Ancient Egypt Remembered in Photographs | Excursions Along the Nile

Photo: Street vendors, Cairo, Egypt 1870's, albumen print from glass negative.

I found myself at a library book sell during the weekend of May 8, 2012, rummaging through the left behind collection of a collector of books in San Fernando Valley, Edgar Hermann, who recently passed. First the book sale attendant handed me a box, noticing my arms weighed with books. Then two boxes...I knew it was going to be a great weekend for this armchair historian. 


At this early review of my finds, I am most excited about acquiring the book "Excursions Along the Nile: The Photographic Discovery of Ancient Egypt," a 1993 art exhibition catalog of photographs of the Nile published by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California. The 100+ year old photographs of Cairo from the exhibition catalog are astonishing. I could not help but share a few of my favorites here with BHH readers. 

~ V. Cross

Photo: Great Pyramid and Sphinx, Egypt, 1873.

Photo: Scottish soldiers visit Sphinx in Egypt, 1880

Photo: Crocodile on sand bank of the Nile River, 1858.

Photo: Mosque at Cairo, Egypt 1857, albumen print from glass negative.

Photo: Street in Cairo, Egypt 1850's, salt print from paper negative

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Photo: Street of the Citadel, Cairo, c. 1858, stereo albumen print from glass negative.

Photo: boys swimming in the Nile River, 1873, albumen print from glass negative.

Photo: Cairo, Egypt from the Citadel, 1858.

Photo: view from the Summit of Mount Serbal, Egypt looking northeast, 1868, albumen print from glass negative.