The Scholar Who Lived the Culture: Winifred Blackman’s Research In Egypt with the Percy Sladen Memorial Fund

Established in 1904, the Percy Sladen Memorial Fund was created to support ambitious research in natural science with a focus on the “sciences of zoology, geology and anthropology”, giving scholars the resources to pursue fieldwork and original discovery [1]. Among the researchers who benefited from the fund was Winifred Susan Blackman, a scholar whose curiosity would take her far beyond the museum walls of Oxford.

Before embarking on her own research career, Blackman worked as an assistant curator at the University of Oxford. But cataloguing artefacts was not enough for someone eager to experience the cultures behind them firsthand. Inspired in part by her brother, the renowned Egyptologist Aylward Blackman, she became determined to conduct field research in Egypt herself.

In 1922, Blackman successfully applied for support from the Percy Sladen Memorial Fund, proposing an ambitious study of Egyptian medicine, folklore, religious rituals, and everyday traditions. Rather than focusing solely on ancient history, she immersed herself in the living customs of rural Egyptian communities, documenting beliefs and practices that had been immaculately preserved over several generations. Her work offered a rare and deeply human glimpse into Egyptian life in the early twentieth century, helping preserve traditions that might otherwise have been lost to history.

Although her area of study was fascinating, it was Blackman’s immersive approach to research that truly captured the attention of her sponsors. Rather than observing Egyptian communities from a distance, Winifred Susan Blackman chose to live much like the working-class Egyptians she studied. She stayed in simple straw huts, shared in local customs, and built close relationships with the people around her. Blackman also carried Western medicines with her and treated many locals during her travels [2]. These acts of care earned her both trust and admiration within the communities she worked in, allowing her access to traditions, rituals, and stories that outsiders rarely witnessed. Her willingness to fully immerse herself in everyday Egyptian life gave her research an authenticity that set her apart from many scholars of her time. 

In one of her most fascinating contributions to the Folklore Society journal Folklore, Winifred Blackman recorded a remarkable collection of stories told to her by Egyptian villagers [3]. These accounts offer a vivid glimpse into local beliefs surrounding demons, spirit possession, and exorcism. Blackman documented firsthand testimonies of encounters with malevolent spirits and the rituals used to drive them away. Among the most intriguing figures she met was an Egyptian magician, or sorcerer, whom many locals believed possessed the extraordinary ability to communicate with and even control demons.

According to Blackman, this magician was secretly married to a female demon, a relationship that, she noted, was not considered especially unusual in Egyptian folk belief. Such stories reveal a world in which the supernatural was woven into everyday life, and where the boundaries between the human and spirit realms were thought to be far more permeable than modern readers might imagine. Through Blackman’s careful observations, these extraordinary tales provide a rare and captivating window into the spiritual traditions and popular beliefs of rural Egypt in the early twentieth century. 

Alongside publishing her findings in academic journals, Winifred Blackman was also building an extraordinary archive of everyday Egyptian life. Her work extended far beyond written observations: she collected a wide range of artefacts, from protective charms and items of clothing to household recipes and medicinal practices. Blackman was deeply interested in preserving the customs and beliefs of ordinary people, and she approached her research with the eye of both a scholar and a documentarian. In addition to these objects, she amassed more than 4,000 photographs, held by the University of Liverpool, creating one of the most extensive visual records of rural Egyptian culture from the early twentieth century [4]. 

Together, her writings, artefacts, and photographs offer an invaluable window into a world of traditions, rituals, and daily practices that might otherwise have been lost to history. Winifred’s research stands out to both contemporary and modern audiences, not only due to her area of research but also due to her unique methods adopted. Her personal approach of living amongst the Egyptians and following their customs, whose culture she studies, added a further layer of understanding and familiarity that an outsider researcher would not be able to capture.

Aisha Yaree, Placement Student

References 

1. The Times Notice: 'Endowment for Scientific Research - Munificent Gift', 20 Jun 1904, PSMF/1/2/2.
2. The Daily Mirror: ‘Woman Probes Egypt’s Secrets’, 26 Jan 1925, PSMF/4/2/1/27.
3. The Folk-Lore Journal: ‘Some Beliefs Among the Egyptian Peasants’, 31 Mar 1924, PSMF/4/2/1/27.
4. University of Liverpool, England, Department of Anthropology. 

Please note: This collection is currently being catalogued and is soon to be available on our archive catalogue. Please keep an eye out on the news section of our website for further updates.