By Amara Thornton
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There are many women artists in the history of archaeology, some of whom I've written about on this blog - Annie Quibell, Lena George, Jessie Mothersole, Freda Hansard, Mary Chubb.

In December (2015) I participated in a fascinating workshop, "Overlooked Women Artists and Designers 1851-1918" organised by the Tate's British Art Network.  Speakers came together to present on various women artists, their work, networks, spaces and evidence of practice (such as Sally Woodstock's work on the women artists holding accounts at artists' colourman Charles Roberson & Co through the company's account book archive).  My paper featured my continuing research on Jessie Mothersole.  

We were subsequently invited to contribute short pieces based on our papers to a "Conversation" forum on the Paul Mellon Centre's new digital journal British Art Studies.  The full (and ongoing) Conversation "Still Invisible?" begins with Patricia de Montfort and Robyne Erica Calvert's "Provocation".  Pieces are still being published in subsequent waves.  So, Jessie Mothersole is now featured amongst her fellow artist contemporaries once more.  I'm sure she'd be pleased.

By Amara Thornton

I’m not ashamed to say that my first experience with the phenomenon of World’s Fairs was through Vincente Minnelli’s 1944 musical blockbuster Meet Me in St. Louis.*  It was one of the few VHS tapes in my childhood babysitter’s house – consequently I’ve seen it so many times I’ve lost count. So when I came across a reference earlier this year to the Egyptian archaeology display at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition (aka the St. Louis World’s Fair) it’s hardly surprising that Judy Garland’s “Trolley Song” sprung almost immediately to mind. 

Said reference was in artist and Egyptologist Annie Pirie Quibell's obituary – I was then writing a brief biographical sketch on her for the Trowelblazers website.  It was an added bonus when, a few months later, I came across another St. Louis World’s Fair connection in the Palestine Exploration Fund's archive: three grand prize certificates awarded to the Fund by the Fair’s judges.  I’ve been researching temporary archaeological exhibitions in the late 19th/early 20th centuries for the past few years, so my interest was piqued.  

As it happens, it’s the 110th anniversary of the St. Louis World’s Fair this year, so exploring the Fair’s connections to British archaeology seems timely.  Additionally, recent controversy over the proposed sale of Egyptian antiquities by the American Institute of Archaeology's St Louis branch highlights another more troubling dimension of the city's relationship with British archaeology – one that draws past and present more closely together.   

The St. Louis World’s Fair opened on 30 April 1904 after an extensive period of preparation.  For an admission fee (50¢ for adults; 25¢ for children under 12) World’s Fair visitors could access the buildings and sites of the Fair’s sixteen Departments displaying items from over forty countries.  In addition, “the Pike” contained individually priced attractions: recreations of historical events, foreign cities (including Cairo and Jerusalem) or sights – picture, if you will, a mini-Vegas before Vegas.

There were two main locations for viewing archaeology in the Fair.  The first and most extensive was in the Department of Anthropology, a wing of the Fair’s Administration building.  The Egyptian archaeology display sat alongside other archaeology exhibits from the United States, Brazil and Mexico on the "Main Floor" of the Anthropology building.  Britain had occupied Egypt since 1882; as a result of its role, a British Commissioner, long-term Cairo resident and businessman Herman Lawford, led Egypt’s World’s Fair representatives.  James Edward Quibell, one of the British Inspectors of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, was responsible for coordinating and arranging the archaeology exhibit.  

The materials for the display were transported in 142 cases that arrived in St Louis at the end of February 1904.  These were distributed into Rooms 100 and 101 of the Anthropology Department – at the expense, the St Louis Republic reported – of the ‘telephone girls’ whose offices were requisitioned to house the larger-than-expected array of ancient Egyptian material.

J. E. Quibell and his wife Annie Quibell travelled from their home in Egypt to St Louis to install the display.  Both of them were credited in the Fair’s Official Catalogue for their work.  By far the most popular attractions of the Egypt display were the recreated tomb of 'Rakapu' and the three life-sized dioramas.  In an extensive illustrated article published in March 1904, the St Louis Republic highlighted these ancient Egyptian ‘scenes'.  Populated by Paris-made plaster casts of human figures adorned with the ornaments of the ancients and swathed in a combination of ancient and ‘modern’ textiles, the 'scenes' also contained real (ancient) tools and implements.  The stones of Rakapu’s tomb were imported to St Louis and reconstructed in the exhibition, enabling visitors to walk into the tomb and view its interior inscriptions.  The rest of the antiquities, including mummies and coffins, beads, pottery, glass and ushabtis were arranged in cases and labelled.

Across the acreage of the Fair from the Anthropology building was the Palace of Liberal Arts.  Great Britain's substantial exhibit there emphasised its innovative role in geography and topography. Three archaeological collectives were among the organisitions illustrating British prowess: the Palestine Exploration Fund, supporting exploration and excavations in the Holy Land; the Egypt Exploration Fund, supporting excavations in Egypt; and the Cretan Exploration Fund, supporting Arthur Evans’ excavations at Knossos.  By this time American branches or local secretaries were partially supporting both the Palestine and Egypt Exploration Funds.

