It is a detailed and timely study of the people who carried out Egyptology brings to light several names that are less known to the public. This book points out that some particular women did much of the work and got little of the publicity. The author brings the untold stories of women with some of the earliest European women who ventured to Egypt as travelers: Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst. Their travelogues, diaries and maps chronicled a new world for the curious. In the desert, Maggie Benson, the first woman granted permission to excavate in Egypt, met Nettie Gourlay, the woman who became her lifelong companion. They battled issues of oppression and exclusion and, ultimately, are credited with excavating the Temple of Mut. Artists came in to paint reproductions of tomb art as it was realized that the air would be corrosive to the art work done so many years ago. Women in the Valley of the Kings overturned the grand male narrative of Egyptian exploration

I enjoyed learning about these women who became involved with the study of Egyptology in the desert. It’s. Fascinating to learn about their work in the fields. It saddened me that they did.not get the credit due to them.

I am still boycotting St Martins Press so sadly I am not providing feedback on this book. I hope we can come to a resolution on the issues stated in the boycott sometime soon.

This was an interesting if slightly dense exploration of the impact of women in the late 19th and early 20th century in Egyptology. It felt a little more like mini-biographies; I'm not sure the through-line was well articulated but nonetheless an interested read.

Taking the angle of women in Eyptology rather than the men that are often focused on is what Sheppard wanted to accomplish. She does however the approach didn't seem to be cohesive in telling this "untold story" however well-researched it was. I was also probably annoyed that this is even a book because of the frustration with Brits and others raiding and excavating tombs and history from a location and culture they had nothing to do with. At the time it was acceptable and now it's not and there are ways that wrongs are trying to be righted, however I often can't get past this pillaging. Plus, the colonialism and classism enrage me. Sheppard addresses that and again, I applaud her want to talk about the women in this time period.

That aside, it wasn't truly a biography of the women and it also wasn't a scientific exploration of the work they did- it was an unbalanced mix of both and maybe a touch more academic than I was looking for as well. In my digital galley copy there was also no images or pictures of anything-- the women, the artifacts. It would have enhanced the story.

I have been interested in Egyptology since I was young. As a woman, it was eye opening to read how much was accomplished, yet so little formally written about their experiences and contributions throughout Egyptology ‘s history. I wish this shared experience was around when I was a young girl. I can imagine wanting to learn everything about all of them.

Thanks for letting me read this ARC!

The story of Egyptology itself often proves as dramatic and exciting as the people and places of ancient Egypt. And, as within the story of ancient Egypt, the contributions of many of those who advanced the field of Egyptology has been forgotten.

Kathleen Sheppard attempts to redress some of this neglect in Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age.

She vividly narrates what we can know about eleven specific women who were active in some aspect of Egyptology from between the end of the American Civil War and World War II (ca. 1869-1941): Amelia Edwards, Marianne Brocklehurst, Maggie Brunson, Nettie Gourlay, Emma Andrews, Margaret Alice Murray, Kate Griffith, Emily Paterson, Myrtle Broome, Amice Calverly, and Caroline Ransom Williams.

When I was younger I hoped to pursue Egyptology and have ever since kept abreast of new discoveries and the state of Egyptological discourse; I was certainly aware of many of the male characters found in this book like Gaston Maspero, Flinders Petrie, Theodore Davis, Howard Carter, and the like. James Henry Breasted came from my hometown. A couple of the names of the women might have been mentioned here or there, but very little in previous literature spoke much of them.

But just because little was written did not mean they did little. As the author sets forth, these women helped kickstart and run the Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society), led archaeological digs and art preservation initiatives in their own right, and helped actively coordinate and document significant finds. Without Emma Andrews, for instance, we know much less about the significant tombs Theodore Davis’ teams uncovered. Margaret Alice Murray was left to basically organize and teach Egyptology at University College London, and many of the luminaries of Egyptology gained their initial instruction from her. Caroline Ransom Williams was the best educated, most highly competent Egyptologist in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, was single-handedly responsible for the curation of much of what passes for the Egyptological section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a highly regarded associate of James Henry Breasted.

The author did well at showing both dimensions of these women: they were all Westerners working as part of a colonial project, but as women more was expected of them not only from the men but also from the Egyptian communities. Often what might be known about the other group passed over in silence - the Egyptian workers who did the actual digging and exploration for the Westerners - comes from the journals and reports of these women.

