Winifred Needler

Winifred Ellen Needler, known as "Friedel" to her family, was born on June 14, 1904, in Weimar, Germany, to a professor in the German Department of the University of Toronto. Winifred was enrolled at St. Margaret's College in Toronto, then went on to Oakwood Collegiate and received a B.A. at the University of Toronto where she majored in modern languages and philosophy, winning honors. In 1928 Needler began two years of study at the School of Fine Arts and Crafts in Boston, Massachusetts and thereafter she worked as a freelance commercial artist, interspersed with some teaching. In 1935 Needler was hired as a draftsperson and cataloguer for the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology by Charles Trick Currelly, director, who encouraged her to work on the Egyptian collection—the largest and arguably the most popular of the Near Eastern collections. In 1938, Needler's dedication to the Egyptian Collection was recognized with the award of a Carnegie Fellowship that permitted her to study at Yale University where she studied Middle Egyptian hieroglyphics, museum methodology, world prehistory and Hellenistic civilization. Unable to complete her M.A. at Yale, Needler returned to Toronto in 1939 where she resumed her museum duties. In 1953 she received a cross-appointment to the University of Toronto as a Special Lecturer in the Department of Fine Art. She held this position until 1965 when she became an Associate Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies until her retirement in 1970. In 1951 Winifred Needler was promoted to Keeper of the Near Eastern Collections of the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology. In 1947 she participated in the joint recording expedition at the temple of Seti I at Abydos sponsored by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago and the Egypt Exploration Society. In 1956, Winifred Needler traveled and studied in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan, and in 1961 Winifred Needler completed the Master of Arts degree in the Department of Fine Art, the University of Toronto, researching a large Roman-Egyptian funerary bed. In 1962-63, Needler was awarded a Canada Council Research Fellowship in order to work for the Egypt Exploration Society at Buhen in Sudanese Nubia and at Kasr Ibrim in Egyptian Nubia. In 1966, the decision was made to divide the Near Eastern Department of the Royal Ontario Museum into two separate departments. An Egyptian Department was created with Needler as curator. In December 1969, Bernard V. Bothmer, Curator of Ancient Art at The Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York, invited Winifred Needler to become a Wilbour Fellow at The Brooklyn Museum. Needler's publication of the Brooklyn material was important because there was at that time no synthesis in the English language of the work of specialists of the predynastic and archaic periods. Needler's Predynastic and Archaic Egypt in The Brooklyn Museum has been acknowledged as an outstanding achievement that makes Brooklyn’s predynastic and archaic objects readily accessible. When Needler retired in 1970, she was appointed Curator Emeritus of the Egyptian Department for Life in recognition for her lifelong scholarly contributions to Egyptology at the Royal Ontario Museum effective 1 July 1970, and in 1982, Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Québec awarded her the degree, Doctor of Civil Law, honoris causa, in recognition of her many years of service to the Royal Ontario Museum and her contributions to Egyptology. Winifred Needler succumbed to cancer on September 5, 1987 at the age of 84.

