CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0074 Q/CN
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE
Date(s)	: 1877-1880
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 0.08 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: Various.

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Cleopatra's Needle was made of pink granite at the time of Thothmes (Tuthmose) III, circa 1500 BC, with later inscriptions added by Ramesses II. It was later removed to Alexandria. It was brought to London in the container ship Cleopatra, towed by the steam ships Olga and Anglia, in 1877. It was erected on the Victoria Embankment between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge by the engineer John Dixon in 1879, with two sphinxes added to the base.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, 1877-1880 and undated, relating to Cleopatra's Needle, comprising two photographs of the ship Cleopatra at Alexandria {1877}; drawing of the Cleopatra by John Dixon, undated; manuscript copy of memoranda made on board the SS Olga towing Cleopatra, 1877; letters concerning the abandonment of the Cleopatra, 1877; cuttings from The Times concerning the salvage of the Cleopatra {1878} and the erection of Cleopatra's Needle on the Embankment, 1878; two copies of an account of expenditure incurred in transporting and re-erecting the Needle, 1880; Cleopatra's Needle visitors' book, 1878; drawing, undated, of hieroglyphs, and tracing, 1877, of Greek and Latin inscriptions on the Needle; two copper plates apparently formerly attached to the monument relating the story of the transhipment etc, 1878; offprint of a paper on Cleopatra's Needle delivered to the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1880.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Documents in chronological order.

Conditions governing access:

These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information may be subject to access restrictions.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to this collection rests with the depositor.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Deposited in September 1966.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

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:
August to October 2010.