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.