Charles Trick Currelly

Charles Trick Currelly (January 11, 1876 – April 10, 1957) was a Canadian clergyman and archeologist, and the first director of the Royal Ontario Museum from 1914 to 1946.

Early life

Charles Currelly was born on January 11, 1876, in Exeter, Ontario, the son of John Currelly and Mary Treble. An only child, he attended the local school in Exeter and was known to visit the shops of the blacksmith, tanner, and wheelwright in order to study how different materials were used. He was tutored by Reverend Jasper Wilson in Latin, who also taught him how to shoot. Eventually, Currelly was responsible for a dig in Egypt where he discovered the cenotaph and tomb of Ahmose I. Curelly continued to work in Ehnasya, Lower Egypt, and in Sinai under Petrie until 1905, when Petrie left the Egypt Exploration Fund.

Royal Ontario Museum

In 1906, when Edmund Walker was chairing a commission on the future of the University of Toronto, it was recommended that a museum should be constructed to serve students and the public. Soon planning for the founding of a provincial museum started under Walker's watchful eye. In 1907, Currelly was made curator of the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology. During 1911, Currelly started to work in the basement of the first museum building which was still under construction. Finally, in 1914, Currelly became director of the Archaeology Museum. The 81-year-old Currelly died on April 10, 1957, at the hospital where he had been receiving treatment since December. On October 7, 1957, an exhibition was held at the museum to commemorate him. The exhibition was marked by the unveiling of a bronze bust of Currelly which was cast in 1957 by the Vandevoorde Art Foundry of Montreal. The original sculpture was created in 1919 by Canadian artist Ulric Stonewall Jackson Dunbar. This bust and a bronze medallion of Currelly can still be viewed today in the museum's Sackler Reading Room.

Publications Researches in the Sinai. (with Petrie) New York: E.P. Dutton, 1906 I Brought the Ages Home. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1956