0.2 Egypt through the stereoscope: stereography and virtual travel  (Page 2/3)

Around the same time that photography was being established as a leading form of art and communication,Egyptology, the study of Egyptian civilization, was becoming an important field of study. Egyptologists used photographs todocument and study their findings, while photographers helped to feed the public interest in Egypt with their stunning views of thecountry’s monuments, artifacts, historic sites and daily life. In the late 1850s, photographer Francis Frith toured Egypt andproduced Stereoscopic Views of the Holy Land, Egypt and Nubia . Reviewing Francis Frith’s exquisite stereographs, The Times of London raved, “You look through your stereoscope, and straightway you stand beside the fabled Nile,watching the crocodile asleep upon its sandy shore, with the superb ruins of Philae in the distance. The scene changes, and you are inthe Desert…. ” (qtd. by Evans). Beginning in the 1870s, photographers based in Egypt such as G. Lekegian and J. Heyman&Co. produced stereographs, selling particularly to tourists. US publisher Underwood and Underwood made a boxed set ofstereographs focusing on Egypt that William Darrah calls “the best stereo representation of the region ever published” (132).

James henry breasted’s egypt through the stereoscope

Egyptologist Dr. James Henry Breasted (1865-1935) was likewise impressed by the Underwood stereographs ofEgypt: “Having seen the Oriental photographs of Mesrs. Underwood&Underwood, I am very glad to testify to their unusual beauty and value, and to assure the publishers that their collectionoffers to the purchaser a very vivid and adequate picture of the countries and peoples illustrated” (qtd. by Evans). Since Breastedwas recognized as a leading expert on Egypt, Underwood sought his endorsement and invited him to write a guidebook to accompany aboxed set of Egyptian stereoviews. Breasted came to the study of Egypt through his interest in religion. Skeptical about thehistorical accuracy of the Bible, Breasted went to Yale University to study Hebrew with William Rainey Harper. When Harper became president of the University of Chicago, he recruited Breasted toteach Egyptology in the university’s department of biblical studies and sent him to study at the University of Berlin with notedEgyptologist Adolf Erman. Breasted received his Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1894, writing his dissertation on PharaohAkhnaten's hymns to the sun god. He and his new wife Francis Hart toured Egypt for their honeymoon in 1894, taking a two-month cruisealong the Nile and stopping at historic sites along the way. Breasted returned to the US and became a faculty member at theUniversity of Chicago and assistant director of its Haskell Oriental Museum. Breasted gave lectures about Egyptian history andculture throughout the US, which honed his ability to communicate with a non-academic audience. He built a reputation as the UnitedStates’ leading Egyptologist with the publication of two works: Ancient Records of Egypt (1906-1907), a five-volume translation ofhistorical inscriptions until 525 B.C., when the Persians first conquered Egypt; and A History of Egypt (1905), a chronologicalsurvey from prehistory to 525 B.C. He also published a popular textbook, Ancient Times: A History of the Early World (1916).Breasted made an important contribution to the field of ancient Near Eastern studies by establishing the University of Chicago’sOriental Institute, which became a leading research center (Van De Mieroop).