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Amelia Blandford Edwards
1841-1892
Novelist, Traveller and Egyptologist
Amelia and her friend Lucy travelled to Cairo in 1873. They were joined on their trip by an artist friend. They hired a houseboat and sailed up the Nile. Travelling at their own pace they could spend as long as they liked visiting sites. They even excavated a small temple that they had discovered. Amelia had been commissioned by her publisher to write a book about the holiday. It took her two years to research and write the book called ‘A thousand Miles up the Nile’.
The book included a great deal of carefully researched information about the sites visited and the culture of ancient Egypt. Amelia believed that travellers could not understand and appreciate what they were seeing, if they did not know the history behind it. She became an expert in Egyptology and could read hieroglyphs.
She criticised the looting of ancient sites and on her return to England she helped form the ‘Egypt Exploration Society’ to promote and finance a more careful approach to excavation and the publication of detailed site reports.
On our visit to Bristol Museum, we went to a workshop and looked at some ancient Egyptian artefacts, which Amelia might have discovered on her journey up the Nile. These included tools, toys, jewellery, incense and household items.