Review: Women in the Valley of the Kings
Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age - by Kathleen Sheppard (2024)
Kathleen Sheppard has an MA in Egyptian Archaeology from University College London, and a PhD in the History of Science from the University of Oklahoma.
Being an Egyptologist myself, and as a woman having been on the receiving end of being underestimated, or having my work being taken credit for by men, I was of course interested in reading this book. Not that I thought this was a book that would thumb its nose at men, but that I appreciate when we take the time to tell the history of women, who have traditionally been overlooked.
While the Chapter List highlights the main characters written about by Sheppard, she also mentions the work of the following women (in the order they appear in the book):
Lady Lucie Duff Gordon [1] who was in Egypt from 1864, nursing her tuberculosis, and had her letters she sent home to her husband published
Amelia Edwards [2] who wrote the travelogue A Thousand Miles Up the Nile about her adventure in Egypt in 1873-1874 (which I have already reviewed here)
Lucy Renshaw [3] was Amelia’s traveling companion in Egypt (amongst other trips) until around 1887
There are also several excerpts about Jenny Lane [4] who was Lucy’s maid during the voyage
Marianne Brocklehurst [5] and her friend Mary Booth made several trips to Egypt, commencing in 1873 then 1876, 1883 and 1890 primarily in order to buy antiquities
Maggie Benson who was the first woman to be given permission to officially excavate in Egypt in 1895 [6]
Janet ‘Nettie’ Gourlay joined Maggie’s excavation in late 1895, and became her life-long partner [7]
Emma Andrews [8] a wealthy American benefactor who paid for her excavations but also kept reasonably good diaries [9]
Margaret Alice Murray [10] who first worked with Flinders Petrie at Abydos in 1902, with mention of Hilda Petrie [11] (wife of Flinders), Lina Eckenstein [12] (medieval historian), Freda Hansard [13] (artist), and Winifred Brunton [14] (artist)
Kate Bradbury Griffith [15] became the private secretary of Amelia Edwards, and eventually went on to marry Francis Griffith
Emily Paterson [16] was hired by Amelia as the paid assistant secretary for the Egypt Exploration Fund and worked for the fund from 1888-1928
Myrtle Broome [17] and Olga Tufnell [18] at Qau el-Kebit in 1927
Amice Calverley [19] at Abydos in 1929-1937, and then returned after WWII but was banned from further work at the Temple in 1948 due to some filming she had done in previous seasons [20], and
Caroline Louise Ransom Williams [21] after obtaining her PhD at the University of Chicago she worked as an associate professor at Bryn Mawr College before working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York until 1916. She worked on the epigraphic survey at Medinet Habu in 1926-27…
“Each of these women, alone and together, has an amazing story to tell. Written one over another like a stratigraphy of heartache, happiness, struggle, and success, their accounts show how they overcame rules meant to keep them out of a discipline not meant for them.”
Appropriately, the book starts with a look at the traditional history of Egyptian ‘archaeology’ of masculine European, and later American, men who came to plunder the Nile of her treasures. Nary a woman is mentioned in these early historical renditions.
The book centers on the story from Amelia Edwards’ travels in 1873, to the death of American Egyptologist, Caroline Ransom Williams in 1952.
The first woman to actually excavate (officially, and not just loot artifacts) was Maggie Benson. Although at that time, “If one had the time to travel and the money to support excavations or purchasing artifacts, or both, that was enough to make you an archaeologist.” (Sheppard, 2024: 58) Despite having no formal training, Benson was granted this permit by the French mining engineer, and head of Egypt’s Department of Antiquities, Jacques de Morgan. This was still the era of colonizers and mass looting, by those wealthy enough to do so.
I had to chuckle, however, when Benson fires the first reis (overseer) on her excavation site when, “he asked for higher wages than normal because he wished to be compensated for having to report to a woman”. (ibid p. 66) Even a century later many women, including myself, were still dealing with this same issue.
Sheppard draws a clear map of these early excavations through the women who conducted them, but provides significant historical background about their lives that tells a tale with deeper meaning than that of a history with a straight, linear development. You begin to feel the emotions and motivation of these women in their pursuit of knowledge, fame, and the preservation of the information of their digs. Not all the women were excavators, some helped run the Egypt Exploration Fund, promoted other digs, managed artifacts for museums, etc. But all these women were a part of the history of Egyptian archaeology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
With regards to the illustrations (as I’m always want to discuss), there are indeed a few small photos primarily of the women mentioned, but I would have loved to have seen more images (drawings or photos) of the excavations, or mentioned artifacts. It would have made the book even better! My Two Cents!
I recommend this book for those interested in a more fulsome history of Egyptian archaeology. It was definitely well-researched. It would have been great to have this book as a reference during university, as I can say that nothing was taught about these women in any of the subjects I took at the University of Toronto. Well done to Kate Sheppard for shining a light.⭐⭐⭐
I did feel like the Canadian🍁contingent was probably in Egypt a bit later and less well-known. I plan to write about Canadian women Egyptologists in coming posts - feel free to check back.
Footnotes:
[1] Lucie, Lady Duff-Gordon (née Austin; 24 June 1821 – 14 July 1869) was an English author and translator who wrote as Lucie Gordon. She is best known for her Letters from Egypt, 1863–1865 (1865) and Last Letters from Egypt (1875).
