BIRCH, S.tmuEL, keeper of the oriental antiquities in the British museum, is a son of the late Rev. S. Birch. rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, in the city of London, and was born in London, in the year 1813. B. was educated at Merchant Taylors' school. In 1S34, he entered the public service under the commissioners of public records; and in 1836, he obtained the appointment of assistant in the department of antiquities, British museum. In this capacity, B. acquired' an extensive acquaintance with archaeology in all its branches. lie studied not only Greek and Boman antiquities, including numismatics, but applied himself with untiring zeal to Egyptian hieroglyphics. In process of time, he so distinguished himself in this difficult branch of learning, that he gained the notice of the celebrated chevalier Bunsen, who gladly availed himself of B.'s knowledge in the philological portion of Egypt's Place in Universal llistory. The chevalier, in his preface, thankfully acknowledged this assistance in the following terms: "This English edition awes tuany valuable remarks and additions to my learned friend, Mr. Samuel Birch, particularly in the grammatical, lexicographic, and mythological part. That I have been able to make out of the collection of Egyptian roots, printed in the German edition, a complete hieroglyphical dictionary, is owing to him. To him also belong the references to the monumental evidence for the signification of an Egyptian word, wherever the proof exhibited in Champollion's dictionary or grammar is not clear or satisfactory.. . . The work may now be said to contain the only complete Egyptian grammar and diction ary, as well as the only existing collection and interpretation of all the heiroglyphical signs: in short, all that a general scholar wants, to make himself master of the hiero glyphic system, by studying the monuments." After Bunsen's decease, B. was engaged to prepare for the press and edit the fifth and concluding volume of Egypt's Place, a task which he has performed in an admirable manner, giving, the results of all the discoveries made by Egyptologists, since the publication of the first volume, in. 1848, down to the year 1807. B. has also prepared a second edition of the firstv6Iume df Egypt's Place, published at the same time as vol. 5, and in which the same care has been taken to make the work correspond with the most recent investigations of hieroglyphic scholars. It was by the particular desire of Bunsen, as expressed on his death-bed, that 13. undertook the revision of his work on Egypt. 13. is now universally recognized as the foremost Egyptologist in this country. In 1844, upon the retirement of Mr. Barnewell from the office of assistant-keeper in the department of antiquities, B. was appointed his successor.
In 1861, upon the retirement,, of Mr. Hawkins from the post of keeper of the antiquities, that department was divided into three separate and independent departments, viz., the department of oriental, mediaeval, and British antiquities, and ethnography; the depart ment of Greek and Roman antiquities; and the department of coins and medals. 13. was appointed keeper of the first-named collections; but afterwards, a fourth department was constituted out of these collections, viz., that of British and medheval antiquities and ethnography, so that B. is now the keeper only of the Egyptian and oriental antiquities. In 1862, B. received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the university of St. Andrews and from Cambridge in 1874, in which year B. was president of the great London con gress of orientalists. He is a corresponding member of the institute of France (academie des inscriptions et des belles-lettres); also of the academy of Berlin, of the academy of Herculaneum, and of the archmological institute of Rome. B.'s principal publications are as follow: Gallery of Antiquities selected from the British Museum by 141 Arundale and J. Bonomi, with Descriptions by S. Birch (1.8U); Views on the 1111e, from Cairo to the Second Cataract, drawn on Stone, from Sketches taken by Owen Jones and J. Goury, with Historical Notices of the Monuments by S. Birch (1843); Catalogue of Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum (1851), drawn up in conjunction with Mr. Newton; An Introduction to the Study of the Egyptian Hieroglyphs, for Gardner Wilkinson's Egyptians (1857), and a new edition of Wilkinson's work (1879); History of Ancient Potter y.(2 vols., 1858); Descrep lion of the Papyrus of .Nits-Ichent, Priest of Amen-ra, discovered in an Eveavation madeby dime lion of H.R.H. the Prince of in a Tomb near Gourruth, at Thebes (1863); and the Rhiud Papyri (1866). Besides his Egyptian and classical labors, B. has also studied Chinese, and in that direction is author of the following brief contributions, viz., Analeeta Sinen eia, short, stories from the Chinese (1841); The Friends till Death, a tale translated from the Chinese (1845); and Gleinese Romance—The .Elfin Foxes (1863). B. has likewise con tributed papers to the Ardralogia, to the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, the Revue Archeologique, the Archdologisehe Zeitung, and the Zeitschrift fur Aegyptische Spraehe und Alterthumskunde. He has also written many articles for the English Ency clopedia, principally on,subjects connected with Egyptian antiquities and hieroglyphics. In the same class of subjects, he has been a much valued contributor to Chambers's En cejelopadia.