Dates

• Existence: 1840 - 1929

Biography

Sir Edward Maunde Thompson (1840-1929), knight, palaeographer and librarian, was born on 4 May 1840 at Clarendon, Jamaica. He was educated at Rugby School and continued to University College, Oxford, although he was forced to leave before gaining a degree as his father was unable to support him. Thompson began working at the British Museum as an assistant to the principal librarian, Sir Anthony Panizzi, in 1861 and transferred to the manuscripts department in 1862; becoming principal associate to the new keeper, Edward Augustus Bond, in 1866. He gained a profound knowledge of the collections through his work on the Catalogues of Additions, allowing him to publish scholarly works on medieval chronicles, palaeography (of which he is the modern father) and illuminated manuscripts. Thompson succeeded Bond first as keeper of manuscripts, in 1878, and then as principal librarian, in 1888; from 1898 he was styled director and principal librarian, a position he maintained until his retirement in 1909. He is remembered at the Museum for his work to improve the accessibility of the collections with electric lighting, well priced guidebooks and comprehensive catalogues. New acquisitions were also encouraged and Thompson supervised trips to many excavations in Africa and Asia. His toils were rewarded with numerous honours and memberships of scientific societies. Thompson helped to found the Palaeographical Society in 1873, and the British Academy, of which he became a fellow in 1902, and was president, 1907-1909. He was Sandars reader in bibliography at Cambridge University, 1895-1896 and 1905-1906. He died at Mayfield, Surrey, on 14 September 1929.

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