Edward Dundas Butler

Edward Dundas Butler was a linguist, translator and senior librarian at the Department of Printed Books, British Museum.

[2] He attended the Blue Coat School after which, in 1859 at the age of seventeen, he joined the department of printed books at the British Museum as a transcriber.

In 1880 he was promoted again and moved back to the main library where he oversaw additions to the map collection, prepared the map catalogue for printing, and catalogued general works in the so-called ‘difficult languages’, which, in his case, included Hungarian, Finnish, and Romanian.

[1] His translations included a collection of poems and fables from the Hungarian (1877) as well as a longer piece by János Arany (1881).

Butler died of heart failure on 11 February 1919 at his home, 66 Whitehall Park, Islington[1] and is buried with his wife and two of his children on the western side of Highgate Cemetery.