Faces of UCL: Barbara Adams

The Petrie Museum was still reeling from the Second World War when Barbara Adams (1945 – 2002) was appointed as an assistant in 1965. With an unstoppable energy, this published poet and former Miss Hammersmith, set about safeguarding the museum’s 80,000 ancient Egyptian and Sudanese objects; almost single-handedly undertaking urgent tasks of conservation, storage, sorting, documentation and display with tireless enthusiasm and skill. 

Over time Barbara developed a team of qualified volunteers to catalogue and publish individual collections, transforming the struggling post-war museum to a thriving centre for world-class research, education and public engagement. 

In the early 1980s, Barbara campaigned for improvements to the physical condition of the Petrie Museum, which was unsuitable for housing the ancient, often fragile, artefacts. She was appointed Curator in 1984, and renovations were successfully implemented by 1986. She later co-founded the Friends of the Petrie Museum, a fundraising body that still generates substantial income to protect and support the collection.

Her ambition didn’t stop there. In 1998, under Barbara’s leadership, the Petrie Museum was granted Designation status as a museum of outstanding importance by the UK Government. This affirmed its role as one of the most significant collections of Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology in the world.  

Barbara’s archaeological research also led to the meticulous cataloguing of major collections from Naqada, Abydos and Hierakonpolis, crucial centres of early royal power in ancient Egypt. She helped to rediscover the museum’s Koptos Lion statues and start the process of their reconstruction, and produced several landmark publications. 

Barbara’s legacy lives on in the collections she curated, the physical spaces she cultivated and the stories she helped rediscover. The Petrie Museum owes a debt to many people, but Barbara’s work and impact is often overlooked among more famous figures. Her work undeniably transformed the museum, opening its collections to future generations of researchers and curious visitors alike. 

Barbara Adams with a Koptos Lion. Courtesy of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology, UCL.

Top photo: Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology, UCL

Sources and explore further 

• How women pioneered public access to UCL’s museum collections, UCL (2025)
• Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology
• Friends of the Petrie Museum