Reginald Stuart Poole
Obituary
January 9, 1895
I have one more selection of ephemera to share before returning to my first interest and the reason for this blog, and that is an obituary published in 1895 on the event of the death of Reginald Stuart Poole, Keeper of the Coins at the British Museum and Professor of Archaeology at Univeristy College, London. The newspaper clipping came to me scattered amongst other paper items in a box. There are a few unfortunate occurances, the first being the upper left corner that fell off while I was handling it ever so gently, and then at the end it is fairly obvious that the portion of article that is in my possession is mostly not the whole article.
The quality of paper used for newsprint is not the best, and thus will usually deteriorates at a faster rates than other paper. Here you are seeing the actual clipping, and due to the difficulty in reading the small print on a deeply yellowed background, I have transcribed the information for public use. Although my hindsight tells me that I should have copied the original and handled the copy rather than the fragile original, my foresight was not good enough to deduce this fact until after more damage had been done.
Very interesting on the opposite side are advertisement about performances, and these are also included here.
We regret to announce the death yesterday morning, in
Kensington, of Dr. Reginald Stuart Poole, late keeper of the Coins in the
British Museum and Professor of Archeology at University College, London. Mr. Poole, who had not quite completed his sixty-third
year, had complained of lassitude and want of tone for the past year or two,
since his retirement from the Museum in 1893; but the end, which is believed to
have been due to heart affection, was somewhat unexpected. To a very large circle of friends, and
especially to students of archaeology, Egyptian history, and antiquities, Mr.
Poole’s death will be a severe shock.
During the forty years of his official career he had devoted his unusual
energies and zeal to the encouragement of the studies he loved.
His influence as a teacher cannot easily be
overestimated. Head the gift to inspire
the zeal for learning, and the power of sympathy to encourage and direct it,
and hundreds of students of Egyptology, of classical archaeology, and medallic
art, indeed, in art of every form and of every age, owe their first impulse and
later encouragement to his precept and example.
Mr. Poole’s devotion to Egyptian learning dated from very
early years, for though born in London in 1832, he spent the most receptive
years of his youth, from 1842 to 1849, at Cairo, whither his mother had
accompanied her brother, Mr. E. W. Lane, the Arabic scholar, when he went out
to prepare his monumental Arabic-English lexicon. Under Lane’s counsel and advice, Stuart Poole
took up the study of ancient Egypt, and before he was seventeen, contributed a
series of elaborate articles to the Literary Gazette, which were reprinted, in
1851, as “Horae Aegyptiacae.” In the
following year he entered the British Museum, and rose to be Keeper of the
Department of Coins and Medals in 1870.
By this time he had made a reputation, not only in his
first choice, Egyptology, but also in his official subject, especially in the
branches of Greek and Oriental numismatics.
His great aim was to remedy the neglect of his predecessors in the vital
matter of publishing descriptions of the collections. During his keepership, thirty-five volumes of
Catalogues of Coins issued from his department, of which sixteen dealt with the
Greek series, seventeen with the Oriental, & c., and though he was
personally the author of only four of these volumes (describing the “Coins of
the Ptolemies,” of “Alexandria,” of Magne Graecia,” and of the Shahs of
Persia”), he collected and revised the whole thirty-five, at the cost of
immense labour to himself and his assistants.
As a result, it may be confidently asserted that no department of any
museum is better catalogued and the described than the one over which Mr. Poole
reigned for twenty-two years. The
catalogues have provoked research and emulation all over Europe, and have
served as the models for many foreign imitations. In recognition of these important services to
his science he was elected a Correspondent of the Institute of France in 1876,
and awarded honorary degrees at Cambridge and in the United States.
Meanwhile he had always
kept up his interest in Egyptology, and had materially contributed to the
awakening of the public interest in the study by delivering numerous lectures
at the Royal Institution and at various local centres. He was one of the chief founders and
supporters of the Egypt Exploration Fund, which has done so much to lay bare
ancient sites in Egypt, at Naucratis, Pithum, Tanis, & c., and he remained
its honorary secretary to the end. From 1885
to 1893 he held the chair of Archaeology at University College, where he
frequently lectured on Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek and Arab art and
antiquities. He was not a large
contributor to periodical literature, but some interesting and suggestive articles
which appeared in the Contemporary Review, were republished in 1882, under the
title of “Cities of Egypt,” and attained a wide popularity. He also wrote several important articles on
Egypt, numismatics, & c., for the Encyclopedia Britannica.” But it is rather as a lecturer, an oral
teacher, and a stimulating personal influence, than merely as a writer, that
Mr. Poole will long be remembered as a shining light among the too usually dry
and unattractive exponents of Oriental learning and archaeology. From dullness and pedantry he was poles
asunder, saved by a bright imagination, a rich vein of humour, and, above all,
an instinctive power of sympathy and insight.
