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2025 SPRING LECTURES
Annual Korsyn Lecture
March 29, 2025
Classroom L2
3:30 PM
Dr. Kathleen Sheppard
Professor of History
Director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society, Missouri S&T
“Amelia Edwards’ United States Lecture Tour and the Beginnings of American Egyptology”
Bio:
Dr. Kathleen Sheppard is a Professor in the History and Political Science department at Missouri S&T in Rolla, Missouri. She earned her MA in Egyptian Archaeology at University College London in 2002, and her PhD in History of Science from the University of Oklahoma in 2010. Her first book was a scientific biography of Margaret Alice Murray (2013) that focused on Murray’s life and career, both in and out of Egyptology. She has spent her whole career telling the stories of women in Egyptology. Her most recent book, Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age (St. Martins Press, 2024) is a grand retelling of the history of Egyptology through the work that women did.
Often we talk about Egyptology in the US beginning in Chicago with the Cairo exhibit on the Midway at the World Columbian Exhibition in 1892. Or we say interest in Egypt began when the University of Chicago was founded, with a department and a museum dedicated to the subject, in 1895. Others place importance in the earlier collections, like the Abbott Collection in New York as early as the 1860s. However, using Bradbury’s letters home during the tour, newspaper reports, Edwards’ lectures, and other contemporaneous materials, I argue that it wasn’t wealthy men who started building Egyptological institutions in the US. Instead, the catalyst for widespread public interest in Egyptology in the United States was the initial encounters with ancient Egypt made possible by a women-led lecture tour in the winter of 1889-90.
Obviously these women did not travel a thousand miles on the Hudson River, but they easily traversed that distance in the time they were in the US, speaking to and meeting with influential people across the country. This presentation will outline the journey of Amelia Edwards and Kate Bradbury and the impact they had on the Egyptology in the US. KORSYN ANNUAL LECTURE
In
an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer (Oct. 1987) on the importance of the
Museum’s Egyptian section volunteers, Felix is quoted as saying “Handling these
objects is a privilege. We’re not spinning our wheels here, we’re making an
important contribution.” This is
especially so for Felix’s work at the museum, and continues to be true today
through the Korsyn Fund, which has enabled ARCE-PA to host prominent scholars
for our members and guests.
Abstract:
On a cold November evening in 1889, Amelia Edwards took the stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, New York. The lecture she gave to 2,400 people that night, entitled “The buried cities of Ancient Egypt,” was a success. Over the next four months, Edwards gave over 100 lectures all over the northeastern US, and as far West as Chicago and Minneapolis, exciting interest in Egypt everywhere she went. Alongside her every step of the way was her secretary, assistant, hair and makeup artist, and friend, Kate Bradbury.
Often we talk about Egyptology in the US beginning in Chicago with the Cairo exhibit on the Midway at the World Columbian Exhibition in 1892. Or we say interest in Egypt began when the University of Chicago was founded, with a department and a museum dedicated to the subject, in 1895. Others place importance in the earlier collections, like the Abbott Collection in New York as early as the 1860s. However, using Bradbury’s letters home during the tour, newspaper reports, Edwards’ lectures, and other contemporaneous materials, I argue that it wasn’t wealthy men who started building Egyptological institutions in the US. Instead, the catalyst for widespread public interest in Egyptology in the United States was the initial encounters with ancient Egypt made possible by a women-led lecture tour in the winter of 1889-90.
Obviously these women did not travel a thousand miles on the Hudson River, but they easily traversed that distance in the time they were in the US, speaking to and meeting with influential people across the country. This presentation will outline the journey of Amelia Edwards and Kate Bradbury and the impact they had on the Egyptology in the US.
KORSYN ANNUAL LECTURE
ARCE-PA is proud to host the
Annual Korsyn Lecture. This annual lecture event is in honor of Felix J.
Korsyn, a beloved volunteer of the Penn Museum's Egyptian Section. Our first
Korsyn Lecture was in May 2006, and has been held regularly since 2008.
FELIX KORSYN
A
Retrospective*
by
JJ Shirley, PhD
The
Felix J. Korsyn Fund was established in 1993. It is dedicated to promoting
scholarship in ancient Egypt through a Prize in Egyptology, awarded to a
graduate student in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as
through the annual Korsyn Lecture, hosted by the American Research Center in
Egypt-Pennsylvania Chapter. The Fund was established by Felix’s wife, Irene
Korsyn, to honor both his memory and his devotion to the University Museum and
its Egyptian Section, where he worked as a volunteer for nearly 20 years.
