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Vol.14.p.054

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Diary Transcription:

microfilm: begin page 54

Tuesday, December 8, 1925 (continued)

About 5 p.m. I received the following wireless from the Floyd Triestino S/S Pilsma on her way from Suez to Aden and India: (sent 8/12/25 - 10 a.m.) "Sorry imperative continue journey India. Unexpected. Please grant six weeks leave unsalaried, wire Aden." Unsigned but of course from Greenlees.
When Alan Rowe resigned to take the directorship of the Philadelphia Expedition I was obliged to ask Greenlees (who was on his road to Boston to work in the museum) to return to Egypt which he did in June. It was necessary to have all the help I could get on the tomb G 7000 X. The time is near when work on that tomb will be resumed. Excavations are going on now in another part of the cemetery. Every day of Greenlees' absence will throw the records more and more into arrears. I have therefore decided to dispense entirely with his services.

Wednesday, December 9, 1925

After considering all aspects of Greenlees' desertion, I have sent (this afternoon) the following wireless:
[margin note : copy sent to MFA December 10, 1925]
Greenlees, S/S Pilsma (in Red Sea) (via radio)
"Work deranged. Your conduct absolute breach contract but willing accept your resignation take effect immediately" "Reisner".
An act such as the present one, makes it impossible to trust in Greenlees for the important and confidential work in hand. His interest is not in his work. I understand from Wheeler that his friends on the Pilsma were a party of Theosophists going to a conference in India. I believe therefore that his word "imperative" is merely a proof of his instability of mind and his unfitness for our work either here or in Boston.

microfilm: end page 54

Details

  • Classification
    Documentation-Expedition diary pages
  • Department
    Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition
  • Credit Line
    Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition
  • Display Page Dates
    12/08/1925; 12/09/1925
  • Author
    George Andrew Reisner, American, 1867–1942
  • Mentioned on page
    Alan Jenvey Rowe, British, 1890–1968
    George Andrew Reisner, American, 1867–1942
    Noel F. Wheeler, British
    Thomas Richard Duncan Greenlees, British, 1899–

Tombs and Monuments 1

People 5

Modern People

  • Alan Jenvey Rowe

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates British, 1890–1968
    • Remarks Egyptologist and archaeologist. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology.

  • George Andrew Reisner

    • Type Author
    • Nationality & Dates American, 1867–1942
    • Remarks Egyptologist, archaeologist; Referred to as "the doctor" and "mudir" (Arabic for "director") in the excavation records. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology.

  • George Andrew Reisner

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates American, 1867–1942
    • Remarks Egyptologist, archaeologist; Referred to as "the doctor" and "mudir" (Arabic for "director") in the excavation records. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology.

  • Noel F. Wheeler

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates British
    • Remarks Wheeler was a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy according to George A. Reisner's, "A HIstory of the Giza Necropolis, Vol. I."

  • Thomas Richard Duncan Greenlees

    • Type Mentioned on page
    • Nationality & Dates British, 1899–
    • Remarks Thomas Richard Duncan Greenlees, born South Africa, Sivaratri, March 10, 1899. British subject with a Scottish father and an English mother. For a brief period during 1925 he was a staff member of Harvard University--Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, who later joined the Theosophist movement in India. Greenlees received his MA degree in 1922 from Oxford, where he studied Egyptian, Coptic and Arabic. April 2,1925, Greenlees appointed Assistant Curator of Egyptian Art at MFA.