Winifred Needler DCL (June 14, 1904 – September 5, 1987) was a German-born Canadian Egyptologist at the Museum of Ontario Archaeology, where she rose to be keeper of the Near Eastern Collections and later curator of the Egyptian Department.
[1] In 1928 she moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to study at the School of Fine Arts and Crafts, where she won a number of prizes for her artwork.
[1] For five years Needler struggled to make a living as a commercial artist, but this eventually proved impossible during the Great Depression.
[2] A decade later, when the museum decided to split the Near Eastern Collections in two, she was appointed curator of the half that was named the Egyptian Department.
[1] In 1956, she spent a month at Jericho, where Kathleen Kenyon was leading the excavations, drawing and recording newfound objects.
[1] Needler worked on excavating a cemetery, dismantling a temple built by Queen Hatshepsut, and making drawings of artifacts removed from the sites.
[1] In 1982, Bishop's University honored Needler with an honorary doctorate in recognition of her service to the Museum of Ontario Archaeology and to the field of Egyptology.