Keppel Archibald Cameron Creswell

Sir Keppel Archibald Cameron Creswell (born September 13, 1879 in London ; † April 8, 1974 ibid) was a British electrical engineer and building historian . His main focus was on research into Islamic architecture in the Middle East .

Life

Creswell came from a middle-class London background. His father, Keppel Creswell, was employed by Lloyds . His mother Margaret was the daughter of a lawyer from Central England. Creswell attended Westminster School in London and studied electrical engineering at the City and Guilds of London Institute from 1896 . After completing his studies, Creswell initially worked for Siemens Brothers and in 1914 moved to Deutsche Bank, also in London.

Creswell took an early interest in Islamic architecture. From 1910 he began to draw Islamic buildings and set up a private library, which became one of the most important book collections on Islamic architecture.

During the First World War , Creswell was a supply officer with the Royal Flying Corps and was later stationed in Egypt . After the end of the war, Creswell initially remained in the service of the British military and became inspector for architectural monuments under the High Commissioner Edmund Allenby in the Sultanate of Egypt . As part of this activity, he traveled the country and made drawings and photographs of Egyptian monuments .

In 1920 Creswell developed the project to record the history of the Muslim architecture in Egypt . King Fu'ad I of Egypt recognized the importance of Creswell's work and made 800 Egyptian pounds available for it. Creswell then returned to England to quit the service. In October 1920 he began his work in Egypt in the service of King Fuad I. From this activity a 4-volume corpus work was created . In 1931 Creswell got a lectureship at Cairo University and became a professor of Islamic art and architecture. He held this position until 1951. In 1956 he was appointed professor at the American University of Cairo . In addition to this activity, Creswell was a curator at the Palestinian Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem from 1949 to 1967 . After his death, he left his book collection, consisting of over 3,000 subject-related volumes, to the American University of Cairo.

Awards and honors

• 1919 Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)
• 1955 Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)

In 1947 Creswell became a member ( Fellow ) of the British Academy ( FBA ). Queen Elizabeth II knighted him in 1955.

literature

• Oleg Grabar (Ed.): KAC Creswell and His Legacy. Muqarnas, an Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture. Volume 8, Leiden 1991.
• RW Hamilton: Keppel Archibald Cameron Creswell 1879-1974 Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume LX, 1974. pp. 1-20. ( Digitized version )

Web links

• Creswell's Bibliography.
• Creswell's Photo Library in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
• Creswell Photo Archive and Library at the American University of Cairo.