Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks

Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks (born March 20, 1826, Geneva, Switz.—died May 21, 1897, London, Eng.) was the first keeper (curator) of British and medieval antiquities and ethnography at the British Museum (1866–96), who greatly enriched its holdings through careful acquisition and the donation of his own vast and valuable collections.

Franks’s early life was spent on the European continent, mainly in Rome and Geneva. Educated at the University of Cambridge (B.A., 1849; M.A., 1852), he worked first for the Royal Archaeological Institute. Assistant in the antiquities department of the British Museum (1851–66), he became the foremost authority on British medieval antiquities and an expert on post-Roman art, pottery, glass, and the material culture of early humans. He also sought to make the collection of Japanese and Chinese porcelain as comprehensive as possible. His friendliness won the good will and benefactions of many collectors, including banker-ethnologist Henry Christy, whose large collection entered the museum in 1883. Franks did much to classify and arrange the museum collections and published many catalogs, guides, and papers. He was knighted in 1894.