The author’s work proves very useful in making sure the stories of these women and their contributions to Egyptology are remembered and recognized. Hopefully they will start getting their due.

Absolutely engrossing history of Gilded Age female Egyptologists who weren’t just contemporaries of their male counterparts, but often their betters. A feminist unearthing of the reality of intrepid and brilliant women exploring and chronicling the ancient world through the end of colonial Egypt. I was totally fascinated. With nods to the problematic reality of British, American and even French domination of the region and its secrets, it also maintains the romance of the discovery in which these pioneers of science and gender equality played a part. Fascinating for lovers of Egyptology, the Gilded Age, and feminist history.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy. These opinions are my own.

So many names, so many confusing stories. I could not finish this book. I really wanted to like it, but it was dry and not well written. Too bad becaue it had real potential I thought.

I was thrilled to receive an advanced copy of this title as I've been interested in ancient Egyptian culture since childhood and thought this would provide further insight into relics unearthed by those not often found in most textbooks. Sadly it didn't really work for me. As other reviewers have shared, it felt a bit clunky, without a clear narrative. I'd also note that it wouldn't necessarily be a title for anyone who wasn't somewhat familiar with modern Egyptology.

I did appreciate the author's coverage of the ransacking and theft of ancient artifacts by Europeans, and then Americans, during this period, and she doesn't shy away from acknowledging these women were in some ways complicit. Further, she includes Egyptians, a group largely left out of history books in favor of white men, who worked alongside these women to learn more about their own ancient culture.

I was provided an advanced copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley for an honest review.

I was excited to read this book for a few reasons: I love to learn new things, it was about women at the turn of the century and because it was about archeology, which I have always found fascinating.

Women in the Valley of Kings is well researched and when reading it, I could see how the topic was loved by Sheppard. Sheppard was able to transport me to the late 1800's and early 1900's Egypt and the discoveries that were made. I found it fascinating how they copied some of the wall paintings. Even how they were able to take so much from the tombs with really not a whole lot of trouble.

Though the book is well researched, I have to say at times it felt like a textbook. So much information was crammed into it. The flow of the book wasn't very good to me, either. I don't know if I am the only one that felt that way or not. I think if Sheppard would have had a chapter for each woman it would have been better. She combined some women together, but that may have been because they worked at sites together. Overall, my enjoyment outweighed my bad feelings, so I am giving it 3⭐.

Published July 16, 2023

Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Sheppard for the E-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

😊 Happy Reading 😊

#netgalley #stmartinspress #kathleensheppard #womeninthevalleyofkings #arc #nonfiction

A fascinating story about the women who first supported Egyptology and also those who became archaeologists over a hundred years ago.Thanks to #NetGalley and #Thewomeninthevalleyofthekings for advanced digital copy.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sending this advance reader copy for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

A fascinating read; it's a fusion of textbook and biography. So much information to absorb that it took me awhile to finish. My advance reader copy doesn't come with the finishes in a purchased book and I'm disappointed that the photos weren't there. The descriptions were intriguing, and I may now google to see what these ladies and 19th century Egypt looked like. Some of these women overlapped in time and it meant I had to backtrack to keep up.
That said this book required so much research that I'm in awe of the author. Also, a bit jealous that she traveled to Egypt and walked in their footsteps as much as possible. Egyptology in its early days was a hodgepodge of good and bad technique and the ladies in this book were more detailed and careful than their male counterparts. Such a shame that they were lost in the conversations and written history of the time. Places that celebrated them in life have forgotten them and moved on. My personal favorite changed as the book went from lady to lady, they are all wonderful in their own right. I enjoyed every page.

#WomenintheValleyoftheKings #KathleenSheppard #NetGalley #St.Martin'sPress #biography #egyptology #historicalbiography #historicalegyptology

