The Department of Semitics had been created in 1903, and during the period covered by this file the professor of Semitic languages was, successively, H. H. Rowley, Edward Ullendorff and Rev. James Barr. The file includes the following: funds for a lectureship in medieval and modern Hebrew (1952); the administration of Journal of Semitic Studies (based at the University); acquisition of some of the Qumran (Dead Sea Scrolls) manuscripts, and a dispute over the management of the Manchester holding of the Dead Sea Scrolls between Professor Henry Wright Baker (mechanical engineering) and John Allegro (1925-1988), the scholar within the Department most closely associated with the Scrolls.
Former reference: 356