CBRL has recently acquired drawings, photographs and papers of John Wilkinson, principally from his time as director of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, 1979 to 1984. John was a distinguished scholar priest who served as a teacher, celebrant and academic director at St George’s College and Cathedral, Jerusalem. The material includes preparation for his several publications on the Holy Land.
Mrs Mia Wilkinson, John’s widow, offered the papers and books to CBRL in 2025. Alice Lubbock, Archivist, and John Shakeshaft, Chair, visited John’s study in his London home to sort through relevant material and arrange for its transfer to The British Academy for cataloguing and archiving. Some of John’s books are being transferred to the Kenyon Institute in Jerusalem to supplement the collections there. John’s own service as director of BSAJ was notable for his promotion and development of an open, scholarly library in Jerusalem. His tenure and personal mien saw the BSAJ become more active in interpretative discovery through the library, archives and relationships than through archaeological field work; an engagement which highlights the value of our presence in Jerusalem.
Searching the archive offered insight into the mind of an important director of the BSAJ, scholar and teacher, as reflected in Professor Denys Pringle and Revd Stephen Need’s fine obituaries of John in Levant and the Church Times respectively.. The story of successive directors and their teams in the BSAJ and the Kenyon Institute have sought to understand and promote the Levant, through changing academic disciplines practised in the localities. This story is largely untold and offers a glimpse into the history of knowledge in places and minds. From the drawings, photographs and papers, John would seem to have been a scrupulous scholar, classically trained to read text deeply and being of aesthetic sensibility. He was a fine draughtsman, engraver and photographer intellectually fascinated with the harmonies of text and proportions of temples, churches and mosques.
Below are examples drawings from his collection.
