Nora Griffith

Nora Macdonald Griffith (7 December 1870 – 21 October 1937) was a Scottish Egyptologist, archaeologist, illustrator and conservator. On the death of her husband, the eminent Egyptologist Francis Llewellyn Griffith, she founded and endowed the Griffith Institute at Oxford University with their joint fortunes and collections.[1]

Nora Macdonald Griffith in 1900

Born as Nora Christina Cobban Macdonald in Newmachar near Aberdeen in 1870, she was the daughter of Surgeon-Major James Macdonald (1828–1906) of Aberdeen and Margaret Helen Leslie née Collie (1841-1876)[2] and the sister of Sir James Ronald Leslie Macdonald (1862–1927), a Scottish engineer, explorer, cartographer and British Army engineer. She visited Egypt in 1906 following which she acted as a conservator in the Archaeology Museum at King's College in Aberdeen.[3][4] Becoming interested in Egyptology she studied it under the eminent British Egyptologist Francis Llewellyn Griffith at Oxford University. In 1909 she became Griffith's second wife[5] and assisted him in his studies and excavations in Egypt and Nubia in 1910–13, 1923, 1929 and 1930.[4] A skilled photographer and illustrator, she was highly intelligent and had a gift for ancient and modern languages. While she published several articles in scholarly journals she is frequently overlooked in the records of Egyptology.[3] In 1923 she published her article 'Akhenaten and the Hittites' in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.[6][7]

After her husband's death in 1934 she prepared his unfinished work for publication including his two volume Demotic Graffiti in the Dodecaschoenus, complete with 70 illustrations in addition to photographs taken by herself. She organised and funded further excavations at Firka and Kawa in the Sudan and financially supported the Egypt Exploration Society in its work. She added to and expanded the already large Egyptological library collected by her husband and herself and which was later donated to the University of Oxford and added her own personal fortune to that of her late husband for the building and endowment of the Griffith Institute at Oxford which is dedicated to the advancement of Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies.[3][4][8][9][10][11]

Nora Macdonald Griffith died at the Acland Home in Oxford of peritonitis after an appendectomy in 1937 at the age of 66.[4][11] She was buried with her husband in Holywell Cemetery in Oxford.[12]

Legacy

In addition to her endowment of the Griffith Institute at Oxford, in 2017 Aberdeen City Council approved the erection of a blue plaque to honour her as a "noted Egyptologist".[13] This was unveiled in November 2018 and is located at Kings College Quad in Aberdeen [14]

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References
  1. Jason Thompson, Wonderful Things (Volume 2): A History of Egyptology: 2: The Golden Age: 1881-1914, The American University in Cairo Press (2015) - Google Books pg. 174
  2. Nora Christina Cobban Macdonald in the Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950
  3. Nora Christina Cobban Griffith (nee Macdonald) (1870 – 1937) - Aberdeenshire Council website
  4. Obituary for Nora Macdonald Griffith - The Journal for Egyptian Archaeology, Volume XXIII - The Egypt Exploration Society (1937)
  5. British Academy, A Century of British Orientalists, 1902-2001, Oxford University Press - Google Books pg. 194
  6. Nora Griffiths, 'Akhenaten and the Hittites' - The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 9, No. 1/2, Apr., 1923
  7. Nora Griffith - The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
  8. "Nora Griffith". Artefacts of Excavation: British Excavations in Egypt 1880–1980. Griffith Institute. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  9. Nora Griffith - Artefacts of Excavation: British Excavations in Egypt 1880-1980 The Griffith Institute, University of Oxford
  10. Nora Griffiths- Scots & Egyptology - Egyptology Scotland
  11. R. S. Simpson, Francis Llewellyn Griffith (1862-1934) - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) - Oxford University Press - Published in print: 23 September 2004 Published online: 23 September 2004
  12. 'The strange mystery of the Egyptologist’s missing tomb' - This is Oxfordshire 20 March 2014
  13. "Council approves commemorative plaques for pioneers". Aberdeen City Council. 26 April 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  14. Nora Griffith plaque unveiling - Women's History Scotland - 24 November 2018
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