Helen Wallis

Helen Wallis studied at St Paul's Girls' School and St Hugh's College. The recorded working language is English. Employment is recorded with British Library. Work by Helen Wallis is recorded in the collections of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Distinctions recorded are Caird Medal, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, Victoria Medal and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

• Name — Helen Margaret Wallis • Born — 17 August 1924 • Birthplace — Chipping Barnet, London • Died — 7 February 1995 • Place of death — St John's Wood, London • Education — St Hugh's College, Oxford • Occupation — Librarian, historian • Employer — British Museum • Awards — * Caird Medal • Victoria Medal

Born at Dunkery, Park Road, Barnet on 17 August 1924, Wallis was the daughter of Leonard Francis Wallis (1880–1965), headmaster, and Mary McCulloch Jones (1884–1957), teacher. She attended St Paul's Girls' School (1934–43) and studied geography at St Hugh's College, Oxford (1945–1954), where she completed her D.Phil. degree in 1954 with a thesis 'The exploration of the South Sea, 1519 to 1644'. In 1951, she was appointed assistant to R.A. Skelton, superintendent of the Map Room at the British Museum, succeeding him in 1967. She was the first woman to hold the post. In 1968 she was responsible for the acquisition of the map collection of the Royal United Services Institution. She also discovered the earliest version of England's first globe, by Emery Molyneux and thought to date from 1592, at Petworth House. She was the chairman of the standing commission on the history of cartography of the International Cartographic Association. In 1986, she became president of the International Map Collectors' Society and she was a founder of The Geography and Map Section of the International Federation of Library Associations. She served as President of The Society for Nautical Research, 1972–1988, and President of the British Cartographic Society. She was appointed OBE in the 1986 Birthday Honours. Key publications include Carteret's voyage round the world, 1766–1769, Cartographical innovations, and the Historians' guide to early British maps. She retired from the British Library in 1986, then died of cancer on 7 February 1995 at the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in St John's Wood, London. An obituary written by W.R. Mead appeared in The Independent, 14 February 1995. Another obituary was published in the IFLA Journal.