Elizabeth Eames

Elected a Fellow of the Society on 1 May 1958

The following obituary, by our Fellow David M Wilson, was published in the Guardian on 30 September 2008

Elizabeth Eames (Elizabeth Sara Graham), scholar of medieval tiles, born June 24 1918; died September 20 2008

An expert on tiles, her greatest task was to catalogue the British Museum collection

In January 1949 a bubbly young woman bounced into the department of British and medieval antiquities at the British Museum. She had been employed on a temporary and very casual basis to write a catalogue of the museum's vast and increasing collection of medieval tiles. Nobody realised that it would be nearly 30 years before Elizabeth Eames' catalogue appeared. By then medieval archaeology had changed radically.

Elizabeth, who has died aged 90, was born in Northampton, the eldest child of Fred Graham, a research chemist. Her childhood was that of a normal middle-class girl, bright enough to go in 1937 from Rugby high school to Newnham College, Cambridge (the first girl from her school to gain entry to Cambridge). Initially she read English, but changed for part II to that extraordinary branch of the archaeological tripos known as Anglo-Saxon and kindred studies, which combined history, philology, language and archaeology of the northern world. She was one of the last students of the creator of this part of the tripos, the brilliant, if extremely eccentric,

Hector Munro Chadwick, who had held the chair of Anglo-Saxon since 1912, and she enjoyed both the course and the professor's quirks enormously.

After taking her degree, she was awarded various scholarships and prizes and started work on a PhD on the role of women in Viking society. In 1942, however, she joined the ATS. When she went for basic training, she was told to sweep a room and had to confess that she had never handled a broom in her life. She was commissioned in 1943. Demobilised in 1946, she returned to her dissertation, studying at Cambridge and spending a year in Norway. The break in her university career almost certainly affected her commitment to her research project and, abandoning her PhD, she took an MLitt, moved to London and in 1949 married Herbert Eames, a solicitor.

The task she faced in the BM was formidable. The museum still suffered from major bomb damage, which was to take many years to repair. The collections were exhibited in whatever available space could be found, with minimal attention to design and explanation. The tile collection was represented by a few pictorial pieces of great art-historical interest from Tring and Chertsey, but was otherwise distributed in disused, unheated galleries and basements.

In 1947, the museum had purchased, with the aid of the National Art Collections Fund, the vast collection of 9,000 tiles formed by Ludovic Lindsay and the 9th Duke of Rutland. Housed in beautifully built mahogany cases, the Rutland tiles were deteriorating as a result of the all-pervasive damp, growing beards of crystals which presented a complicated conservation problem. These involved both washing and drying out the objects without disturbing the adhesion of the glazes or the body of the tiles.

Elizabeth was appointed to sort out the mess. She faced these problems with well-directed energy. A programme of treatment was initiated; the tiles were dried out, registered and studied and she battled the administration to retain her unestablished post and to provide money for archaeological fieldwork and for storage and treatment of the tiles.

Most of the tiles came from pavements, often, but not always, from ecclesiastical buildings. The earliest museum acquisitions of this material were single tiles, gathered casually out of ceramic interest; but in 1867 the acquisition of the splendidly decorated Chertsey tiles stimulated greater interest in them as a class of object and the collection increased almost exponentially. The Rutland collection contained the major portion of at least one pavement, from Byland Abbey in North Yorkshire, while, in 1957, Elizabeth herself supervised the raising and transferral to the museum of much of the 13th-century pavement from Clarendon Palace, Wiltshire. This more holistic approach led her to investigate the methods of tile manufacture.

The kilns were usually set up in close proximity to the buildings which their product would adorn. The kiln at Chertsey had been found by Eric Gardner in 1922 and only barely mentioned in the literature; Elizabeth, piecing together Gardner's surviving notes, was able to publish it properly in 1954. With GK Beulah, she excavated and published the kiln from Meaux Abbey in Yorkshire. She also investigated the foundations of the Clarendon Palace kiln (also removed for display).

As her knowledge and confidence grew, she published more. Her Medieval Tiles: a handlist (1968), was the first of a number of small popular books on her speciality; while her English Tilers (1992) showed her total grasp of techniques and chronology.