Felix
Korsyn’s interest in “old things” was a life-long one. Although professionally he was an
advertising executive, he was an avid traveler to parts of the world as
disparate as Nepal, Kenya, Greece, and of course Egypt. His general interest in
history led him to become an expert in early American antiques, particularly
pre-Revolutionary furniture and architecture. Felix amassed quite a collection
of furniture, which, as his son Kevin recalls, was used to furnish one of the
family's early homes. It also gave Felix a very detailed knowledge of different
types of wood, which types were used during which period, and for what purpose,
and the ability to distinguish whether furniture or architectural pieces had
been tampered with in any way. His
expertise in this area was utilized by St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, for whom
he contributed time and expertise in the restoration of their pre-Revolutionary
schoolhouse.
In
1975 Felix Korsyn retired from his “day job” and begin volunteering at the
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. Ancient
Egypt held the most fascination for him, and he joined a group of volunteers,
many of whom worked nearly full-time, under the direction of the “Keeper of the
Collection,” Charles Detwiler. Called the Ushabtis,
after the servant statues placed in the tombs of ancient Egyptians to assist
them in the afterlife, the volunteers held a variety of skills, all of which
were brought to bear for the benefit of the Museum’s vast collection of ancient
Egyptian artifacts. Felix
contributed his architectural knowledge to building new shelving for the
artifacts, and as a side project of his own created a reproduction of a coffin
lid.
His
skills as a photographer, gained through his world-wide travels, made him the
ideal person to begin the photographic record of the Egyptian objects held by
the Museum. Over a period of about
5 years (1988-1993), Felix photographed a wide variety of the Egyptian
section’s objects, resulting in some 80 rolls of film and nearly 3000
images. During this time his
specialty became the photography of inscribed objects, including nearly all of
the inscribed material from the University’s excavations at Denderah and
Abydos, as well as a number of coffin boards. The difficulty of producing high-quality photographs of this
material was a challenge that Felix gladly took on. According to his son, Kevin, Felix invented many kinds of
specialized equipment as the need arose, including special lighting to produce
readable photographs of hieroglyphic inscriptions. The resulting high level of quality and detail is
demonstrated by the fact that his work continues to serve as a reference tool
for scholars within and outside of the museum.
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General Lecture Info for In-Person Events:
All lectures are FREE for ARCE-PA members and ARCE Members.
Entrance fees for ARCE-PA In-Person Lectures are:
$10 for the general public
$7 for Penn Museum members/Penn Staff/Penn Faculty
$5 for Students with ID
FREE for ARCE-PA Members, ARCE Members, & children under 12, unless otherwise stated.
All ARCE-PA entry fees will be taken at the door only of the lecture venue at the ARCE-PA table.
We will not accept entry fees via Paypal for In-Person Lectures.
Light refreshments will be served starting at 3 pm.
Per the Penn Museum COVID-19 protocols, masks are optional.
Light refreshments will be served starting at 3 pm.
Per the Penn Museum COVID-19 protocols, masks are optional.
If you are interested in joining ARCE or need to renew your membership*, please visit:
https://www.arce.org/membership
*Please do not forget to associate with the "Pennsylvania Chapter" in order to stay up to date with ARCE-PA events.
LECTURES SPRING 2025:
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March 29, 2025
2025 Korsyn Lecture
Dr. Kathleen Sheppard
Professor of History and Director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society, Missouri S&T
“Amelia Edwards’ United States Lecture Tour and the Beginnings of American Egyptology“
Classroom L2 3:30pm
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April 12, 2025
Rolland Long
University of Pennsylvania
“A DEM-onstration of Quantitative 3D Analysis: Lower Nubia in the Recent and Distant Past”
Classroom L2 3:30pm
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May 10 2025
Dr Antonio Morales
University of Alcalá (UAH, Madrid) & Director, MKTP
"The cemeteries of Deir el-Bahari and Asasif in the early Middle Kingdom: Recent work by the University of Alcalá expedition to Luxor"
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“A DEM-onstration of Quantitative 3D Analysis: Lower Nubia in the Recent and Distant Past”
Classroom L2 3:30pm
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May 10 2025
Dr Antonio Morales
University of Alcalá (UAH, Madrid) & Director, MKTP
"The cemeteries of Deir el-Bahari and Asasif in the early Middle Kingdom: Recent work by the University of Alcalá expedition to Luxor"
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JUNE 7 2025
Details will be mailed out to all ARCE-PA Members closer to the event date!
Meet up at a Museum is back!
Brooklyn Museum!
Meet up at a Museum is back!
Brooklyn Museum!
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