BIRCH, SAIWEL (1813-85). An English antiquarian, Keeper of the Oriental Antiquities in the British Museum. He was born in London, November 3, 1813. the grandson of Samuel Birch, Lord Mayor of London in 1814, and the son of the Rev. Samuel Birch, rector of Saint Mary's, 1Voolnoth, London. Ile received his education at the Merchant Tailors' School, and in 1832 entered the service of the Commissioners of Pub lic Records. In 1836 he accepted an appoint ment as an assistant at the British Museum, and in 1844 became Assistant Keeper of Antiqui ties in that institution. In 1861 lie was ad vanced to the position of Keeper of Oriental, British, and _Mediaeval Antiquities. When, in 1866, these departments were divided, Birch was made Keeper of the Oriental Department. He died December 27, 1885.
Birch was a man of varied attainments. Dur ing his connection with the British :Nluseum, he devoted much attention to classical and British antiquities, and to numismatics. Among his works on these subjects are his Catalogue of Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British _Museum, pub lished in 1851 with the collaboration of Mr. Newton, and his History of Ancient Pottery (2 vols.), published in 1858. He also wrote a number of papers for the Numismatic Chronicle and for Archaologia. In early life he was a 7ealous student of Chinese, and in later years he wrote some translations from that language. Among these, his Chinese Widow, published in 1862, is well known. Ile was also proficient in other Oriental languages, but it is upon his work as an Egyptologist that Birch's reputation chiefly rests. As early as 1838 he published his Expla nation of the Hieroglyphics on the Coffin of Moe rinus, and some of the most important Egypto logical publications of the British Museum were issued under his editorial supervision. .Among
these are: Scicet Papyri in the MicroCf. Charac ter (1841-60) : Inscriptions in the Hieratic and Demotic Character I 1 SGS ; The Rhind Papyri (1866) ; and Facsimile of an Egyptian Hieratic Papyrus (1871i). In 1867 Birch enriched Bun sen's work. Egypt's Place in Universal History, by the addition of a valuable volume (Vol. V.) containing the first Egyptian dictionary since that of Champollion, and the first translation of the Book of the Dead: and in he edited the revised edition of Wilkinson's .Manners and Cus toms of the Ancient Egyptians. Birch was a most prolific writer, especially upon Egyptologi cal subjects, and his articles in the Proceedings of the Society of Literature. Revue arehi'ologique, Zeitsehrift flit iigyptische Spruehe, and other periodicals, are very numerous. lle was one of the founders of Records of the l'ast (1873 IT.), and many of his translations of Egyptian texts appeared in this series. He was also one of the founders of the Society of Biblical Archie()logy, and was a frequent contributor to the Transac tions and to the Proceedings of the Society. For his untiring industry. and his boldness in ex ploring untried fields of research, Birch's reputa tion as an Egyptologist stands deservedly high. The best sketch of his life and work is to he found in Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, Vol. IX. (London, 1893).