Mycenae, located in the north-eastern Peloponnese region of Greece, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999. Inhabited since the Neolithic era, a fortified acropolis, encircled by 'Cyclopean' walls, by the Late Bronze Age (c.1100-1600 BCE) Mycenae dominated much of southern Greece militarily, politically and culturally. Featured in the Homeric epics as the city of Agamemnon, Mycenae has a rich mythological past that archaeologists have taken inspiration from when naming features and finds from the site. Much of what can be seen at the site today, including the iconic Lion Gate, Grave Circles A and B, and tholos tombs such as the Treasury of Atreus, date to the Late Bronze Age.

The first excavations of Mycenae were carried out by Kyriakos Pittakis in 1841, who excavated around the famous Lion Gate entrance. Pittakis was followed by Heinrich Schliemann in 1874 and Christos Tsountas, of the Archaeological Society of Athens (ASA), from 1884. This site was personally ceded to to A. J. B. Wace by the ASA, via Professor Tsountas, in 1920. This agreement lapsed on Wace's death in 1957 but the Greek Archaeological Service permitted completion of the work begun in 1953/1954 in the Citadel House Area within the acropolis, under the directorship of Lord William Taylour from 1959-1969, in cooperation with Dr I. Papadimitriou, Dr Nikolaos Verdelis and Professor G. E. Mylonas. Mycenae remains an ASA site and work continues there to the present day.

The British dig teams excavated during the summer months, with varying numbers of excavators involved. Dr Elizabeth (Lisa) French, the daughter of Alan J. B. Wace and the donor of this archive, was present for all of the seasons between 1939 and 1969, except for 1964. Lists of the excavation participants and a summary of each season were published in the British School at Athens Annual. Each excavation season also employed an architect and a foreman, the latter often undertaken by members of the Dasis family who ran the Fair Helen (Belle Helene), the inn which provided accommodation for the excavators.

Between 1900 and 1998 the bulk of all excavated material from Mycenae was housed in the storerooms of Nauplion Museum, with a few choice pieces taken to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Much study was undertaken during excavations and study seasons in the Nauplion storerooms. In 1952 a small room on the top floor became a storeroom for the British finds. When the building was renovated individual 'cells' were created as storerooms for the various excavations. Ultimately all the finds not exhibited or in special storage from the 1920-1923 and 1939-1955 excavations were stored here. Two more storerooms were allocated later for material from the Citadel House 1959-1969 excavations. In 1998/9 all Nauplion Mycenae material (both stored and exhibited) was transferred gradually to the new on-site Mycenae Museum, where it remains today along with the original object registration cards.