Blackman, Winifred Susan

Winifred Susan Blackman (1872 - 1950) was retained by Captain Peter Johnston-Saint, third Conservator of the Wellcome Museum, to collect ethnographic materials relating to the fellahin of Egypt.

Winifred Susan Blackman was born in Westmorland, England in 1872. Her younger brother, Aylward Manley Blackman, an Egyptologist, was a fellow at Worcester College, and following him Winifred went to Oxford in 1912 where she started volunteering at the Pitt Rivers Museum. Following her father’s sudden death in 1913, Winifred appealed to Henry Balfour and Robert Marett for work. (Larson 116). Balfour secured some funds to employ her an assistant and she spent many years cataloging the collection. In 1915, Winifred secured her diploma in Anthropology from Oxford. She first traveled to Egypt with Aylward and a group of his students in 1920. She went again in 1921, this time without her brother.

During her many visits, subsidized by several small grants from Oxford University, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Royal Society. From 1927-1932, Wellcome paid her 250 a year in exchange for objects related to the history of medicine (Egyptian charms, and remedies) (Larson 262-264) During her time in Egypt, Hideyb Abd el-Shafy and his wife Sadia housed and guided Winifred. Frances Larson writes “Over the years, Blackman became famous among the fellahin. To the Egyptians she was a contradiction in terms: an Englishwoman who traveled alone and lived with them as their guest. Unlike other English visitors, Winifred did not impose herself: she was there to listen, observe, and record what she saw...” (Larson 145-146)

She documented the traditional and the contemporary customs of the fellahin, the farmers of Egypt. Material that she collected is now primarily at the Pitt Rivers Museum, the British Museum, and the Fowler Museum at UCLA, with smaller numbers of objects on loan to Sir Henry Wellcome's Museum Collection at the Science Museum and at the Egypt Centre Swansea.Material that she collected is now primarily at the Pitt Rivers Museum, the British Museum, and the Fowler Museum at UCLA, with smaller numbers of objects on loan to Sir Henry Wellcome's Museum Collection at the Science Museum and at the Egypt Centre Swansea.

Winifred Blackman’s Publications:

• “The Magical and Ceremonial Uses of Fire.” Folklore 27, no. 4 (1916): 352–377.

• “The Rosary in Magic and Religion.” Folklore 29, no. 4 (1918): 255–280.

• Some modern Egyptian graveside ceremonies. London: John Murray, 1921

• The fellāhīn of Upper Egypt, London: Harrap, 1927.

• Les Fellahs De La Haute-Egypte-Vie Religieuse, Sociale Et Économique. Le Présent Et Les Survivances Anciennes. Paris: Payot, 1948

Wellcome Collection references:

• Blackman collection dossier / correspondence: WA/HMM/CM/Col/12

• Dispersal to British Museum: WA/HMM/TR/Abc/C.4/23

• One of Blackman's collecting notebooks: MS.8182

• Photographs taken by Blackman in Egypt

Image: https://rawi-magazine.com/articles/winifred_blackman/ (Paolo Del Vesco)

Other sources:

• Del Vesco, Paolo. “Jewels from the Nile: The Ethnographical collection of Winifred Blackman” Raw: Egypt’s heritage Review 7 (2015): 52-58. https://rawi-publishing.com/articles/winifred_blackman/

• Larson, Frances. Undreamed Shores: The Hidden Heroines of British Anthropology. London: Granta Books, 2021 (see page 129-155, 260-273) *297-300 have an additional extensive bibliography and archive list

• Stevenson, Alice. “Labeling and Cataloguing at Every Available Moment: W.S. Blackman’s Collection of Egyptian Amulets.” Journal of Museum Ethnography 26 (2013): 138-149.