[1] From an early age, his manifest tendency to the study of out-of-the-way subjects well suited his later interest in archaeology.

He found time nevertheless for Egyptological work of the highest value, including a hieroglyphical grammar and dictionary, translations of The Book of the Dead and papyrus Harris I, and numerous catalogues and guides.

[2] He further wrote what was long a standard history of pottery, investigated the Cypriote syllabary, and proved by various publications that he had not lost his old interest in Chinese.

Paradoxical in many of his views on things in general, he was sound and cautious as a philologist; while learned and laborious, he possessed much of the instinctive divination of genius.

[2] His grandfather, also named Samuel Birch, was a renowned dramatist and Lord Mayor of London (1814).