International Congress of Orientalists. London.
22, Albemarle Street, W.
7th Septr 1874
My dear Sir
I will not fail to convey your kind message to Professor Schrœder. <1> Will you let me add your name to the list of members of the Congress as it is most desirable that it should not appear that so distinguished a scholar did not look with favour on the movement. The subscription is small 10s. 6d. and can be remitted by P.O. Order to Professor Douglas <2> here. It is with with [sic] great regret I find you can not attend. M. Oppert <3> proposes four subjects for discussion in the Semitic Section, and Brugsch-Bey <4> will lecture on the Exodus
Owing to the BM being closed M. Schroeder will not be here for a day or two. Enclosed are the Programme and circular of the Congress.
Believe me
Yours very truly
S Birch
H. Fox Talbot EsqeShould you by any chance come to London Professor Lepsius <5> will be staying with me from the 14th to the 19th and may I ask you the favour of coming to breakfast with me on any of these mornings about 9. A. M.
Notes:
1. Dr Eberhard Schrader (1836-1908), German orientalist & theologian.
2. Probably Professor Robert Kennaway Douglas (1838-1913), sinologist of the British Museum and later Keeper of Oriental Books and Manuscripts. Douglas was also Professor of Chinese at King's College, and editor of Transactions of the Second Session of the International Congress of Orientalists, held in London in September 1874 (London: Trubner, 1976). See also The Times (London), Tuesday, 28 October 1873; and Edward Miller, That Noble Cabinet: a history of the British Museum (London: Deutsch, 1973).
3. Prof Julius Oppert (1825-1905), German Assyriologist, active in Paris.
4. Heinrich Ferdinand Karl Brugsch (1827-1894), German Egyptologist, Bey by the Khedive and directed the School of Egyptology in Cairo founded by the Khedive.
5. Dr Karl Richard Lepsius (1810-1884), German Egyptologist.