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Catalogue of the T. E. Lawrence Centenary Exhibition
held at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 1988-9

Lawrence of Arabia


 

 

63. T. E. LAWRENCE AND LEONARD WOOLLEY, CARCHEMISH

Photograph by Heinrich Franke, 1913 (printed c. 1940s)

During 1913 passenger services as far as Jerablus on the newly built Baghdad railway line began to bring large numbers of visitors to the Carchemish excavations. This photograph of Lawrence with Leonard Woolley (1880-1960) was taken by a visiting German in 1913.

Woolley had been put in charge of the excavations in 1912 replacing D. G. Hogarth, whose responsibilities at the Ashmolean prevented him from taking any active part in the dig after the 1911 trial season. It was therefore with Woolley rather than Hogarth that Lawrence worked at Carchemish during five seasons between 1912 and 1914.

Judging by contemporary correspondence their relationship was very successful. The workforce was divided into two groups, one under Woolley and the other under Lawrence. Woolley took overall decisions and wrote most of the field notes. Lawrence was responsible for pottery, photography, and for cataloguing the finds when they were moved into the expedition store.. One of his more valuable talents was an ability to recognise fragments from broken carvings and inscriptions, and this enabled him to reassemble many important monuments.

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Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College London

10.2 x 16.5

Provenance: Sent by the photographer to Basil Liddell Hart; acquired, 1973.

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From the catalogue compiled by Jeremy Wilson and others for the T. E. Lawrence Centenary Exhibition held at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 1988-9. Printed edition (National Portrait Gallery Publications, 1988) Copyright © N. Helari Ltd 1988. Web edition Copyright © J & N Wilson 1998. T.E. Lawrence Studies - www.telawrence.info - is edited by Jeremy Wilson. Its costs are sponsored by Castle Hill Press