St John's College W.15 (James 611 and 612)
E. H. Palmer, Scrap-book. English, 1862-80
Edward Henry Palmer, Fellow of St John's College (1840-82): scrap-book of drawings, water-colours, photographs and other items, many relating to his travels in Palestine as a member of staff of the Sinai Survey and in association with C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake in the Negeb. Some of the sketches are dated 1868-75, but most items are undated. A few of the sketches may be Drake's work. Also includes a photograph of a flea through a microscope, cartoon drawings titled 'Brothers' (inebriated gent. with pig), 'A trip to Paris' and 'The University Boat Race', and a coloured portrait of a seated lady signed ?W. Palmer, 1834. With correspondence relating to the acquisition. Also in the box is James 612: a set of MS rules of a Society for the Study of Arabic, founded in St John's by Palmer, William Emmanuel Pryke, Charles Warren and William R. Fisher. Also a photograph of Palmer on card, by Frazelle.
240x190 mm. [36] fos. College bookplate inside front cover. Signed on flyleaf, with the date Mar. 1901. The volume and photograph were purchased by Robert Forsyth Scott, Master of St John's, from Palmer's nephew J. or T. Lloyd Davis in July 1914. Davis had acquired the book from Palmer's daughter, Ethel Mary Palmer, who died before 1914. The volume was presented by Scott to the College in 1933 (donation plate inside front cover) along with James 612 and a Blue Book report on Palmer (P1.17.26). Several letters relating to the original purchase, to Miss Palmer's health (1909), and to the subsequent transfer to the Library are held with the volume. James 612 was found among the papers of the Revd W. E. Pryke (d. 1920), and given to Scott by Canon Madge that same year. A related letter from Madge was presented by Miss R. N. Howard in 1928.
Autograph. Card, foxed and somewhat fragile at edges. Album supplied by the London Stereoscopic Photographic Company, post 1862. The binding somewhat defective. In twentieth-century book-style 'drop-case', perhaps commissioned by Scott while the MSS were in his care.
See: Graham I. Davies, 'Fresh evidence on E.H. Palmer's travels from Cambridge libraries'. In Carmel McCarthy & John F. Healey (eds.) Biblical and Near Eastern essays: studies in honour of Kevin J. Cathcart (London, 2004), pp. 331-340.