Charles Edwin Wilbour (March 17, 1833 – December 17, 1896) was an American journalist and Egyptologist. Wilbour is noted as one of the discoverers of the

Elephantine Papyri The Elephantine Papyri and Ostraca consist of thousands of documents from the Egyptian border fortresses of Elephantine and Aswan, which yielded hundreds of papyri and ostraca in hieratic and demotic Egyptian, Aramaic, Koine Greek, Latin and Co ...

and the creator of the first English translation of ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...

''.

Biography

Charles Edwin Wilbour was born in

Little Compton, Rhode Island Little Compton is a coastal town in Newport County, Rhode Island, bounded on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by the Sakonnet River, on the north by the town of Tiverton, and on the east by the town of Westport, Massachusetts. The pop ...

, on March 17, 1833. He received a classical education and entered

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, where he took a prize for proficiency in Greek and was noted for his thorough acquaintance with the ancient and modern languages, but did not graduate due to poor health. Having taught himself

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...

, when he had sufficiently recovered, he went to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1854 and became connected with the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

'' as a reporter. Wilbour also studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1859. Over the following eighteen years, he devoted himself to literary and journalistic work. In 1872, Wilbour began the study of Egyptian antiquities, visiting the principal libraries of the United States and Canada. He also owned a major paper manufacturing company, which eventually involved him in the events leading to his voluntary self-exile. He obtained many city contracts apparently dealing with

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

in the heyday of the

Tweed Ring William Magear Tweed (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878), often erroneously referred to as William "Marcy" Tweed (see below), and widely known as "Boss" Tweed, was an American politician most notable for being the political boss of Tammany ...

. With the fall of

William M. Tweed William Magear Tweed (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878), often erroneously referred to as William "Marcy" Tweed (see below), and widely known as "Boss" Tweed, was an American politician most notable for being the political boss of Tammany ...

in the early 1870s, Wilbour decided to leave the United States. In 1874, he went abroad, consulting the archaeological collection of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

and visiting prominent European libraries. He then became a co-laborer with

Heinrich Karl Brugsch Heinrich Karl Brugsch (also ''Brugsch-Pasha'') (18 February 18279 September 1894) was a German Egyptologist. He was associated with Auguste Mariette in his excavations at Memphis. He became director of the School of Egyptology at Cairo, producin ...

and

Gaston Camille Charles Maspero Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916) was a French Egyptologist known for popularizing the term "Sea Peoples" in an 1881 paper. Maspero's son, Henri Maspero, became a notable sinologist and scholar of East Asia. ...

in the field of Egyptology, accompanying the latter on five winter exploring expeditions up the Nile. Wilbour spent his winters in Egypt, working at sites throughout the country from 1880 until his death in 1896. He travelled from site to site by train, postal steamer, or hitching a lift on the steamer belonging to the Department of Antiquities. By the time of his visit in 1886, however, Wilbour decided to buy a dahabiya (houseboat), which would accommodate him, his visiting family, and his library in greater comfort. On a visit to

Aswan Aswan (, also ; ar, أسوان, ʾAswān ; cop, Ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate. Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the ...

Wilbour purchased some

papyri Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a d ...

dug up on the island of

Elephantine Elephantine ( ; ; arz, جزيرة الفنتين; el, Ἐλεφαντίνη ''Elephantíne''; , ) is an island on the Nile, forming part of the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt. The archaeological sites on the island were inscribed on the UNESCO ...

by local people. He did not realize the importance of his find and when he died in a hotel in Paris his belongings, including the

Brooklyn Papyrus The Brooklyn Papyrus (''47.218.48'' and ''47.218.85'', also known as the Brooklyn Medical Papyrus) is a medical papyrus dating from ancient Egypt and is one of the oldest preserved writings about medicine and ophiology. The manuscript is dated ...

, the

Wilbour Papyrus The Wilbour Papyrus is the largest known non-funerary papyrus from Ancient Egypt, named after the New York journalist Charles Edwin Wilbour who acquired it in 1893. History Charles Edwin Wilbour purchased seventeen papyri from a farmer when he ...

and the

, were put in storage by the hotel and not returned to his family for nearly half a century. At the request of his widow, Wilbour's papyri were donated to the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

. Wilbour published "Rachel in the New World", from the French of

Léon Beauvallet Léon Beauvallet, full name Pierre-Léon-Charles Beauvallet, (22 August 1828 – 22 March 1885) was a 19th-century French actor, playwright and novelist. Author of numerous plays, most of them written in collaboration, as well as feuilletons pu ...

, with John W. Palmer (New York, 1856); and translated Victor Hugo's ''

'' (1862–1863); he also published ''The Life of Jesus'', from the French of

Ernest Renan Joseph Ernest Renan (; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, expert of Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote influe ...

(1863).