[2] Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards (7 June 1831 – 15 April 1892), also known as Amelia B. Edwards, was an English novelist, journalist, traveller and Egyptologist.
[3] Lucy Renshaw (1833-1913) was an unmarried English woman who remained a companion to Amelia Edwards for many years
[4] Jenny Lane (1835-?) was the Lady's maid to Lucy Renshaw. Her journals are in collection of the Griffith Institute Archive. https://archive.griffith.ox.ac.uk/index.php/jenny-lane-journals
[5] Marianne Brocklehurst (1832–1898) was an English traveller and collector of Egyptian antiquities. She supported a number of Egyptian excavations and donated most of her collection of antiquities to the West Park Museum in Macclesfield.
[6] Margaret Benson (16 June 1865 – 13 May 1916) was an English author and Egyptologist best known for her excavation of the Precinct of Mut in Luxor.
[7] Janet A. Gourlay (1863–1912) was a Scottish Egyptologist, known for her excavation of and publication on the Mut Complex in Egypt.
[8] Emma Buttles Andrews (1837–1922) was a wealthy American patron of archaeologists. As the companion of Theodore M. Davis, she accompanied him on excavations, documenting excavation finds and mapping tombs.
[9] The Emma B Andrews Diary Project, contains a myriad of photos, letters and her diaries - https://www.emmabandrews.org/project/
[10] Margaret Alice Murray FSA Scot FRAI (13 July 1863 – 13 November 1963) was an Anglo-Indian Egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, historian, and folklorist. The first woman to be appointed as a lecturer in archaeology in the United Kingdom, she worked at University College London (UCL) from 1898 to 1935.
[11] Hilda Mary Isabel, Lady Petrie (née Urlin; 1871–1957), was an Irish-born British Egyptologist and wife of Sir Flinders Petrie. Having studied geology, she was hired by Flinders Petrie at age 25 as an artist, which led to their marriage and a working partnership that endured for their lifetimes.
[12] Lina Dorina Johanna Eckenstein (23 September 1857 – 4 May 1931) was a British polymath and historian who was acknowledged as a philosopher and scholar in the women's movement. She worked at excavations at Abydos, Saqqara, Serabit el-Khadim, and El Shatt.
[13] Winifred 'Freda' Nest Hansard (married name Firth, 1872 – 1937) was an English Egyptologist. Trained as an artist, she produced drawings replicating inscriptions in Egyptian tombs.
[14] Winifred Mabel Brunton née Newberry (6 May 1880 – 29 January 1959) was a South African painter, illustrator and Egyptologist.
[15] Kate Bradbury Griffith (née Bradbury; 26 August 1854 – 2 March 1902) was a British Egyptologist who assisted in the early development of the Egypt Exploration Society and the Department of Egyptology at University College London (UCL).
[16] Emily Paterson (1860-1947) was the General Secretary of the then Egypt Exploration Fund (EEF) from 1892-1919. https://doctorkate.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/emily-paterson-general-secretary-of-the-egypt-exploration-fund/
[17] Myrtle Florence Broome (22 February 1888 – 27 January 1978) was a British Egyptologist and artist known for her illustrated work with Amice Calverley on the Temple of Seti I at Abydos in Egypt and her paintings of Egyptian village life in the 1920s and 1930s.
[18] Olga Tufnell FSA (26 January 1905 – 11 April 1985) was a British archaeologist who had no formal training in archaeology, but had worked as a secretary for Flinders Petrie for a number of years before being given field assignments… including drawing and repairing pottery.
[19] Amice Calverley (9 April 1896 – 10 April 1959) was an English-born Canadian Egyptologist who was instrumental to the recording and publication of the decoration in the temple of King Sethos I at Abydos.
[20] “Amice was one of those exceptional English women the desert Arab takes to his heart.” Janet Leveson Gower. (1959). Amice Mary Calverley. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 45, 85–87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3855467 A short article about Amice, following her death in Toronto in 1959. The introduction was written by Sir Alan Gardiner.
[21] Caroline Ransom Williams (February 24, 1872 – February 1, 1952) was an Egyptologist and classical archaeologist. She was the first American woman to be professionally trained as an Egyptologist.
Other References
Apperly, E (2020) The unsung women of Egyptology. Thames & Hudson. Posted online Oct 7, 2020. https://thamesandhudson.com/news/the-unsung-women-of-egyptology/
Naunton, C (2020) Egyptologists’ Notebooks: The Golden Age of Nile Exploration in Words, Pictures, Plans, and Letters. Getty Publications.
Navarro, D (2021) America’s First Woman Egyptologist – Caroline Ransom Williams. Digital Epigraphy. Posted online Jun 14, 2021. https://www.digital-epigraphy.com/public/readings/americas-first-woman-egyptologist-caroline-ransom-williams
Sheba, M (2022) Five Egyptian Females Dominating The Field Of Egyptology. ScoopEmpire. Posted online May 17, 2022. https://scoopempire.com/the-most-prominent-egyptian-female-egyptologists/
Wilkinson, T (2022) Three remarkable female pioneers of Egyptology that the history books forgot. Pan MacMillan. Posted online May 5, 2022. https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/history/toby-wilkinson-female-pioneers-of-egyptology