Author of biography: Sally L. D. Katary
Includes bibliography? Yes

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Keywords: Abydos, Abu Zaidan, A. Douglas Tushingham, Agatha Christie, Alan H. Gardiner, Aleppo, Alfred W.H. Needler, Amman Museum, A.M. Blackman, American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, Aristotle, Amice M. Calverley, Arslan Tash, Ashmolean, Associate Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, Aswan, Baalbek, Baghdad, Barry J. Kemp, Batoche, Battleford, Baumgartel, Beirut, Bernard Grenfell, Bernard V. Bothmer, Boston, Cairo, Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Québec, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, British Egypt Exploration Society (EES), Buhen, Caesar, Cairo, Canada, Canadian Egyptology, Carnegie Fellowship, Cahiague in Huronia, Charles Edwin Wilbour, Charles Trick Currelly, Chicago House, cryptographer, C.S. Churcher, Ctesiphon, Damascus, Dead Sea Scrolls, Decapolis, Deir el-Bahri, Djoser, Dorothy Macdonald (later Burnham), Duncan Chisholm, Edfu, Édouard Naville, Egypt, Egypt Exploration Fund, Egyptian Gallery, Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egyptology, Ehnasya, Eighteenth Dynasty (New Kingdom), E.J. Keall, Elephantine, Eleventh Dynasty, Elizabeth T. Riefstahl, English, Erbil, Fifth and Sixth Dynasty, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, Esneh, F. Wendorf, "Friedel", funeral boat, F. Ll. Griffith, Gebel Sheikh Suliman near Wadi Halfa, George Wainwright, Germany, Giza, Glassco Report, Godin Tepe, Greek and Latin, Great Britain, Guy Brunton, Hatshepsut's temple, Hebrew, Henri de Morgan, Herbert Felton, hieroglyphic, Homer A. Thompson, Howard Carter, H.R. Hall, Huntsville, H.W. Fairman, India, Iranian, Islamic, Israeli Department of Antiquities, Jerash, Jericho, Jerusalem, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., John D. Cooney, John Garstang, Jordan, Kasr Ibrim, Katharine B. Maw (later Brett), Keeper of the Near Eastern Collections of the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Kenneth E. Kidd, Kenyon, Khirbet el-Mafjar, Kitchener, Khufu, Labib Habachi, Louis D. Levine, Louis Riel, Ludlow Bull, Lydda, Margaret Thomson, Mary N. Arai, Mary Craig Needler Hinde, mastabas, M.I. Rostovtzeff , Mrs. Sybil Rampen, Luxor, Massachusetts, Métis, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Middle Egyptian hieroglyphic, Middle Kingdom, Millbrook, Mosul, Musée des Antiquités Nationales in Saint-Germain-en-Laye Paris, Myrtle Broome, Near Eastern, Neda Leipen, Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon, New York, Nicholas B. Millet, Nimrud, Nineveh, North-West Rebellion, Nebhepetre Mentuhotpe, New Haven, Palestine Archaeological Museum, Palestine Museum, Palestine, Ancient and Modern, Palestinian, Palmyra, Phoenician ivory carvings, Plato, Port Hope, Poundmaker's Crees, Predynastic and Archaic Egypt in The Brooklyn Museum, Professor George Henry Needler, Professor Cornelius Osgood, Oxford, Professor H.W. Fairman, Professor Ludlow Bull, Professor Theodore Sizer, Professor Walter Bryan, Emery Ptolemaic sculpture, pre-pottery Neolithic A, Punt, Queen Herneith, Qumran, Oakwood Collegiate Institute, Ontario, Ontario College of Art, Riel North-West Rebellion, Ronald J. Williams, Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Sh. Yeivin, Sinai, St. Margaret's College Toronto, Sakkara Step Pyramid, Saskatchewan, School of Fine Arts and Crafts Boston, Samuel de Champlain, Sassanian, Scottish, Seti I, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, Sneferu's Bent Pyramid, Sneferu's Dahshur pyramids, Ste. Marie Ontario, Sir Leonard Woolley, Sir Max Mallowan, Sudanese Nubia, Syria, Tacitus, The Brooklyn Museum, T.F. McIlwraith, Thebes, Theodore A. Heinrich, The Temples of King Sethos I at Abydos, T. Cuyler Young, Jr., Third Dynasty, Toronto, Tigris-Euphrates, University of Toronto, University College in the University of Toronto, University's Company of the Queen's Own Rifles, University of Liverpool, University of Chicago, University of Guelph, University of London, Upper Egypt, wall mural project, Walter Federn, Walter B. Emery, Weimar, Wellesley College, Werner Kaiser, West Asian Department, Wilbour Fellow, Wilbour Library of Egyptology The Brooklyn Museum, Wilbour Monographs, World War II, WRENS, Yale Department of Anthropology, Yale Department of Fine Arts, Yale Gallery, Yale University.