1931–33; also on Lesbos), where she discovered prehistoric, archaic, classical, and Hellenistic settlements and burials, and at the archaic sanctuary of Apollo Phanaios at Kato Phano on Chios (1934).