Fast forward just over a century, and St Louis is back in the archaeological news.  Earlier this month, the Archaeological Institute of America's St Louis branch (known as the St Louis Society, and established in 1906) was planning to sell Egyptian artefacts from its collection at the auction house Bonhams.  These artefacts had been allocated to the Society in 1914 in return for financial support for archaeologist Flinders Petrie’s British School of Archaeology in Egypt. 

A recent statement from Egypt Exploration Society (formerly Fund)’s Director Chris Naunton and Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology curator Alice Stevenson highlights that the artefacts selected for sale were given with the explicit caveat that they should remain accessible to the public in a museum.  The sale of these objects at Bonhams would have opened them up to purchase for a private (inaccessible) collection.  The date of the sale was set for 2 October, but at the last moment it was announced that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City had acquired the objects.  The Archaeological Institute of America has now issued a statement condemning the St Louis Society's decision to put the antiquities up for sale.

As Chris Naunton has noted, the news of this sale draws attention to the relevance of the history of archaeology today.   A new collaborative project, Artefacts of Excavation, co-led by Alice Stevenson, will be investigating the distribution of artefacts from British excavations in Egypt to museums and collections across the globe. Of more direct relevance to this post, however, is the role of Anglo-American relations in this history.

The World’s Fair brought the fruits of British archaeology in Egypt, the Holy Land and the Eastern Mediterranean, both physical and intellectual, to a wider public. It also reflected Western authorities' control over Egypt’s antiquities – a control that continues to have significant implications for collections today.  This power is no more potently expressed than in the words of Frederick J. V. Skiff, the World Fair’s Director of Exhibits:

I've guest posted about two British archaeologists, Agnes Conway Horsfield and Annie Pirie Quibell (subject of a previous post), for the splendid website Trowelblazers!

"Annie Pirie Quibell: Egypt in Words and Pictures" can be found here.

"Agnes Conway Horsfield: Have Camera, Will Travel" can be found here.

I’ve known about the artist and archaeologist Annie Pirie Quibell (1862-1927) for some time – I first came across her during my PhD research.  She first went out to Egypt in the late 19th century to be a copyist on Flinders Petrie’s excavations, fell in love with another Egyptologist, James Edward Quibell, and spent much of her adult life in Egypt.  James Edward Quibell became an inspector in the Egyptian Antiquities Service, a role that meant living in Egypt and travelling around the country surveying and managing protection and conservation of sites and antiquities, dealing with tourists, other officials, and archaeologists from here and there.  Annie Quibell was her husband’s collaborator, and published several books in her own right.  These included A Guide to the Pyramids of Giza, The Tombs of Sakkara, Egyptian History and Art, and my personal favourite, A Wayfarer in Egypt.  

A Wayfarer is Annie Quibell’s travel guide, memoir and (as it turns out) swansong to her life in Egypt – she died two years after it was published.  When I first dipped into it at the British Library one of the things I noticed was how many other women she referenced in it.  Her list of recommended books on Egypt features the work of Mrs R. L. Devonshire, Lucie Lady Duff Gordon, and Niya Salima (pseudonym of Eugenie Le Brun), as well as her own books on Egypt.  I can imagine the ladies who bought Quibell's book learning more about women's history in Egypt than perhaps they would have gotten through other sources. But A Wayfarer is not just a travel guide – it’s a glimpse into late 19th/early 20th century Egypt through the eyes of a woman who came to know the country intimately, and who clearly cared as much about modern Egypt as she did about its ancient past.  I now, happily, own my own copy, so I can see Egypt through Annie Quibell's eyes any time I like. 

In her opening chapter on Alexandria, amongst descriptions of the remains of the ancient city, Quibell makes special mention of the women weavers near Burg (Borg al Arab), a suburb of Alexandria.  Their lives devastated in raids during the First World War, the Egyptian government gave a subsidy for their upkeep.  Nina Baird, the English woman in charge of said subsidy, encouraged these Egyptian ladies to turn their domestic weaving skills to commercial use; the carpets and rugs they made were sent to Cairo and Alexandria for sale.  It’s hard to know from Quibell’s words what the conditions for these women were like.  But the fact that these women and their crafts are among the elements of Alexandrian life that she highlights I think is pretty significant. 

When I looked Annie Quibell up in the UCL Library catalogue, I found a copy of her Egyptian History and Art in the Institute library’s Egyptology section.  The Institute’s library is another story in itself (involving archaeologist Joan du Plat Taylor).  Occasionally inscriptions or book-plates of archaeologists past can be found in the library's copies of old excavation reports and publications.  In this case, pasted inside the front cover of the Institute’s copy of Quibell’s Egyptian History  was an obituary of the woman herself; a fading reminder of the role she played in the history of archaeology in Egypt.  

References/Further Reading:
Quibell, A. 1925. A Wayfarer in Egypt. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.

Quibell, A. 1923. Egyptian History and Art with reference to museum collections. London: Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. 

Quibell, A. [c. 1910] The Pyramids of Giza. Cairo: Church Missionary Society.

Young, L. 2014. Annie Abernethie Quibell. Ancient Egypt 14 (4): 16-23.

Young, L. 2013. Tale of a Mysterious Photo Album. Nekhen News 25: 28-29.

Young, L. 2012. Death on the Nile. Nekhen News 24: 29-30.

Nekhen News. 1997. Hierakonpolis Centenary. Nekhen News 9: 12-13.