Graphical version

University College London

Wheeler Archive


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0103 WHEELER

Held at: University College London

Title: Wheeler Archive

Date(s): 1812-1978

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 120 boxes, 10 outsize boxes and 3 shelves of outsize maps

Name of creator(s): Wheeler | Sir | Robert Eric Mortimer | 1890-1976 | Knight | archaeologist and broadcaster

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born, 1890; educated, Bradford Grammar School, 1899-1904; University College, London, 1907-1912; art classes at the Slade School of Fine Art, 1909-; Franks studentship in archaeology to study Roman pottery in the Rhineland, 1913; junior investigator for the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (RCHM), 1913; PhD, 1920; Royal Field Artillery, 1914-1917; 76th Army Brigade, 1917-1919; Military Cross, 1918; RCHM, 1919-1920; Keeper of Archaeology at the National Museum of Wales and Lecturer in Archaeology at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, Cardiff, 1920; Director of the National Museum of Wales, 1924; excavated Roman sites, Segontium, 1921-1922 and Gaer near Brecon, 1924-1925; Keeper of the London Museum, 1926; established the Institute of Archaeology, 1937; excavations of the Romano-British villa and cult centre at Lydney Park, 1928-1929; Roman and immediately pre-Roman St Albans, 1930-1934 and the hill fort of Maiden Castle, Dorset, 1934-1937; 42nd Royal Artillery Regiment, 1939-1943; Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1944-1948; excavations at Taxila, 1944-1945; the Roman trading station of Arikamedu, 1945; the Indus city of Harappa, 1946 and the southern megalithic sites of Brahmagiri and Chandravalli, 1947; part-time professorship at the Institute of Archaeology in the University of London, 1948-; Secretary for the British Academy, 1949-1968; archaeological adviser to the newly formed Pakistan Archaeological Department; excavation of the hill fort of Stanwick in Yorkshire, 1954 and Charsada, Pakistan, 1956; member of the UNESCO team concerned with the preservation and conservation of Mohenjo-daro, 1960s; television broadcaster, in 'Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?' and 'Buried Treasure'; Fellowship of the Royal Society, 1968; died, 1976.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Mortimer Wheeler, [1944-1974], including:


Lecture notes of Wheeler's first wife Tessa while a UCL History student during the 1910s (Section A).


Correspondence with Glyn Daniel; Sir Cyril Fox; Christina Foyle; Jacquetta Hawkes; David Kendall; Kathleen Mary Kenyon; Sir Douglas William Logan; Stuart Piggott; Sir Ian Richmond and John Bryan Ward-Perkins (Section B).


Notes, reports, correspondence and administrative papers relating to Wheeler's excavations of Iron Age hill forts in north-western France in the 1930s (Section D).


Correspondence and other papers relating to archaeology in India and Pakistan, 1930s-1970s, in particular the UNESCO Mohenjo-Daro mission, late 1960 (Sections E and F).


Correspondence and other papers relating to archaeology in East Africa (Section H).


Itineraries, correspondence and other papers relating to Swan Hellenic cruises during the late 1950s to 1970s in the following places: Mediterranean; Iran; Nile; East Africa; India; Pakistan; Russia; Far East; Iraq, etc. (Section J).


Correspondence and other papers relating to institutions including the British Academy; British Museum; University of London (Sections K, L and N).


Correspondence and other papers relating to Wheeler's advisory role in connection with archaeological excavations beneath York Minster were carried out between 1966 and 1973 (Section M).


Scripts and other papers relating to broadcasting including BBC 'Roman Britain' and ''The Grandeur that was Rome' programmes (Section P).


Typescript and MS. articles, addresses, lectures and reviews by Wheeler including thesis on Rhenish pottery and a biography of Sir Cyril Fox (Section Q).


Papers and correspondence relating Wheeler's military postings in the First and Second World Wars (Sections R and S).


Wheeler's engagement diaries, 1952-1976 (Section T).

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Original order.

Conditions governing access:

Open. Some files will require checking under data protection legislation and may require a four week notice period. Please contact UCL Special Collections for further inforamtion.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

Finding aids:

The majority of the collection is catalogued and the list available online.

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Presented by the family in two accessions in Sep 2005 and May 2007.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Compiled by Sarah Drewery.
Sources: Oxford DNB

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Sep 2008; updated July 2018


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Broadcasting programmes | Broadcasting
Learned societies | Associations | Organizations
World War Two (1939-1945) | World wars (events) | Wars (events)
Archaeology
Exhibitions

Personal names
Wheeler | Sir | Robert Eric Mortimer | 1890-1976 | Knight | archaeologist

Corporate names
BBC | British Broadcasting Corporation x British Broadcasting Corporation
Swan Hellenic cruises
University College London

Places
India | South Asia
Pakistan | South Asia
Africa