{{Short description|British furniture historian and archivist}} {{Infobox academic | discipline = Historian | alma_mater = University of Liverpool | sub_discipline = Egyptology, Furniture History | birth_name = Penelope Fox | spouse = John V. H. Eames | awards = The CINOA Award (1977) | thesis_title = Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands from the twelfth to the fifteenth century | education = MA, PhD }} '''Penelope Eames''' (née Fox) is a furniture historian and was the Assistant Secretary at the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, during the compilation of the Tutankhamun photograph archive.
== Biography == Fox was the Assistant Secretary at the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, during the late 1940s to 1952.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Printers' plates: Fox, P. Tutankhamun's Treasure - Griffith Institute Archive |url=https://archive.griffith.ox.ac.uk/index.php/tutankhamun-archive-iii-33;isad?sf_culture=nl |access-date=2024-12-21 |website=archive.griffith.ox.ac.uk}}</ref> During this time, she collaborated with Nora E. Scott, then at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to compare and try to make equivalent the two archives of photographs taken by Harry Burton of the objects from the Tomb of Tutankhamun.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Riggs |first=Christina |title=Photographing Tutankhamun: Photo-Objects and the Archival Afterlives of Colonial Archaeology |date=2019-12-19 |work=Photo-Objects: On the Materiality of Photographs and Photo Archives |url=https://www.mprl-series.mpg.de/studies/12/18/index.html#39 |access-date=2024-12-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240229161204/https://www.mprl-series.mpg.de/studies/12/18/index.html#39 |archive-date=29 February 2024 |series=MPRL – Studies |place=Berlin |publisher=Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften |language=en |isbn=978-3-945561-54-6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Riggs |first=Christina |title=Photographing Tutankhamun: archaeology, ancient Egypt, and the archive |date=2020 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-350-03851-6 |edition= |series= |location=London |pages=63}}</ref> This process took nearly three years.{{Sfn|Riggs|2020|p=38}}
During her time at the Griffith Institute, she wrote ''Tutankhamun's Treasures'' (1951) and a 65-page report of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Griffith Institute's two collections of the images, both of which are published under the name Penelope Fox.<ref name=":0" /> The latter report was still being used in the 1990s for consulting the archive.<ref name=":0" />
In April 1952, Fox married John V. H. Eames and together they had a son.<ref name=":0" /><ref>General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: ''6b''; Page: ''1707''</ref> At the time of her marriage, she left the Griffith Institute,<ref name=":0" />{{Sfn|Riggs|2020|p=42}} and her publications after her marriage are under the name Penelope Eames.<ref name=":1" />
Following her marriage, Eames read history at University of Liverpool and studied furniture of the medieval period.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |date=1971 |title=Notes on Contributors |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/23403365 |journal=Furniture History |volume=7 |pages=140–140 |issn=0016-3058}}</ref> She was awarded her MA in 1969, with a thesis entitled "The character and use of domestic furnishings in England as discernible from documentry and archaelogical evidence from the 11th-15th centuries."<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Eames |first=Penelope |url=http://opac.regesta-imperii.de/lang_de/anzeige.php?monographie=The+character+and+use+of+domestic+furnishings+in+England+as+discernible+from+documentry+and+archaelogical+evidence+from+the+11th-15th+centuries.&pk=1165099 |title=The character and use of domestic furnishings in England as discernible from documentry and archaelogical evidence from the 11th-15th centuries. |date=1969 |location=}}</ref> She completed her doctorate in 1975 at the University of Liverpool.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Eames |first=Penelope |url=http://opac.regesta-imperii.de/lang_de/anzeige.php?monographie=Furniture+in+England,+France+and+the+Netherlands+from+the+twelfth+to+the+fifteenth+century&pk=963068 |title=Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands from the twelfth to the fifteenth century |date=1977 |publisher=University of London |location= |pages=xiii |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241226110312/http://opac.regesta-imperii.de/lang_de/anzeige.php?monographie=Furniture+in+England,+France+and+the+Netherlands+from+the+twelfth+to+the+fifteenth+century&pk=963068 |archive-date=26 December 2024}}</ref> Her tutors included Henry Mayr-Harting, Alexander Reginald Myers, Christopher N. L. Brooke, and Christopher T. Allmand.<ref name=":2" />
She held Leverhulme Trust and University of Liverpool Research Fellowships following the completion of her PhD.<ref name=":1" /> For the publication of her doctoral thesis as a book, "Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands from the twelfth to the fifteenth century," she received the 1977 award of Confédération Internationale des Négociants en Œuvres d'Art (CINOA).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-01-05 |title=The CINOA Award |url=https://www.cinoa.org/index.pl?id=2218;isa=Category;op=show |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070105073011/http://www.cinoa.org/index.pl?id=2218;isa=Category;op=show |archive-date=2007-01-05 |access-date=2024-12-21 |website=CINOA}}</ref>{{Sfn|Eames|1977|p=viii}} She also received funding from The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (London) and the University of Liverpool for the publication of her book.{{Sfn|Eames|1977|p=viii}}
== Publications == Fox published in both Egyptology and Furniture History, including:
* Fox, Penelope (1951). ''Tutankhamun's treasure''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. * Eames, Penelope (1971). "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/23403348 Documentary Evidence Concerning the Character and Use of Domestic Furnishings in England in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries]". ''Furniture History''. '''7''': 41–60. ISSN [https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0016-3058 0016-3058]. * Eames, Penelope (1977). ''Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands from the twelfth to the fifteenth century''. London: The Furniture History Society. {{ISBN|978-0-903335-02-7}}. * Eames, Penelope (1997). "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/23408053 The Making of a Hung Celour]". ''Furniture History''. '''33''': 35–42. ISSN 0016-3058.
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Further reading ==
* Riggs, Christina (2020). ''Photographing Tutankhamun: archaeology, ancient Egypt, and the archive''. London: Routledge. {{ISBN|978-1-350-03851-6}}.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eames, Penelope}} Category:Alumni of the University of Liverpool Category:British Egyptologists Category:Medievalists Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people)