Legacy

The Wilbour Library of Egyptology in the

is named for him as are Wilbour Hall and the Charles Edwin Wilbour Professorship at

. In 1916, the children of Charles E. Wilbour donated Wilbour's collection of objects, his Egyptological library, and personal papers to the

. In 1932, the bequest of Victor Wilbour, the only son of Charles and Charlotte Wilbour, established the Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund. The purpose of this endowment was to financially assist in the purchasing of objects for the Museum's Egyptian collection, support curatorial staff, and establish the Wilbour Library of Egyptology. As a result of the creation of this endowment, the Brooklyn Museum appointed Jean Capart (1877-1947) as Honorary Curator of Egyptology. Capart was one of the first individuals to realize the scholarly value of Wilbour's papers. In 1936, Capart published ''Travels in Egypt'', which contains Wilbour's letters regarding his expeditions. Shortly after the publication of these letters, the Department of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art (ECAMEA) employed Walter Federn (1910-1967) “to classify the extensive collection of papers belonging to Charles Edwin Wilbour.” An additional collection of Wilbour family correspondence can be found i
Special Collections at Hamilton College in Clinton
New York. These include a file of letters between Charles Wilbour's wife, Charlotte, and noted Suffragists such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Isabella Beecher Hooker, among other

The Wilbour Archival Collection

The Wilbour Archival Collection documents the research and expeditions of Charles Edwin Wilbour (1833-1896), one of the first American Egyptologists. This collection includes a wide variety of materials such as articles, letters, inscriptions, notebooks, notes, publications, Squeeze paper, squeezes, bookplates, maps, and photographs. The bulk of the collection housed at the Brooklyn Museum consists of Wilbour's letters, notebooks, and research notes. He wrote numerous detailed letters to his wife,

Charlotte Beebe Wilbour Charlotte Beebe Wilbour (25 December 1833 – 25 December 1914) was an American feminist, speaker, and writer. She was one of the founders of Sorosis, the first professional women’s club in America, as well as its president for many years, a ...

, and his mother, Sarah Soule Wilbour, describing both ancient and nineteenth century Egypt. These letters also document some of the objects purchased by Wilbour that are currently found in the Brooklyn Museum.

Jean Capart Jean Capart (February 21, 1877 – June 16, 1947) was a Belgian Egyptologist, director of the El-Kab excavations from 1937 to 1939 and then 1945. Publications * * * * * * Bibliography * Anne-Marie & Auguste Brasseur-Capart, ''Jean Capart ...

later published these letters in 1936 in his book ''Travels in Egypt''. In addition, there are letters to Wilbour from renowned Egyptologists such as August Eisenlohr, Jan Herman Insigner,

Gaston Maspero Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916) was a French Egyptologist known for popularizing the term "Sea Peoples" in an 1881 paper. Maspero's son, Henri Maspero, became a notable sinologist and scholar of East Asia. ...

Archibald Sayce The Rev. Archibald Henry Sayce (25 September 18454 February 1933) was a pioneer British Assyriologist and linguist, who held a chair as Professor of Assyriology at the University of Oxford from 1891 to 1919. He was able to write in at least twe ...

, and W.M. Flinders Petrie regarding their research and publications. In addition to his letters, Wilbour's research notes and notebooks offer insight into his work and provide detailed accounts of his observations and travels. Additional items of interest are inscriptions that Wilbour copied directly from sites or publications, and copies of published inscriptions with his hand-written annotations. Of particular interest are Wilbour's hand written copies from inscriptions located in the

Temple of Kom Ombo The Temple of Kom Ombo is an unusual double temple in the town of Kom Ombo in Aswan Governorate, Upper Egypt. It was constructed during the Ptolemaic dynasty, 180–47 BC. Some additions to it were later made during the Roman period. Architectur ...

, which reflect his meticulousness and attention to detail. In addition, the squeezes and photographs visually document objects and sites he visited. Of particular interest is a collection of squeezes that provide impressions of inscriptions found on an unidentified sarcophagus. Not only do the photographs provide visual documentation of Wilbour's research, but they also illustrate various monuments in Aswan and other locations. The Wilbour Library of Egyptology today is one of the world's most comprehensive research libraries for the study of ancient Egypt. The nucleus of the collection comes from the personal library of Charles Edwin Wilbour, an American Egyptologist who also assembled the Museum's extensive Egyptian antiquities collection. With over 35,000 volumes, the Wilbour Library is an important resource for textual and visual information about the history of ancient Egypt. It also holds material on art and culture of the ancient Middle East.

Notes

References

* Rose, Mark.
Wilbour's Legacy
" ''Archaeology'' 18 August 2005. *Wilbour, Charles E. ''Travels in Egypt: Letters of Charles Edwin Wilbour''. Edited by

. Brooklyn:

. 1936. * Wilson, John A. ''Signs and Wonders Upon Pharaoh: A History of American Egyptology'' (Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press, c1964), 243p., illus. P.99-109, Ch. 6. "The Houseboat on the Nile (1880–1908) deals with Wilbour's career in Egypt, and mentions his involvement with Tweed. Attribution *

External links

Charles Edwin Wilbour
at

Findagrave Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present fi ...

* Rose, Mark
"Wilbour's Legacy"
''

Archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

'', August 18, 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilbour, Charles Edwin 1833 births 1896 deaths American Egyptologists Brown University alumni 19th-century American journalists American male journalists 19th-century American translators 19th-century American male writers Translators of Victor Hugo