Since 2023, the Petrie Museum has been working on a project centred around the archaeological "ephemera" in the collection - hundreds of items, in a grey area beween object and archive, left behind by early archaeologists and museum workers.

Research and Documentation

The Museum is currently working to document this 19^th and early 20^th century ephemera, explore the stories behind it, and unlock its potential for research.

Food wrappers, newspaper pages, receipts and lecture invitations, fragments of administrative forms and annotated tobacco boxes... These speak of life in the field, of academic rivalries and early museum operations. They shed light on the social history of archaeology, collecting and display.

We aim to make these 700+ items fully searchable and accessible to researchers in the near future.

Community of Practice

We are also working to develop an Ephemera Community of Practice, for museums with historic collections and researchers working with similar material. If you are interested in joining this conversation, please get in touch!

Ephemera Stories

We're on a mission to raise awareness of archaeological ephemera and the stories they tell. 

So far, the Petrie ephemera have been included in a number of exhibitions and public programmes, including Seeing and Unseeing the Pyramids, Reimagining Flinderella, and Objects of the Misanthropocene.

They have also been featured in the following papers and publications:

• Randisi, L., 2024. Archaeological ephemera in historic collections: excavating drawers in the Petrie Museum. Presented at the Theoretical Archaeology Group's 45th Annual Meeting, Bournemouth, 13-15 December.
• Randisi, L., 2024. Archaeological ephemera: finds from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology. Peer Review Newsletter, September issue.
• Randisi, L., 2023. The Petrie Museum Ephemera Collection: "surplus to requirements" or a useful resource? Friends of the Petrie Museum Magazine, 55: 15.
• Randisi, L. and Garnett, A., 2023. From Abydos to Asia: an update on recent work at the Petrie Museum, UCL. Presented at the Egypt Exploration Society's "Uncovering Abydos" conference, British Council, Cairo, 5-7 December.

For any enquiries relating to the Petrie ephemera, please contact Lisa Randisi at museums@ucl.ac.uk.