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Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, was born in New York February 7th 1875, of Irish, Scottish, English and New England descent. After studying engineering at the Columbia School of Mines and Princeton University, Beatty helped to develop porphyry copper ores in the United States, first as a consulting engineer and later as a director on the boards of several copper-mining firms. By the age of thirty he was a millionaire, who was collecting minerals and stamps, and had started to buy books and manuscripts. In 1913 he relinquished his mining interests in the United States, forming in 1921 a prospecting company that initiated the development of the Copper-belt region of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).

Beatty collected a huge number of papyrus manuscripts, both religious and secular, some of these papyri were rescued from great heaps of papyrus, which lay undiscovered for centuries in the Egyptian desert. Almost by chance in the late 1920's he acquired a group of New Testament papyrus texts, these incredible discoveries were made public in The Times on 19th November 1931, the Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri contain parts of nine Hebrew and fifteen Christian Bible books, the Greek codices date from the second to the fourth centuries C.E.

Among the books of the Hebrew Scriptures in the Greek Septuagint version are two copies of Genesis. These are of special value, says Sir Frederic Kenyon "because the book [of Genesis] is almost wholly lacking in the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus," fourth-century vellum manuscripts. Of the Papyri he says: "The first and most important conclusion derived from the examination of them is the satisfactory one that they confirm the essential soundness of the existing texts. No striking or fundamental variation is shown either in the Old or the New Testament. There are no important omissions or additions of passages, and no variations which affect vital facts or doctrines. The variations of text affect minor matters, such as the order of words or the precise words used. . . . But their essential importance is their confirmation, by evidence of an earlier date than was hitherto available, of the integrity of our existing texts. In this respect they are an acquisition of epoch-making value." - London, 1933, Fasciculus I, p. 15.

Three codices contain books of the Christian Greek Scriptures. One the oldest book (Papyrus No. 1 p 45) in the world to contain New Testament texts in a single volume shows, that the four gospels and the Acts were compiled into one volume much earlier than many scholars had expected. The second codex (Papyrus No. 2 p46), with additional leaves, has almost the complete letters of Paul's including Hebrews. The third codex (Papyrus No. 3 p47) is the oldest surviving portion of a large single section of the text, about one third of the book (Chapters 9 - 17) of Revelation.

Concerning the Christian Greek Scriptures, Sir Frederic Kenyon stated: "The interval then between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established." - The Bible and Archaeology, 1940, pp. 288, 289

The papyri also show that the writing materials were often reused, the Chester Beatty Biblical papyri show that Christians began to use the codex, or leaf-book, in place of scrolls around the end of the first century C.E.

An early fourth century vellum manuscript by Ephraem, a Syrian scholar quotes extensively from a second century work, were the writer Tatian (A.D. 120-73) merged the four gospel accounts of Jesus Christ into a single narrative, known as the Diatessaron. Its existence had been doubted until Beatty discovered Ephraem's commentary.

The Beautiful illuminated manuscripts reflect the patience and artistry of the scribes who copied them by hand.

The Biblia Latina [printed in Nuremberg 1479] is part of the printed books display. It is the work of one of the most important early printers Anton Koberger, who lived about the time of Johannes Gutenberg.

Throughout the 1930s he also added to his Islamic collection, acquiring not only fine illuminated manuscripts but also plainer texts of scholarship, law and religious commentary.

Chester Beatty settled in Great Britain, and become a naturalized British subject in 1933. He was active in cancer research founding the Chester Beatty Research Institute, London in 1936. A friend of statesmen such as President Hoover and Sir Winston Churchill, he was influential in many ways, especially during the Second World War. Chester Beatty was knighted in 1954, and continued to collect well into the 1960s. At the time of his death in January 19th 1968, his collection included Egyptian papyrus texts, illuminated copies of the Quran and Bible, and many European medieval and renaissance manuscripts, Turkish and Persian miniature paintings, printed books, Chinese silk paintings, Japanese scrolls and woodblock prints.