Myrtle Broome

Myrtle Florence Broome (22 February 1888 – 27 January 1978) was a British Egyptologist and artist known for her illustrated work with Amice Calverley on the Temple of Seti I at Abydos in Egypt and her paintings of Egyptian village life in the 1920s and 1930s.

Early life and education Myrtle Florence Broome was born on 22 February 1888 in Muswell Hill, London, England to Eleanor Slater and Washington Herbert Broome. She received her art training at a school in Bushey founded by Sir Hubert von Herkomer. From 1911 to 1913 she attended University College London and obtained a Certificate in Egyptology. Her teachers were Sir Flinders Petrie and Margaret Murray.

Epigraphy career in Egypt In 1927, Broome was invited to participate in a project being conducted in Egypt by the British School of Archeology. The participants, including archeologist Olga Tufnell, copied tomb inscriptions at Qua-El-Kebi, Egypt.

The artists lived together in a mudbrick house near the temple with two local servants. Broome and Calverley were actively involved in the life of the village, participating in feasts and ceremonies and often providing medical assistance to the villagers. The two women traveled together throughout Egypt, taking trains and often driving across the desert in a Jowett car they named Joey; Broome's impressions from that time are noted in letters and illustrations that were sent to her parents. Broome's letters and papers are at the Griffith Institute in Oxford, England.

Avalon is also listed as the home of Myrtle and Washington Broomes' business – "Designers and Workers in Metal and Enamel". Historic England describes the house as being "of special interest as a building created for a designer and craftsman of the Arts and Crafts movement, containing a rich variety of decorative elements of the period designed by Broome and his daughter."

Selected bibliography Calverley, Amice M. and Myrtle F. Broome 1933. The temple of king Sethos I at Abydos, Volume I: the chapels of Osiris, Isis and Horus. London; Chicago: Egypt Exploration Society; University of Chicago Press. Calverley, Amice M. and Myrtle F. Broome 1935. The temple of king Sethos I at Abydos, Volume II: the chapels of Amen-Rē', Rē'-Ḥarakhti, Ptaḥ, and King Sethos. London; Chicago: Egypt Exploration Society; University of Chicago Press. Calverley, Amice M. and Myrtle F. Broome 1938. The temple of king Sethos I at Abydos, Volume III: the Osiris complex. London; Chicago: Egypt Exploration Society; University of Chicago Press. Calverley, Amice M. and Myrtle F. Broome 1958. The temple of King Sethos I at Abydos, Volume IV: the second hypostyle hall. London; Chicago: Egypt Exploration Society; University of Chicago Press.