Historical Manuscripts Commission

Summary report on the papers

of

Margerie Venables Taylor (1881-1963),
archaeologist and historian

in the custody of the

THE ASHMOLEAN LIBRARY, OXFORD

(reference: GB-0479-Taylor)

A Lewis, August 1995
Historical Manuscripts Commission


Table of Contents

Access

Introduction

Summary report

Box A

Box B

Access

All enquiries about access should be directed in writing to the Librarian, The Ashmolean Library.

Introduction

MV Taylor was born on 20 January 1881. She was educated at Queen's School, Chester and Somerville College, Oxford. Between 1923 and 1954 she was secretary of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, becoming vice-president in 1954 and president in 1955. She was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1925 and was the first woman to hold the office of vice-president of the Society. She wrote numerous articles for various archaeological journals and was herself editor for many years of the Journal of Roman Studies. She also contributed material on Roman Britain to the Victoria County Histories.

Two boxes of MV Taylor's personal papers are housed at the Ashmolean. Each contains a number of envelopes with a wide selection of material - correspondence, reviews, rough MS notes, press cuttings, etc. The majority relate to the work of other scholars. The quantity of material in each envelope varies greatly; some have only one sheet of MS notes, others are much more substantial, containing for example a notebook or a series of letters. There is a brief pencil note on each envelope which describes the subject matter. The envelopes do not appear to be filed in any particular order and are not numbered.

The archives of the Journal of Roman Studies, also deposited in the Ashmolean, include a large amount of material relating to MV Taylor's editorship.

The following summary was produced as part of a survey by the Commission of the papers of British antiquaries and historians. The Commission is most grateful to Mr Brian McGregor and Dr John Taylor for their assistance.


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Summary report

Box A

1. Miscellaneous photographs of North Africa

2. Map of Roman Britain and the Iron Age

3. Haverfield; Romano-British Cornwall

4. Lanaway; Popular handbook of nine fortresses on Saxon shore

5. Corder; 1938, excavations at Elmswell

6. Codrington; Roman roads in Britain

7. Haverfield; Roman Leicester

8. Curle; Sir George MacDonald

9. Boumphrey; Along the Roman Roads

10. Chesters; Roman antiquities preserved in the Museum at Chesters

11. Davies; Roman mines in Europe

12. Durant; Journey into Roman Britain

13. Jones, H Stuart; The Roman Empire BC29 - AD476

14. Haverfield; Ancient Town Planning

15. Wheeler; Verulamium

16. May; Catalogue of Roman pottery in Colchester and Essex museums

17. Wheeler; Roman Wales

18. Haverfield; The Romanization of Roman Britain

19. Bruce, J Collingwood; Handbook to The Roman Wall (9th ed.), photographs

20. Ditto, 10th ed.

21. VCH - Kent, vol 3

22. Lehner; Das Provincial Museum in Bonn

23. Pietrageli; Musei Capitolini...

24. Yalouris; Classical sculptures on the Parthenon

25. Letter relating to Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society, 1951-52

26. Haverfield; Roman Leicester

27. Lawson; Schedule of the Roman remains of Chester

28. Letter relating to local antiquarian society

29. Two letters relating to archaeological research, 1902-60

30. Strong; Roman sculpture

31. Hawkes and Hull; Camulodunum

32. Richmond; Roman Britain

33. Fox; Offa's Dyke, 6th report

34. Whiting, Hawley and May; Report on excavations of a Roman cemetery in Kent

35. Ward, J; Roman era in Britain

36. Syme; Tacitus

37. Sandys; Latin epigraphy

38. Cumont; Mysteries of Mithia

39. Birley; Centenary pilgrimage of Hadrian's Wall

40. Pennant; picture

41. Tacitus

42. Green; [illegible] and the 2nd Legion

43. Heichelheim; Mildenhall Treasure II

44. Corder; 1937, excavations at Brough

45. Hartley; 1947-48, excavations at Heronbridge

46. Jones, H Stuart; Companion to Roman history

47. Kanovium; Excavation Committee - excavations on site of

48. Curle; A Roman frontier post and its people

49. JRS; Papers presented to HM Last, 1957

50. Postcard from 'DELH'

51. Hawkes and Richmond; The Roman occupation Pt II (Lincoln)

52. Loose notes concerning 'Recent Excavations on the Roman Forum' 1957

53. Printed notes (Transactions BGAS, vol 81, 1962); 'Romano-British sculpture from Dom'

54. Page; Romano-British Bedfordshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire

55. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, London

56. 1951 Council for British Archaeology, Report

57. VCH - Oxfordshire, vol 1

58. Baradez; Fossatum Africae

59. Rostovtsev; History of the Ancient World

60. Hondius-Crane; The Temple of Nehalemnia at Dombury

61. VCH - Hertfordshire

62. Traill and Mann; Social England

63. Meates; Lullingstone Roman villa

64. Chester; Grosvenor Museum, catalogue of

65. Leeds; Celtic ornament in the [illegible]

66. Lugli; Roman antica

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Box B

1. Collingwood, RG, 1889-1943; correspondence relating to

2. Collingwood and Myres; Roman Britain and English settlements

3. Collingwood, RG; Archaeology of Roman Britain

4. Collingwood, RG; Autobiography

5. Postcards; Sweet Heart Abbey and Canterbury

6. Haverfield and Taylor; Romano-British Shropshire

7. Haverfield; Romano-British Worcestershire

8. Christy; Roman roads in Essex (2nd supplement)

9. Handbook of prehistoric archaeology of Britain

10. Oswald; Index of potters' stamps

11. Sullian; The Paris of the Romans

12. Sullian; Gallia

13. Society of Antiquaries; 1951, notes on the Society's history and its possessions

14. Atkinson; Report on excavations at Wroxeter

15. Haverfield; Bound volume of articles in Athenaeum

16. Haverfield; Military sites

17. Bell, Cottrill and Span; London Wall through 18 centuries

18. Boon; Roman Silchester

19. Cambridge Ancient History

20. Franjero; Britannia Romana

21. Martin and Steel; The Oxford region

22. MacDonald; Roman wall in Scotland

23. Meiggs; Roman Ostia

24. Miller; Roman occupation of South-West Scotland

25. Oldfather and Canter; Defeat of Varus and the German Frontier Policy of Augustus

26. Richmond; Huddersfield in Roman times

27. Miscellaneous correspondence and reviews relating to MI Rostovtsev

28. Haverfield; Roman Occupation of Britain

29. Kenyon; Excavation at the Jewry Wall site, Leicester.

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