Papyri Collection
The WashU Libraries Julian Edison Department of Special Collections Manuscripts Collection houses over 445 papyrus manuscript fragments dating from the 1st century BCE to the 8th century CE. Sir William Flinders Petrie and the Egypt Exploration Society excavated the fragments in 1922 at the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, and they were sent to WashU in 1923.
Intermittent work to inventory, preserve, and publish the papyri was done over the decades. The collection was first mentioned in a 1930 publication by Frank M. DeBatin, an Associate Professor of Latin at WashU. In 1944, DeBatin also published the first papyrus. Beginning in the late 1960s, Zola Packman, an assistant professor in Classics at WashU, worked extensively with the collection, including further preservation, photography, and publication of various papyri.
Sometime before 1973, the papyri were transferred to Special Collections in Olin Library. The collection remains the property of the Classics department but continues to be housed and accessed in Special Collections.
In the early 2000s, more extensive preservation and photography work was done on the collection thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This project included creating a website to host images and translations online for the first time.
In 2018, WashU hosted the American Society of Papyrologists’ Summer Institute in Papyrology, resulting in more papyri being published in the online Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists (see the article under the Papyri Collection in the News). In 2024-26, Classics graduate student Will Sieving further enhanced access through preservation work, historical research, and educational outreach.
A little under a quarter of the collection has been published so far. The first volume, edited by Verne Brinson Schuman, was published in 1980. The second, edited by Klaus Maresch and Zola M. Packman, appeared in 1990. A third volume is currently under production.
To review the detailed history of the WashU Papyri Collection as written by Will Sieving, contact Special Collections (spec@wumail.wustl.edu).
History of Incarceration Digital Documentary
A fragment from the papyrus collection is in the digital documentary History of Incarceration. This project studies how societies have recorded and enforced systems of justice, detention, and social control. For full details and to browse the digital documentary, please see the John and Penelope Biggs Department of Classics “WashU Papyri Fragment Featured in Digital Project on the History of Incarceration” article.
Digitized Elements of the Papyri Collection
The digitized elements, first made available online in 2003, represented fragments published in two volumes—Washington University Papyri I: Non-literary Texts (1980) and Papyri from the Washington University Collection, St. Louis, Missouri. Part II (1990). Imaging and cataloging were sponsored through the Advanced Papyrological Information System III, a National Endowment for the Humanities-funded project, in 2003.
This content was moved to Omeka in 2014, becoming the WashU Papyri Collection digital exhibition, and is now available via the Internet Archive.
Access these Materials
See the finding guide for the Papyri Collection
Contact
- Department
- Special Collections, Special Collections, Preservation, and Digital Strategies
- Name
- Joel Minor
- Job Title
- Curator of Modern Lit Collection/Manuscripts
- Email Address
- joelminor@wustl.edu
- Phone Number
- (314) 935-5413
Papyri Collection in the News
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Collections and Acquisitions
