Add MS 46889-46890

CARIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL REPORTS

Copies of despatches describing archaeological investigations in ancient Caria by Charles Thomas Newton (Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, 1861; K.C.B. 1877); 1856-1859. These investigations on the ancient sites of Halicarnassus (where the remains of the Mausoleum were discovered), Branchidae, and Cnidus were carried out by Newton, then Vice-Consul at Mytilene, under the direction of the Foreign Office, for the benefit of the British Museum. Selected despatches were printed as Parliamentary Papers, Session 1857-1858, vol. lx, and Session 1859 (2), vol. xxv. The results of the expedition were published by C. T. Newton, with Richard Popplewell Pullan, F.R.I.B.A. (who had been attached to the expedition as architect), A History of the Discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus, and Branchidae, 2 vols. and one of plates, 1863. Newton's reminiscences of the expedition appear in his Travels and Discoveries in the Levant, ii, 1865; William Sandys Wright Vaux published a preliminary account of the findings in Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, vi, 1859, pp. 448-502. All these publications make professed use of these despatches. The text consists of copies of despatches from Newton to George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon, and James Howard Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury, successive Foreign Secretaries, 15 Nov. 1856-12 Apr. 1859, and to Stratford Canning, Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, Ambassador in Constantinople, 18 Nov. 1856-3 Apr. 1857, and of letters to Edmund Hammond (Baron Hammond 1874) of the Foreign Office, 20 Dec. 1856-24 Dec. 1858. Included are copies of reports to Newton on the structure of the Mausoleum and archaeological journeys in Caria by Lieutenant Robert Murdoch Smith, R.E. These copies appear to have been made in the British Museum from the originals which were from time to time sent from the Foreign Office for the use of the Trustees.The series is far from complete; no consistent principle of selection is to be discerned.The original despatches, forming a series which, though very much fuller, is still apparently not complete, together with drafts of despatches and letters to Newton and correspondence of the Foreign Office with other government departments and with the British Museum concerning the expedition, 1856-1860, are preserved in the Public Record Office (F.O.

78/1334, 1335, 1343, 1490, 1491). At the end of the series are found (1) invoices of plans, drawings, and photographic negatives shipped to England on the winding-up of the expedition, 8 June 1859; (2) a list of drawings made by R. P. Pullan; (3) pages 7-50 of the printed Parliamentary Papers, Session 1857-1858, vol. lx. The illustrations comprise plans, drawings, photographs, etc., enclosed by Newton in his despatches (including some illustrating despatches not in the present series); the plans and drawings seem mostly to be copies or tracings, some in duplicate. Many of the plans are signed by Smith, other plans and drawings are presumably the unsigned work of Pullan and of Corporal Spackman, R.E. A few enclosures remain with the original despatches in the Public Record Office (locc. citt. and MPK/184, 186). Add. MS. 31980 is a volume of photographs and drawings relating to the expedition which represents the plans and drawings made for permanent use and sent home at the end of the expedition (see invoices mentioned above), including the originals of many of the copies included in the present series. Paper. Four volumes. Various sizes. 1856-1859. Transferred from the Office of the Director and Principal Librarian of the British Museum.