Bridget Leach
Papyrus Conservator
Conservation of British Museum’s
Papyrus collection
Department: Conservation and Scientific
Research
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7323 8598 / 8348
Email: bleach @ thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
Bridget Leach has worked at the Museum since
1990 where she specializes in the conservation of papyri.
Conservation includes checking and preparing papyri for loans and
displays, or for publication, where previously unknown texts can be
presented. Work may involve removing old nineteenth century repairs
which obscure the writing on a papyrus, or the complete
reconstruction of a fragmentary manuscript.
Bridget has a special interest in the pigments
used on illustrated papyri, particularly orpiment and realgar. She
has conserved papyri for the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin,
the Petrie Museum at University College London and Queen’s College
Oxford.
Bridget has also worked on site conserving
fragments excavated by the Cambridge Theban Mission at Luxor,
http://www.newton.ac.uk/egypt/tt99/index.html.
(For a short video of on-site papyrus conservation, click on
Dig Diaries, the year 2000 then 7th
October.) She has also worked in Aswan conserving fragments
found by the Egypt Exploration Society’s Mission to Qusr Ibrim in
2003 and in 2006 for the Spanish-Egyptian Mission to Dra Abu el
Naga, www.excavacionegipto.com.
Current British Museum projects
Scanning and digitally ‘unrolling’ an intact papyrus roll in the
collection to see what text it may contain but with minimal
physical intervention (Department of Conservation and Scientific
Research project in collaboration with the Department of
Ancient Egypt and Sudan and University of Kentucky, ‘Digital
unrolling of a papyrus’)
Previous British Museum projects
Research into the preservation history of a group of papyri
known as ‘The Ramesseum Papyri’, since they were excavated in Egypt
in 1896. These ancient manuscripts, from approximately 1700 BC,
form a unique private library and are now to be fully published
through the international Ramesseum papyri project led by Richard
Parkinson of the British Museum.
External fellowships/ honorary positions/ membership of professional bodies
Accredited member of the Institute
of Conservation (ICON)
Appointed External Assessor for the
Post-Graduate Diploma and MA Paper Conservation Courses at the
University of the Arts London, Camberwell in 2006.
Publications
Most recent publications
B. Leach, ‘A conservation history of the Ramesseum Papyri’,
Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 92
forthcoming, 2007), pp. 1-16,
B. Leach, ‘Conservation of the Late Ramesside
Papyri’ in R. Demaree, The Bankes Late Ramesside
Papyri (London, the British Museum Press, 2006), pp. 29-31
B. Leach, ‘Mounting Papyri at the British
Museum’ in Art on Paper: Mounting and Housing, ed. J.
Rayner, J. Kosek and B. Christensen (London, Archetype Press,
2005), pp. 193-98
B. Leach, ‘The occurrence and alteration of
realgar on Ancient Egyptian Papyri’, with V. Daniels, Studies
in Conservation, 49, (2004), pp. 73-84
B. Leach, ‘Papyrus’ with J.
Tait, in Ancient Egyptian Materials
and Technology, I. Shaw and P. T.
Nicholson (eds.) (Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp.
227-53