The 1950s and 60s saw a growth in the study of medieval archaeology into a full-blown academic discipline. Medieval pottery was a major element in its progress and Elizabeth made sure that tiles and other fired building materials were not left out of consideration. She was in the forefront of the study of building materials and, through her membership of councils and committees, and through publication in learned journals, she provided much support to the new discipline.

In 1958 she was elected to the Society of Antiquaries and later served on its council; she was an important member of a resurgent British Archaeological Association, of which she was a vice-president, and wrote in its journal; she served in various capacities on a number of local archaeological societies, particularly as joint secretary of the Surrey Archaeological Society.

In the 1970s she arranged a fascinating display of tiles in a dedicated gallery in the museum and, in 1980, triumphantly produced the great British Museum catalogue of medieval tiles, which has close on 14,000 entries. Over the years she had, with Carey Miller, developed a drawing technique to supplement photographs. This vast catalogue has no peer in Britain or abroad and is used by students throughout Europe; she was rightly appointed MBE on its appearance. This was followed in 1988 by a monograph on Irish medieval tiles (written with Tom Fanning) and in 1991 by a catalogue of the tiles in the Salisbury Museum.

Elizabeth was a warm and outgoing personality, young at heart and always ebullient. Her marriage was happy and, after the early death of her husband in 1983, she was supported by her three children. She had a great - sometimes raunchy - sense of humour; she was a splendid host, very sociable and particularly kind to younger colleagues like me.

All these characteristics made her an excellent teacher. From the mid-1950s she taught evening classes in archaeology at various institutions, most importantly at the University of London extra-mural department and the WEA, but also at the City Lit and the City University. Her students came back year-on-year for more, which probably accounts for the fact that her courses were often oversubscribed. Only in 1999, when she was past 80, did she reluctantly give up.

She is survived by her son and two daughters, and four grandchildren.

The following obituary, by our Fellow Laurence Keen, was published in the Independent on 11 October 2008.

Elizabeth Eames: Influential, widely published archaeologist whose expertise was in medieval floor-tiles

Elizabeth Sarah Graham, archaeologist: born Northampton 24 June 1918; Special Acting Assistant Keeper, Department of British Archaeology 1949-80; MBE 1978; married 1949 Herbert Eames (died 1983; one son, two daughters); died Hampstead, London 20 September 2008.

In 1949 Elizabeth Eames became Special Acting Assistant Keeper in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities in the British Museum. She had been appointed to unwrap and catalogue the department's collections, which had been sent away to safe places for the duration of the Second World War. But before long she was invited to work on the collection of medieval floor-tiles that the trustees had acquired, with a grant from the National Art Collections Fund from the Duke of Rutland in April 1947 to augment the not inconsiderable collection already in the museum.

Writing in the Archaeological Newsletter for October 1948, Rupert Bruce-Mitford discussed progress in medieval archaeology, referring to a landmark in the subject, the London Museum Medieval Catalogue, to Gerald Dunning's work on medieval pottery – and to the British Museum's plans to publish a catalogue of its medieval tiles, so recently enlarged by the acquisition of the Rutland Collection. He remarked that with these works "the foundations of medieval archaeology will have been well and truly laid".

By the 1960s Eames's domain was a tiny room at 1a Montague Street, with a desk, filing cabinet, bookcase and a phone, which she disliked using. In the basement were three rooms, with racks and low-drawered mahogany cabinets containing the largest and most important collection of medieval floor-tiles in the world.

The Rutland acquisition included the Canynges pavement from Bristol, pieces of pavement from Halesowen, West Midlands, part of a pavement from Burton Lazars, Leicestershire, tiles from Byland Abbey, Yorkshire, from the tile-kiln at Bawsey, Norfolk, and masses of tiles from the abbeys at Hailes, Chertsey, Rievaulx and Maxstoke Priory. Already in the museum's collection were more than 3,000 tiles from Chertsey Abbey and the decorated wall-tiles from Tring, Hertfordshire.

The list of material demonstrates the enormous diversity and quality of tiles that Eames had to study and understand. Nothing had been published properly and questions about the techniques of production had never been raised. Eames had to start from scratch, acquiring an unsurpassed knowledge of the literature.

