From Egypt to
Ann Arbor: The
Building of the Papyrus Collection
The papyri that were bought in Egypt were permitted to leave the country by the authorities at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, according to the procedure which governed the exports of antiquities in general. In fact, particularly when the late C. C. Edgar was head of the Museum, its relations with the representatives of the consortium were very cordial. The Museum authorities were by no means adverse to having papyri acquired by foreign institutions where they would be in proper hands. For a time at least, when our representatives secured papyri in which the Museum was particularly interested, these were turned over to it at cost.
Although the idea of building up a papyrus collection at Michigan originated with Professor Kelsey and although he was responsible or the first steps taken to make this a reality, he by no means played a lone hand in achieving this goal. From the very beginning he sought the advice and cooperation of others who were interested in or might be affected by this undertaking. And he found enthusiastic support not only among members of the departments of Greek and Latin but also among administrative officers of the University. Foremost among the latter was the University Librarian, Dr. W. W. Bishop. Himself an expert palaeographer, Dr. Bishop was very eager to enlarge the Library's manuscript resources, and assumed responsibility for the housing and care of the papyri, as well as for providing in the Library a work room for those entrusted with their decipherment and publication. The proper care of the papyri presented and still presents a serious problem. They must be housed in an atmosphere which is sufficiently damp to prevent their embrittlement from dehydration, but of course not so moisture-laden as to cause molding or other deterioration from excessive moisture. Furthermore, because of their brittleness, they must be protected from too much handling. The best solution found so far has been to enclose each piece between two layers of glass, bound together at the edges, and a large number of our more valuable pieces have been treated in this way. Those pieces not preserved in this manner are stored individually in acid-free folders, and the entire collection is housed in a vault under controlled atmospheric conditions, imitating the environment in which they remained for so long.
As soon as a Near East Research Fund was created for the purchase of papyri and other manuscripts and the Near East project was expanded to include archaeological field work, an administrative unit was set up by the Regents of the University to supervise the use of the Fund and to control the disposition of whatever materials were acquired thereby. In view of the wide interest in the project in University circles, this was rather a large body. It was called the Advisory Committee on Near East Research and, as established in 1924, it comprised the President of the University, then Dr. Marion L. Burton, the Deans of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and the Graduate School, the University Librarian, Professor Kelsey and the faculty members actively concerned with work on the papyri: Professors Bonner, Boak, Robbins, Sanders, and Winter. Other members of the faculty soon were added to the original group, largely because of their archaeological interests. thus, when Professor Kelsey died in 1927, there was a stable organization in existence which could plan for the enlargement and control of the papyrus collection. These responsibilities, by action of the Board of Regents, were entrusted, in April, 1928, to a smaller Directing Committee selected from the membership of the Advisory Committee. Three years later, The University of Michigan Institute of Archaeological Research supplanted the Advisory and Directing Committees. In 1941 the Institute in turn was replaced by the Research Committee for the Museum of Art and Archaeology, which functioned until the Museum of Archaeology was set up as an independent administrative unit in July, 1946. From that time the papyrus collection has been controlled by the University Librarian, aided by an advisory committee consisting of the Research Professor of Papyrology and one other member of the faculty of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, active in papyrological work.
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