My sincere appreciation to Kathleen Sheppard for opening my eyes to the tremendous accomplishments of the women at the forefront of Egyptology in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. Their documentation of the excavations of the tombs as well as their amazing sketches of the art on the walls was truly amazing…especially when the lighting conditions were so very poor. I kept imagining what it was like for some of the women - being mostly subservient in the male dominated field. It makes sense that they were the ones providing medical aid and support to the workers and their families, while their male comrades treated them as if they didn’t exist. Their living conditions were so varied, again such interesting research. I have to admit to being somewhat angry over the “finders keepers” philosophy they employed at the time.
The fact that many of them could travel, live, and work with another women they loved was very heartwarming to read.
The wealth of research in this book was truly incredible. I found myself struggling at times with the frequent repetitions of information. I appreciated the chunking of information about so many of these astounding women, and the way so many of their lives and research interconnected, but the back and forth timelines did cause some confusion.
My favorite of all of these stories was the section sharing Emma and Theo’s lives. The exhilaration they must have felt when the tomb was finally revealed. Their diverse approaches were so very obvious. Riding on a shaded chair carried along by 4-8 donkeys provided such a strong visual.
Next time I am perusing artifacts from an exhibition including items from Egypt I will have a whole new appreciation for the amazing women who helped bring them into the light. Many, many thanks to Kathleen Sheppard, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read an arc of this well researched book, published on 7-16. Three and a half stars.

Kathleen Sheppard expounds on the legacy of women in the field of Egyptology in Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age

To the reviewers calling this dry, too "scholarly", and lacking in biographical information about the women, what book were you reading? This was fascinating!

Sheppard devotes seven chapters to the women who "played major roles in many major finds in Egypt, but their stories are rarely mentioned (if at all)." The stories are thoroughly researched, the women's contributions detailed, their personal lives explored. The women were scholars and academics, patrons, curators, artists, record keepers, writers, and collectors. They had significant impact to the entire field, in Egypt and in institutions across the globe. That impact is still evident - if you've visited the Tomb of Perneb at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York you can thank Caroline Ransom Williams (chapter 7) who directed its preservation and reconstruction, opening to the public in 1916.

The stories overlap, which reinforces Sheppard's point that the circles these women inhabited were small, interwoven, and sometimes interdependent. They opened doors for each other and the next generation.

The detail is rich. We arrive on the shores of the Nile, feel the heat, climb the paths, sweep away the dust. We're in their world, experiencing their obstacles, admiring their tenacity.

The colonial history is problematic and Sheppard addresses it directly: "It is a period in which wealthy, white Europeans and Americans ran rampant over the cultural heritage of a colonized country and its people, vandalizing and pillaging as they went." and leads us through the end of British occupation in the 50s. The women appeared to give much more credit to the Egyptian workers in the excavations than their male counterparts. Many of the men come across as pompous buffoons, destroying artifacts as they scrambled to be first into the tombs.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC.

Women in the Valley of the Kings is a well written look at the women of the late 1800's and early-to-mid 1900's who worked in the field as Egyptologists, including the ones that worked more behind-the-scenes to support the field as it blossomed. Having been to Egypt in 2018, I loved reading about places I've visited through the lens of the early travelers who fell in love with Egypt and dedicated their lives to supporting nascent field of Egyptology, whether through funding, training, educating the public, working as copyists (artists), or excavating themselves. These women typically lived and worked in the shadow of the "great men" of the field, who got to do most of the more exciting work and get the glory and credit for their findings. I enjoyed reading about the significant contributions of these women, who deserve to be remembered.

I enjoyed Women in the Valley of the Kings by Kathleen Sheppard. Egypt, the tombs, and mummies have always fascinated me. I was not disappointed. To read about remarkable women who were left out of history was exciting. The book is long and at times connections were hard for me to keep straight. I read a digital copy and I believe I missed out on a number of photographs in the book.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I gave it 4 stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The history of Egyptology is often told as yet one more grand narrative of powerful men striving to seize the day and the precious artifacts for their competing homelands. But that is only half of the story. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century while men even conceived of claiming the story for themselves, women were working in Egypt to lay the groundwork for all future exploration. Kathleen Sheppard brings the untold stories of these women back into this narrative. Sheppard begins with some of the earliest European women who ventured to Egypt as travelers: Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst. Their travelogues, diaries and maps chronicled a new world for the curious. In the vast desert, Maggie Benson, the first woman granted permission to excavate in Egypt, met Nettie Gourlay, the woman who became her lifelong companion. They battled issues of oppression and exclusion and, ultimately, are credited with excavating the Temple of Mut. As each woman scored a success in the desert, she set up the women who came later for their own struggles and successes. Emma Andrews’ success as a patron and archaeologist helped to pave the way for Margaret Murray to teach. Margaret’s work in the university led to the artists Amice Calverley’s and Myrtle Broome’s ability to work on site at Abydos, creating brilliant reproductions of tomb art, and to Kate Bradbury’s and Caroline Ransom’s leadership in critical Egyptological institutions. Women in the Valley of the Kings upends the grand male narrative of Egyptian exploration and shows how a group of courageous women charted unknown territory and changed the field of Egyptology forever.

