Amelia Edwards

Amelia B Edwards (1831-1892) is an enigmatic character of the Victorian period. She was highly skilled as a novelist, musician, and artist but her life took an unexpected turn when she visited Egypt in 1873. For the remainder of her life she campaigned for the exploration of Egyptian sites and monuments and for them to be recorded for future generations. Her journey in Egypt was published as a travelogue, A Thousand Miles up the Nile, and generated interest in Egyptian heritage among the British public. From these beginnings, Amelia founded the Egypt Exploration Society and, on her death, endowed the first professorship for Egyptology in England. Today, her legacy is controversial. While she is respected as a pioneer of British Egyptology, she is also criticised for her support in distributing Egyptian artefacts out of Egypt, and for the orientalising and racist language used in her narratives.