A wealthy retired businessman and art collector from New York and Newport, R.I., Theodore M. Davis financed a series of archeological excavations in Egypt between 1889 and 1912. Avid, but not necessarily disciplined in his approach, he supported a remarkably productive series of excavations at Thebes and, in the work for which he is best remembered, in the Valley of the Kings. On many of these expeditions, Davis was accompanied by his relative, Emma B. Andrews.
During thirteen seasons in the Valley of the Kings, Davis had the good fortune to employ a number of famously talented excavators. Under his watch, James E. Quibell uncovered the tomb of Yuya and Tjuyu in 1903 (known today as KV46), Edward Ayrton discovered the tomb usually identified as Akhenaten's or Smenkhkare's (KV55) in 1907 and of Horemheb (KV57) in 1908, and a young Howard Carter helped excavate the tomb of Tuthmosis IV (KV43) in 1903. Carter left Davis in 1907 to join the Earl Carnarvon, and a few years later, Davis is reported to have said that the Valley of the Kings was exhausted as an archaeological site. This turn of events set up the story of one of the great missed opportunities in Egyptology: Davis had excavated in the area around the tomb of Tutankhamun, which became Carter's greatest find, but had failed to discover the entrance. The bulk of the antiquities Davis unearthed were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, of which Davis was a major benefactor.
Emma Andrews's diary is valuable on two scores. First, at its best, it provides a literate and often detailed record of an adventurous American woman traveling in fin de siecle Egypt and (to a lesser degree) Italy and her encounters with life in the colonial British settlements along the Nile. Prone to discussions of local color, local squalor, and of the high life among the colonial gentry, Andrews's fascination with the country blends with her descriptions of hobnobbery with the scientific and cultural elite in a revealing manner.
Second, although Andrews often spent more time on Davis's dahabiyeh (houseboat), the Bedawin, than on shore, her diary does provide some important details on the appearance of tombs in the Valley of the Kings as they were first unearthed, including the KV55 site as it was first opened in January 1907. Andrews embelishes her brief description of KV55 with a rough sketch of the interior, and throughout, she makes interesting references to other Egyptologists with whom she came in contact during her tours. As a key to the chronology of events and impression of the appearance of the sites and personalities involved, it remains a valuable resource.
The original diary from which this transcript was made is held at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City.
Gift of Herbert R. Winlock, February 1944.
Cite as: Emma B. Andrews, A Journal on the Bedawin, American Philosophical Society.
Recatalogued by Ann Reinhardt, 2002.
The Andrews Diary is available on microfilm (Film 1499).
Emma B. Andrews's original diary is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where they accompany the collection of Egyptian antiquities collected by Theodore M. Davis.
Access digital object:https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:284613
