External event by Bolton Library and Museum Services
A chance visit to Egypt in 1873 by Amelia B Edwards changed the future of British Egyptology forever. Her travelogue, A Thousand Miles Up the Nile, would inspire generations after her to take up her message to support and promote Egyptian cultural heritage. In this evening’s lecture, Dr Carl Graves will talk about Amelia’s life and relive Amelia’s 1873 journey up the Nile. The presentation is illustrated with archival material held by the Egypt Exploration Society as well as original artwork by Amelia kept at the Griffith Institute and Somerville College, both University of Oxford, and the Peggy Joy Egyptology Library.
Bolton Museum is to display a newly conserved 130-year-old oil painting of Amelia Edwards, founder of the Egypt Exploration Society (EES). It will go on display from 12th June 2024 in the Bolton’s Egypt galleries.
The Oil Painting
This oil painting was donated to the Egypt Exploration Society in 1967 and shows Amelia B Edwards, founder of the Egypt Exploration Society. She is presented sitting next to a table with Egyptian artefacts, perhaps from her personal collection, and holding a small, faience, Egyptian funerary figurine, or ushabti.
It was donated by a Mrs Manston from Redruth in Cornwall. It is not immediately clear how this painting, and some personal notes of Amelia Edwards and her secretary Emily Paterson, came to be in her possession. However, it is known that the latter retired to Redruth in 1919 having served as Secretary of the EES from the death of Amelia Edwards in 1892.
