Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, an English Egyptologist, born Oct. 5, 1797, died Oct. 29, 1875. He was educated at Harrow and at Oxford. During a residence of 12 years in Egypt he made a profound study of its ruins and topography, as also of the languages, manners, and customs of the modern inhabitants. He published " Materia Hieroglyphica " (Malta, 1828), "Topography of Thebes and General View of Egypt" (London, 1835), and "Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians," his great work (1st series, 3 vols. 8vo, 1837; 2d ed., 1842; 2d series, 3 vols., 1841; 3d ed. of "both series, 5 vols., with 600 illustrations, 1847; new ed., edited by Dr. Birch, 1876). He was knighted in 1840. In 1843 appeared his "Modern Egypt and Thebes " (2 vols. 8vo; 2d ed., 1844). In 1847, and again in 1857, new editions of this work were published in a condensed and corrected form under the title of "A Hand Book for Travellers in Modern Egypt." In 1848 he published "Dalmatia and Montenegro " (2 vols. 8vo), to which succeeded the "Architecture of Ancient Egypt," etc. (8vo, 1850), accompanied by a large volume of plates; "Fragments of the Hieratic Papyrus at Turin " (1851), with a folio volume of plates; and an abridgment of his large work entitled "A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians" (2 vols. 12mo, 1854). In 1855-'6 he revisited Egypt, and on his return to England published "The Egyptians under the Pharaohs," which forms a supplement to the " Popular Account" (8vo, 1857). In 1858 he published a treatise on " Color, and the General Diffusion of Taste among all Classes." In 1874 he presented his collection of coins to Harrow school; he had previously given it his Egyptian, Greek, and other antiquities.

He contributed many of the notes to Rawlinson's version of Herodotus, and published papers in the " Transactions " of the geographical and archaeological societies of Great Britain. His life has been published by his widow (London, 1876).