Winifred Lamb: Aegean Prehistorian and Museum Curator

Cover image: British School at Athens

My biography of Winifred Lamb is due to be published in September 2018. The study covers her time as a student at the British School at Athens (as well as her preliminary visit to the Mycenae excavations before she was admitted), and her excavations at Mycenae, Sparta, in Macedonia, on Lesbos and on Chios. Her active fieldwork in the Aegean continued into the 1930s when she shifted her interests to Anatolia (through the excavation at Kusura).

Lamb was simultaneously the honorary keeper of Greek Antiquities at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, where she created a prehistoric gallery displaying finds from British excavations on Crete and on Melos.

Winifred Lamb: obituary

Winifred's obituary appeared in The Times.

Rachel Maxwell-Hyslop

Rachel Clay excavated with Winifred Lamb at Kusura. Her obituary has appeared in The Daily Telegraph (3 August 2011). She appears as "Miss Stone" in Winifred's short story, "The Inspector Interferes".

Excavating Kyzikos

The BSA had conducted a short season of excavations at Kyzikos before the First World War. It now appears that Winifred Lamb considered working there around 1935. This came to nothing and she turned to prehistoric sites and excavated at Kusura in 1936 and 1937.

Excavating Methymna

In late 1928 Winifred Lamb was excavating at Methymna (Molyvo) on Lesbos. Her working day was as follows:

• 6.30 am: tea, two raw eggs, bread and jam
• 7.00-8.30 am: excavating
• 8.30 am: a glass of milk 'and anything else I want'
• (8.30 am)-noon: excavating
• 12 noon - 1.30 pm: rest
• 1.30-5 pm: excavating

Reviews by Winifred Lamb 4

Winifred Lamb reviewed the following as 'W.L.':

• Beazley, J. D.: Attic red-figured vases in American museums. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1918. In Burlington Magazine 35, No. 197 (Aug., 1919), 81-82. [JSTOR]
• Herford, Mary A.B.: A Handbook of Greek Vase Painting. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1919. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 35, No. 199 (Oct., 1919), 174-175. [JSTOR]
• Beazley, J. D.: The Lewes House Collection of Ancient Gems. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1920. In Burlington Magazine 37 (Nov., 1920) 256-57 [JSTOR].
• Pfuhl, Ernst (translated by J.D. Beazley): Masterpieces of Greek Drawing and Painting. London: Chatto & Windus, 1926. In Burlington Magazine 50, no. 290 (May 1927), 278. [JSTOR]
• Beazley, J. D.: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Great Britain fascicule 3. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, fascicule 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927. In Burlington Magazine 51, No. 296 (Nov., 1927), 259-260. [JSTOR]
• Lunsingh Scheurleer, C.W.: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. I-Pays Bas, Musée Scheurleer. II-France, Collection Mouret (Fouilles d'Ensérrune). In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 53, No. 306 (Sep., 1928), 151-52. [JSTOR]
• Strong, Eugénie: Catalogue of the Greek and Roman Antiquities in the Possession of the Right Honorable Lord Melchett. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 55, No. 318 (Sep., 1929), 154-55. [JSTOR]
• Evans, Arthur: The Palace of Minos at Knossos. Vol. III. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 58, No. 334 (Jan., 1931), 53. [JSTOR]
• Caskey , L.D.: Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 60, No. 348 (Mar., 1932), 168-69. [JSTOR]
• Beazley, J. D.: Der Pan-Maler Berlin: 1931. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 60, No. 350 (May, 1932), 265-66. [JSTOR]
• Stawell, F. Melian: A Clue to the Cretan Scripts. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 61, No. 352 (Jul., 1932), 49 [JSTOR]
• Johansen, K. Friis and Chr. Blinkenberg: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Denmark, Copenhagen, Musée National by ; Oxford Ashmolean Museum, II. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 61, No. 355 (Oct., 1932), 188-89. [JSTOR]
• Ducati, Pericle: Pontische Vasen. Bilder Griechischer Vasen by J. D. Beazley; Paul Jacobsthal. Berlin: 1932. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 63, No. 364 (Jul., 1933), 49. [JSTOR]
• Beazley, J. D.: Der Kleophrades-Maler. Bilder Griechischer Vasen Vol. VI. Berlin: 1933; Payne, H.G.G.:  Protokorinthische Vasenmalerei. Bilder Griechischer Vasen Vol. VII. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 64, No. 374 (May, 1934), 247. [JSTOR]
• Luce, Stephen B.: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Providence, Rhode Island 1. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 65, No. 377 (Aug., 1934), 95-96. [JSTOR]

Others:

• Hill , George F.: Select Greek Coins. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 51, No. 295 (Oct., 1927), 200-201. [JSTOR]
• Lawrence , A.W.: Later Greek Sculpture and Its Influence on East and West. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 52, No. 299 (Feb., 1928), 104. [JSTOR]
• Lövy, Emanuel: Polygnot: ein Buch von Griechischer Malerei. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 58, No. 335 (Feb., 1931), 102. [JSTOR]
• Contenau , C. and V. Chapot: L'Art Antique: Orient, Grece, Rome. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 59, No. 341 (Aug., 1931), 96. [JSTOR]
• Gallatin, Albert: Syracusan Decadrachms of the Euainetos Type. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 59, No. 341 (Aug., 1931), 96-97 [JSTOR]

Reviews by Winifred Lamb 3

Here are some additional reviews by Winifred Lamb:

• The Palace of Minos. A Comparative Account of the Successive Stages of the Early Cretan Civilisation as Illustrated by the Discoveries at Knossos. Vol. II by Arthur Evans, in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 53, No. 306 (Sep., 1928), pp. 146-147 [JSTOR]
• Vasen um Meidias by Walter Hahland; Papers of the British School at Rome XI; Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, France, Musée du Louvre 6. by E. Pottier, in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 57, No. 331 (Oct., 1930), p. 199 [JSTOR]
• Der Berliner Maler by J. D. Beazley; Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Athenes, Musee National, I by K. A. Rhomaios; Mlle. S. Papaspyridi; Madrid: Musee Archeologique National, I by J. R. Mélida, in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 59, No. 340 (Jul., 1931), p. 46 [JSTOR]
• Necrocorinthia, a Study of Corinthian Art in the Archaic Period by Humphrey Payne, in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 60, No. 348 (Mar., 1932), pp. 164-165 [JSTOR]
• Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: France by S. Lambrino (Marcelle Flot), in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 62, No. 359 (Feb., 1933), p. 94 [JSTOR]