I love reading books of strong women that are portrayed as being successful in history in areas mostly dominated by men. This was a very interesting book about several women and their contributions and patronage to uncovering Egypt's history. The author did extensive research and has extensive notes at the end of the book. I traveled to this area many years ago so this book was especially interesting to me. The author tells the history of these women in a way that is so interesting and not dry as many histories tend to be. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this very readable history of some very strong and dedicated women.

Women in the Valley of Kings by Kathleen Sheppard

This was my first book discussing Egyptology, and I’m not entirely sure I was the target audience. This book, while it was evident a tremendous amount of research went into it, didn’t provide context for many of the facts shared. Often times, I felt like I didn’t know enough about this subject to fully appreciate the women’s contributions.

I also struggled with the organization. It wasn’t exactly chronological because sometimes a chapter would end with the death of a woman and the next chapter would have her alive and well again. Also, there were so many people introduced in each chapter that I felt even more lost.

I didn’t mind the factual way the book read. It struck a formal informative tone that I appreciated. Based on my reading, it appeared as if limited resources were available to the author, so she worked with what she had and created this resource.

While I don’t think a casual fan of Egyptology is the target audience, I do believe if you know much about this subject and want to examine female involvement in this sector, this book will be very informative.

This history will delight not only women interested in Egyptology or Victorian women travelers, but those in favour of women's emancipation, anyone examining Victorian-era same-sex relationships, and fans of the Amelia Peabody novels by Elizabeth Peters. That last group already know the series’ heroine was named for, and inspired by, Amelia B. Edwards, whose early impact on the study and preservation of Egyptian antiquities cannot be overstated. Amelia P even sails the Nile in a dahabiyeh named for the one rented by Amelia B a few decades earlier (The Philae).

The book will also infuriate many with its detailed account of myriad ways in which the female fore-sisters of modern Egyptology were overlooked, silenced, ignored, and written out of the official records even when their record-keeping was used as primary sources by male Egyptologists and their wealthy patrons for fame, acclaim, published excavation reports, and academic treatises. The free-spirited and wealthy American, Emma Andrews, long remembered only as the mistress of the Egyptophilic archaeological patron Theodore Davis, not only jointly funded excavations with him but was rigorous in her daily recording of activities at their dig sites. Her journals, maps, and drawings were sometimes the only source of information about significant finds credited to Davies or his hired archaeologists, yet she never received credit in her lifetime and there is no known surviving photograph of her. And none of the women in this book are mentioned in the most recent Wikipedia page on the Valley of the Kings (as of July 2024).

This is not a dry academic book, but a readily readable series of interconnected profiles of the women who reshaped Egyptian excavation from a disorganized, disrespectful race for personal glory into a scholarly, rigorous discipline, along the way advancing not only academic understanding of ancient Egyptian society but also women’s educational opportunities and their professional standing in several formerly male-dominated arenas.

Back around to the fans of the Amelia Peabody series of historical mystery novels by Elizabeth Peters: this book is a feast for any of you who thrilled to each significant KV tomb found during Amelia P’s adventures, or the temple of Queen Hatshepsut, or the mummies of Yuya and Thuya, whose daughter Tiye became the chief wife of Amenhotep III. So many familiar references lend their life and substance to the fictional discoveries by Amelia Peabody and her husband Emerson, their son Ramses and his wife Nefret. It's an excellent accompaniment to that fictional family, and a really good read as a standalone book on early women archaeologists.

#Egyptology #History #WomensHistory #WomenInTheValleyOfTheKings

For years our view of the Golden Age of Egyptology has been filled with visions of Indiana Jones-like men gathering the relics of an ancient civilization and bringing them to the world. Kathleen Shepherd turns this idea on its head with Women in the Valley of the Kings. In this book she highlights the pioneering women whose contributions to the field have been overlooked for decades, even though they were crucial to the development of the field.

The book is fascinating history that reads like a novel. I couldn’t put it down until I reached the last page. Her descriptions of the landscape and time period are so precise, I feel like I’m baking in the Egyptian sun with these incredible women. I can’t recommend this book enough. It’s amazing!

I received an advance review copy of this book for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.