Safeguarding our collections for future generations
The varied collections of the Egypt Explorations Society preserve a lasting record of British and Egyptian contributions to heritage since our founding in 1882 and constitute one of the most important, publicly accessible collections in the UK today. With your help, we are protecting these collections in order to excite and inform future generations.
Library
The Ricardo Caminos Memorial Library is one of the UK’s best research libraries for Egyptology. Our reference library contains approximately 20,000 books, journals and pamphlets to complement research visits, whilst our Lending Library provides a selection of up to 500 Egyptological books tailored more for reading in your own time.
Archive
The Lucy Gura Archive is a unique record of the Society’s contribution to the field of Egyptology from the founding of the EEF in 1882, including thousands of items relating to the history of Egypt and the exploration of its heritage. Be inspired by browsing our digitised photographic archive or reading brief essays on highlights from the archive.
Papyri
The EES is the custodian of over 500,000 fragments of literary and documentary texts dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 7th century CE – the world’s largest collection of ancient papyri! These records inform scholars about life in Graeco-Roman Egypt.
Volunteer Yu upstairs in the EES library
As many members will already be aware, access to some of these collections has been restricted, while the Society has been suffering from structural damage caused by two London plane trees in the garden of our neighbour. Thanks to the generous support of an anonymous member, the Society was able to face up to this challenge directly in 2021. After extensive discussion with the owners of the trees and applications to Camden Council, we’re delighted to report that the two London plane trees were removed by our neighbours in February 2025.
Before and after pictures of Doughty Mews
In order to safeguard our irreplaceable collections, Society staff, volunteers, and Trustees worked tirelessly to relocate items to safety. Some have been taken off-site, including our Egyptian revival chair that is currently under restoration, where they will remain for the time being but may be recalled on request. The library remains fully on-site and will reopen to members from Tuesday 6th May. We look forward to welcoming many of you soon.
Watch the processes
See the process of our team removing part of the library to ensure its safety, as well as how the trees were removed in a collaborative project involving The Green Team Arboricultural Division, City Lifting, Aztech Group, Arbortec, Visual Climber and Visual Media Cambridge.
The removal of the trees has also now opened the doors to our future plans to make the Society’s collections safe and fully accessible in one place. Our Building the Future campaign will make these plans a reality and we need the help of you, our members, to make that possible. We are so grateful to all those who have already supported our campaign by making generous donations through our website or leaving gifts in their Wills. Pledges from grant funders have already secured more than 50% of our target, so now is the time to demonstrate your passion for Egyptology by making a donation today.
Volunteers Yu (left) and Guilherme (right) downstairs in the EES library
We count ourselves incredibly lucky to have such a loyal and supportive membership. Without your help, we could not have secured our premises and the safety of our precious, internationally significant collections. By renewing your membership this year, you’ll remain part of our plans and we will continue to keep you updated on our progress. Our future is, and will always be, in your hands. Thank you all.
