John Forsdyke

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Sir Edgar John Forsdyke KCB (12 September 1883 – 3 December 1979) was Director and Principal Librarian of the British Museum from 1936 to 1950. Under his tenure, an attempt was made to clean the Elgin Marbles in 1937, which lasted until 1938 and resulted in damage to the collection due to the "misguided efforts" of the restoration team to whitewash certain marbles under the belief they were originally white in color.[1][2]

Forsdyke was educated at Christ's Hospital and then at Keble College, Oxford where he was a scholar.[3] He joined the British Museum in 1907, before serving in the Royal Field Artillery in the British military as a captain between 1914 and 1919, in the First World War. He edited the Journal of Hellenic Studies from 1912 to 1923.

After serving as Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum from 1932 to 1936, he was appointed Director and Principal Librarian in 1936, retiring in 1950.[4] He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1937, and was an Honorary Fellow of Keble College. He died on 3 December 1979.[3]

References[]

  1. ^ Oddy, Andrew, "The Conservation of Marble Sculptures in the British Museum before 1975", in Studies in Conservation, vol. 47, no.3, (2002), p. 149
  2. ^ British damage to Elgin marbles 'irreparable' Archived 5 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "Forsdyke, Sir (Edgar) John", Who Was Who 1920–2008, Oxford University Press, December 2007, retrieved 7 October 2009
  4. ^ "oil painting". British Museum. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
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