AN EGYPTIAN JOURNEY JUST BEFORE THE DISCOVERY OF TUTANKHAMUN’S TOMB - Original Collection of 96 Sepia Photographs of Egyptian Antiquities

This is a collection of 96 silver gelatin photographs mounted in a professionally produced album (17x21cm) bound in brown cloth with bevel edges and ‘Photographs’ in gilt to the upper board. Inscription of the presumed photographer ‘Nancy Parker January 1919’ to the front pastedown - two British women appear in an early image alongside a seated British officer, one of whom seems likely to be Parker, probably wife or sister to a member of the British colonial forces then occupying Egypt. Parker’s photographs are window-mounted (10.5x6cm), four to each of the 24 leaves. The first 40 or so photos have been annotated by Parker, starting with ‘River Nile & Elephantine Island from Grand Hotel. Assonan’ - the city of Aswan, followed by a sequence of shots of the Nile, alabaster quarries and a ‘Mohammedan Cemetery Assonan.’ Parker has photographed the Aswan low dam which preceded the 1960s High Dam following on with photographs of ‘Bishareen Villagers’ and then the Philae Temple Complex at Aswan - ‘The Temple of Isis’. Parker continued with images of the ‘Valley of Tombs of Queens’ and ‘Valley of Tombs of kings’ - this just a couple of years before the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. There are fine images of hieroglyphics, both exterior monuments and painted grave interiors photographed with flashlight including the ‘Tomb of Queen Nefertary’. The images are in fine condition and this album offers a fascinating glimpse of Egypt as seen through the colonising visitor’s lens.

By the time of this album’s construction Egypt was effectively under Britain’s military occupation in the form of a Protectorate, and with the help of Cook’s Egyptian travel had become the favourite winter resort of westerners. Nancy Parker was recording the Aswan area just two years preceding the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun would increase the flow of tourists to the area exponentially.