On the lighter side, are the performance advertisement on the opposite side of the obituary.
King Arthur to-night and.... evening at 8 o'clock, will be produced .... a Prologue and Four Acts, King Arthur, by J. ... Carr. King Arthur: Mr. Irving; Sir Lancelot: Mr. Forbes Robertson; Morgan Le Fay: Miss Genevieve Ward and Guinevere: Miss Ellen Terry. Music by Arthur Sullivan. Scenery and Costumes designed by Sir E. I. Burne Jones. Box-office: Mr. J. Hurst, open 10.0 till 5.0 only. Seats can also be booked by letter or telegram. Lyceum.
Special Notice--King Arthur. The Curtain will rise nightly on King Arthur at 8.0 o'clock punctually. Lyceum.
Lyceum--Matiness--Santa Claus. Every afternoon at 1.30 punctually. Mr. Oscar Barrett's Fairy Pantomime, SANTA CLAUS. Written by Mr. Horace Leonard. "Lorgnette," in the Sportsman (Feb. 6), says:--"I do not want to see a better, brighter, or funnier Pantomime than 'Santa Claus' at the Lyceum. 'Santa Claus' is comical and not vulgar. The children shrieked with laughter." The theatre warmed. All draughts excluded. Box-office: Mr. J. Hurst open daily, 10.0 till 5.0.
Haymarket--Mr. Waller and Mr. Morrell, Managers.--An Ideal Husband, by Oscar Wilde, every evening, at 8.30. Messrs. Lewis Waller, Alfred Bishop, Charles Brookfield, Cosmo Stuart, Stanford, Deane, Meyrick, Goodhart, and Charles Hawirey; Mesdames Fanny Brough, Maude Millet, Florence West, Vane Featherston, Helen Forsyth, and Julia Neilson. Matinee to-day and every Wednesday and Saturday, at 2.30. Seats may now be booked one month in advance. Box office (Mr. Leverton), 10.0 till 5.0 and 6.30 till 10.0. During the present severe weather the theatre is warmed by a new process, and a minimum temperature of 60 degrees is maintained. Sole Lessee, Mr. TRKR. Haymarket.
Haymarket--Five O'Clock Matinee, On Tuesday, Feb. 12, An Ideal Husband. At 5.0. Carriages at 7.30.
Vaudeville--Lessee, mr. Woodon Grossmith. Today at 5.0 and 9.0, The New Boy by Arthur Law. "Boars of laughter,"--The Times. "What a capital farce,"--Daily Telegraph. "Too good to be missed,"--Truth. "Overflows with wit and humour,"--Sporting Life. Have you interviewed The New Boy at the Vaudeville Theatre?
The New Boy. Matinees to-day and every Wednesday and Saturday. Doors open at 2.30. Commence at 3.0. Vaudeville Theater.
Criterion Theatre.--Lessee and Manager, Mr. Charles Wyndham--Every Evening, at 8.30. The Case of the Rebellious Susan. By Henry Arthur Jones. Sir Richard Kato, Q.C.: Mr. Charles Wyndham, Admiral Sir Joseph Darby: Mr. Kemble, James Harabin: Mr. C.P. Little, Fergusson Pybus: Mr. Fred Kerr, Lucien Edensor: Mr. Ben Webster, Mr. Jacomb: Mr. E. Dagnall, Lady Darby: Miss Fanny Coleman, Mrs. Quesnel: Miss Gertrude Kingstock, Elaine Shrimpton: Miss Nina Coucicault, Lady Susan Harabin: Miss Mary Moore. Doors open at 8.0; on wet nights at 7.30. The Curtain will .....
Mr. Charles Wyndham as Sir Richard Kato in The Case of Rebellious Susan, every evening at 8:30. Criterion Theatre.
Miss Mary Moore as Lady Susan Harabin, in The Case of Rebellious Susan. Every Evening at 8.30. Criterion Theatre.
Matinees of The Case of Rebellious Susan. To-day and Every Saturday at 2.30. Miss F. Frances as Lady Susan Harabin. Doors open at 2.0. Criterion Theatre.
Comedy Theatre--Lessee and Manager, Mr. J. Comyns Carr. Tonight (Saturday), Feb. 9, at 8.15, will be produced a new and original comedy, by Charles E. W. Ward, entitled...
