Winifred Lamb facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Winifred Lamb
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| Born | 3 November 1894 Campden Hill, London, England
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| Died | 16 September 1963 (aged 68) Easebourne, England
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| Nationality | British |
| Education | Newnham College |
| Employer | Fitzwilliam Museum |
| Known for | Honorary Keeper of Greek Antiquities; archaeologist working in Greece and Turkey |
Winifred Lamb (born November 3, 1894 – died September 16, 1963) was a British archaeologist, art historian, and museum expert. She focused on ancient cultures from Greece, Rome, and Anatolia (modern-day Turkey).
Most of her career was spent at the University of Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum. From 1920 to 1958, she was the honorary keeper (or curator) of Greek ancient items. The Fitzwilliam Museum says she was a "generous benefactor." She helped make the museum's collections more famous through her amazing research, new purchases, and books.
Winifred also led archaeological digs in Greece and Turkey. She helped start the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. She wrote many books about ancient Greek and Roman objects. Her 1929 book, Greek and Roman Bronzes, was a very important book for anyone studying the topic.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Winifred Lamb was born on November 3, 1894, in London, England. Her father, Edmund Lamb, was a Member of Parliament. Her mother, Mabel Lamb, went to Newnham College and worked to help women get university education and the right to vote.
Winifred was taught at home by tutors. From 1913 to 1917, she studied Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge. She focused on Classical Archaeology. She earned top grades, even though women at that time could not officially get degrees from Cambridge. While studying, she helped with archaeological digs near Cambridge.
Secret Work During World War I
After finishing her studies in 1917, Winifred first worked in a hospital for soldiers. In January 1918, she joined a secret group called 'Room 40'. This group was part of the British Navy's intelligence department. She likely helped decode secret messages sent to German submarines. She left this job in December 1918, after the war ended.
Here, Winifred met John Beazley, a famous archaeologist. He also worked in British Intelligence and encouraged her research. During this time, she also bought ancient items at sales. She wrote an article about some vases she bought. She also helped organize items at the British Museum.
Working at the Fitzwilliam Museum
Winifred Lamb started working at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge in October 1918. She was invited by Sydney Cockerell. At first, she wrote labels for items on display. In 1920, she became the Honorary Keeper (Curator) of Greek and Roman ancient objects at the Fitzwilliam.
In this role, she set up new displays. She created exhibits focusing on very old, prehistoric items and objects from the Cycladic civilization. She also organized and cataloged the museum's collections. She made the collections better by buying new items and getting donations. She even donated many items herself, especially bronze objects and pottery.
Her important books from her time at the Fitzwilliam include a book about Greek and Roman bronze statues. She also wrote two volumes for the Corpus vasorum antiquorum (a collection of ancient vases). Throughout her time at the Fitzwilliam, Winifred also worked as an archaeologist in Greece and Turkey. By the time she retired in 1958, she had given more Greek and Roman ancient items to the museum than almost anyone else.
Digging in Greece
Winifred first visited Greece in May 1920. She briefly joined digs at Mycenae led by Alan Wace. She became a student at the British School at Athens for a year. During that year, she visited many ancient sites in Greece. She also worked on ancient paintings found at Mycenae.
In May 1921, she joined the Mycenae dig team again. She was in charge of digging up the palace and publishing information about the paintings. In the next digging season (1922), Winifred was second-in-command of the dig. She was especially in charge of digging up tombs near the settlement. She wrote many reports about the digs with Alan Wace.
Winifred then joined the British School's dig at Sparta in 1924. Later, she dug with W.A. Heurtley in northern Greece. They worked at Vardaroftsa near Thessaloniki in 1926 and at Sarátse in 1929. From 1928, she started looking for her own site to lead digs. Her work in northern Greece led her to explore the island of Lesbos.
After a test dig at Methymna, she found signs of people living there from at least 700 BCE. She and her colleague Richard Wyatt Hutchinson found prehistoric pottery at Thermi. Winifred led digs at Thermi from 1929 to 1933. She mostly paid for these digs herself. She discovered a series of prehistoric settlements.
She visited the famous Troy dig in 1930 and 1932. This inspired her to connect Thermi towns with Troy. She gave a lecture about these ideas in 1936. She published her findings from Thermi in a book in 1936. For this work, she earned a Doctor of Science degree from Cambridge in 1940. She also gave some of the finds from Thermi to the Fitzwilliam Museum.
She later led digs at Antissa (1931–33), also on Lesbos. There, she found prehistoric, archaic, classical, and Hellenistic settlements and burials. She also dug at the ancient sanctuary of Apollo Phanaios on Chios (1934).
Digging in Turkey
Winifred's work on Lesbos showed connections between Thermi and Troy. After this, she turned her attention to ancient Anatolia (modern Turkey). She chose the site of Kusura. She did a test dig in 1935 and full digs in 1936 and 1937. They found a cult site and pottery related to Troy.
Winifred shared her findings in a lecture in London in 1937. She pointed out that Kusura was on an important Bronze Age route. She felt that more digging was needed in Anatolia. However, her work was stopped by the start of World War II.
Winifred was a founding member of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. She was its honorary secretary from 1948 to 1957. She then became vice president. She even did a program for the BBC about the Institute and Turkish archaeology. She also worked on a project about cultures in north-eastern Anatolia.
BBC Work During World War II
In late 1941, Winifred joined the BBC's European Intelligence Unit. She was a Greek language supervisor. She likely helped with reports about BBC broadcasts to Greece and the Greek resistance against German occupation. In January 1942, she moved to the Turkish section. She worked there until 1946.
Her jobs included preparing reports on Turkish radio and newspapers. She also briefed Turkish journalists in London. In October 1944, Winifred was badly hurt when a V2 rocket hit her home in London. She needed a long time to recover. She returned to work in April 1945. After the war ended, she left the BBC in February 1946.
Later Life and Legacy
Winifred Lamb retired from the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1958. She had become one of the museum's most important givers of Greek and Roman ancient items. She continued to be involved with the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. However, her health got worse from 1959. She often could not attend meetings. She died from a stroke on September 16, 1963.