She did so with alacrity, publishing many seminal papers and contributions to articles, as well as her own Medieval Tiles: a handbook (1968), followed by English Medieval Tiles (1985) and English Tilers (1992). She established a thorough academic approach and made this neglected subject her career, transforming the study of floor-tiles over the whole of Europe. The British Museum's collection was finally published in 1980 as the two-volume Catalogue of Medieval Lead-Glazed Earthenware Tiles in the Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities, British Museum – with 14,000 tiles listed and illustrated with more than 3,000 designs.

She was born Elizabeth Graham in Northampton in 1918, the eldest child of Fred Graham, a research chemist, and his wife Eva. After Rugby High School she went to Newnham College, Cambridge (the first pupil from her school to win a place at the university) and there read English for part II, before changing to Archaeology and Anthropology. Following war service in the ATS, she gained an MLitt – on women in Viking society – from Cambridge in 1950, having studied at the University of Oslo in 1947-48. She joined the British Museum in 1949, the same year that she married Herbert Eames, a solicitor and later a Conservative councillor in Lewisham, south-east London.

Much of Elizabeth Eames's work was delivered as lectures to the Society of Antiquities of London (she was elected a Fellow in 1958), or to the British Archaeological Association, which she had joined in 1950, and in whose journal she published regularly. She was a member of the BAA's council for three terms, serving for 17 years, and was elected vice-president in 1978.

In preparing the BM catalogue, Eames engaged many young illustrators, who had to meet her rigorous standards, although, surprisingly, she never published any of her own drawings. For more than 40 years anyone who had floor-tiles to discuss went to see Eames. Welcoming, always, generous with time and information, she was the fulcrum of medieval-tile studies.

I nervously went to see her in 1966, having become interested in some tiles from North Devon. Eames was stunningly encouraging, urged more field work and research and then suggested that the result should be submitted for an essay prize. Floor-tiles studies have remained for me an interest ever since. And I am only one of several students whose work was greatly influenced by Elizabeth Eames.

In her publications there is scarcely a county in England which does not have a note or article. On a wider academic front she was well respected and known overseas. So much so that a small seminar held in the British Museum in March 1983, to mark the publication of her catalogue, was attended by fellow scholars from France, Germany, Denmark, Ireland and Holland. Significantly, catalogues of tiles from Germany and Denmark are modelled on Eames's BM catalogue, and with Tom Fanning she produced an important corpus of Irish medieval tiles, published in 1988.

During her career she supervised or helped with excavations on medieval kilns at Meaux Abbey, Yorkshire (1957-58), Clarendon Palace in Salisbury (1967-68) – organising the lifting of two pavements and the kiln itself to the British Museum – Ramsey Abbey, Cambridgeshire (1967-68) and Haverholme Priory in Lincolnshire (1970). In the early 1970s she created a new gallery at the museum to display the collection of tile pavements and kilns.

Eames, with Dr A.B. Emden, with support from the British Academy, established the Census of Medieval Tiles in Britain in the late 1960s, engaging a large number of field workers to assemble material from the English counties. Census volumes for Dorset and Wales have been published and similar volumes for Somerset and the whole of northern England have also appeared. Without Eames's impetus, these volumes and many other publications by specialists would have been impossible.

But Eames's contributions to medieval studies were not confined to her work on floor-tiles. Throughout her busy personal and family life she worked assiduously for the City Literary Institute, London University Department of Extra Mural Studies, the City University and the WEA (London District). For more than 45 years she taught a wide variety of courses, which were frequently oversubscribed. She commanded great respect and the admiration of thousands of students.

Eames was president of the Surrey Archaeological Society, and the Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Society; she served as governor of special-needs schools in the London borough of Lewisham and was associated with the Horniman Museum for many years.

The following obituary was published in The Times on 11 October 2008.

Elizabeth Eames: archaeologist and expert on Midddle Age tiles

Elizabeth Eames, archaeologist, was born on June 24, 1918. She died on September 20, 2008, aged 90

Britain is notable in Europe for the magnificence of its medieval lead-glazed tiles, which survive mainly on monastic sites, although some have been found in houses and palaces. Elizabeth Eames was the leading 20th-century scholar and writer on those tiles.

After the war she began work at the British Museum as a volunteer, unpacking items that had been stored. She came to tiles by chance. Dr Rupert Bruce Mitford was busy with Sutton Hoo, and she was asked to list the Duke of Rutland’s tile collection, which had been purchased with the aid of the National Art Collections Fund in 1947.

