By Amara Thornton
Children of the West, we are all wayfarers and strangers in an Eastern land…”
-A. Quibell, “Preface”, A Wayfarer in Egypt (1925)
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.
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.
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