This, the greatest tile collection of the 20th century (some 9,000 items), was built up by Captain Ludovic Lindsay and the Marquis of Granby. As well as many fine tiles, it contained a number of whole pavements such as those from Halesowen Abbey; Burton Lazars, Leicestershire; and Canynge’s House, Bristol, as well as collections from northern Cistercian abbeys such as Byland and Rievaulx. In 1948 Eames was allowed £1 a day to catalogue the collection, and continued as a special assistant.

From this began her devotion to the study of medieval tiles, which was to culminate in her great two-volume catalogue of the Medieval Lead-glazed Earthenware Tiles in the Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities in the British Museum (1980). This turned the study of tiles from mere collecting to an understanding of the medieval craft and its place in medieval economic and art history.

The catalogue, detailing 13,882 tiles, gave a complete overview of the development of tiles from the late Saxon period to the mid-16th century. By the meticulous drawing of the exact designs of tiles, often reconstructed from many fragments (not using photographs, as Sir Kenneth Clark wanted), she set an entirely new standard in the recording of tile designs, and lastly she emphasised the importance of the examination and study of kiln sites. This gave a key to the distribution, ordering and use of tiles.

Two sites, both with royal connections, were foremost in her attention. At Chertsey, Surrey, with Arthur Gardner, she analysed the relationship between the remarkable panels of the King, Queen and Archbishop with the kiln found there, and published her results in The Tile Kiln at Chertsey Abbey (1954). Her tile catalogue also gives the most complete publication of the Tristan and Isolde romance tiles from Chertsey. At Clarendon, the royal palace near Salisbury, she removed the tile pavements and kiln, excavated by Tancred Borenius in the 1930s, to the British Museum, where they were displayed in the Medieval Tile and Pottery Gallery, opened in 1975. The kiln was placed beneath the two pavements — the great circular pavement of the King’s chapel (fired in the kiln), and that from the Queen’s chamber. She published further tiles in the Salisbury Museum Medieval Catalogue, and was pleased to see the recent work conducted by Dr. T. B. James.

Born in 1918, the daughter of Arthur Frederick Graham, a research chemist, and Eveline Lucy Graham (née Garrett), she was the first girl from Rugby High School to go to Cambridge (Newnham College), where she studied English and archaeology and anthropology from 1936. She travelled to Norway, where she studied Norse archaeology, and her thesis on the position of women in Viking society was awarded an MLitt in 1950. She was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1958. Her studies were interrupted by the war, when she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1942-45. She was commissioned in 1943 and said the experience had broadened her understanding of people.

She was a natural teacher and her lively and exuberant nature made her a brilliant lecturer across the whole field of archaeology from the prehistoric sites in Orkney, to which she often took her students, to the detail of the new discipline of medieval archaeology. She lectured at the City Literary Institute, the London University Department of Extra Mural Studies, the City University, and the WEA for more than 43 years, and many of those to whom she lectured remained her lasting friends.

She served on the councils of many societies, including the Society of Antiquaries of London, the British Archaeological Association (vice-president), the Surrey Archaeological Society, the Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Society, and the Kingston upon Thames Archaeological Society, where she served as President.

Her interest in education led her to lecture on tiles and to write popular books such as Medieval Tiles: a hand-book (1968), and English Tilers (1992).

She encouraged a whole generation of younger scholars of medieval tiles, both in England and abroad. She established, with Dr A. B. Emden, the Census of Medieval Floor tiles in Britain. In the course of her work for this she visited many excavations, and her windswept appearance and vivacious enthusiasm inspired many and created lasting friendships.

Her early interest in Viking archaeology led to an interest in European tiles. She encouraged scholars such as Dr Christopher Norton to work on French tiles, collaborated with the late Tom Fanning on a survey of Irish tiles, and was proud of her links with foreign scholars, such as Birgit als Hansen, Tarquinius Hoekstra, Mathieu Pinette and Elenore Landgraf, whose Ornamentierte Bodenfliesen des Mittelalters in Süd -und West Deutschland 1150-1550 (1993), was modelled on Elizabeth’s work. Her achievements were acknowledged with a major conference in London in 1983, reported in the Revue de l’Art.

After the war, she married Herbert Eames, who, after a notable wartime career, became a distinguished solicitor and councillor in Lewisham, and was a great support to her. He died in 1983. She is survived by two daughters and a son.