Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age

by Kathleen Sheppard

The never-before-told story of the women Egyptologists who paved the way of exploration in Egypt and created the basis for Egyptology.

The history of Egyptology is often told as yet one more grand narrative of powerful men striving to seize the day and the precious artifacts for their competing homelands. But that is only half of the story. During the so-called Golden Age of Exploration, there were women working and exploring before Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tut. Before men even conceived of claiming the story for themselves, women were working in Egypt to lay the groundwork for all future exploration.

In Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age, Kathleen Sheppard brings the untold stories of these women back into this narrative. Sheppard begins with some of the earliest European women who ventured to Egypt as travelers: Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst. Their travelogues, diaries and maps chronicled a new world for the curious. In the vast desert, Maggie Benson, the first woman granted permission to excavate in Egypt, met Nettie Gourlay, the woman who became her lifelong companion. They battled issues of oppression and exclusion and, ultimately, are credited with excavating the Temple of Mut.

As each woman scored a success in the desert, she set up the women who came later for their own struggles and successes. Emma Andrews’ success as a patron and archaeologist helped to pave the way for Margaret Murray to teach. Margaret’s work in the university led to the artists Amice Calverley’s and Myrtle Broome’s ability to work on site at Abydos, creating brilliant reproductions of tomb art, and to Kate Bradbury’s and Caroline Ransom’s leadership in critical Egyptological institutions. Women in the Valley of the Kings upends the grand male narrative of Egyptian exploration and shows how a group of courageous women charted unknown territory and changed the field of Egyptology forever.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Egypt, Biography, Archaeology, Feminism, Historical

320 pages, Hardcover

First published July 16, 2024

About the author

Kathleen Sheppard was born and raised in the Midwestern United States, where she has now settled after years away. She earned an MA in Egyptian Archaeology from University College, London, where she met the memory of Margaret Murray for the first time. She earned an MA and PhD in History of Science from the University of Oklahoma, where she realized she wanted to find more women like Murray and has continued doing so ever since. She sits on the board of the Missouri Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt and is the Chapters’ Council VP. She is a Professor in the History and Political Science department at Missouri S&T and lives in central Missouri with her husband, son, dog and cat.

Reviews

[Debra - can't post any comments on site today grrr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love learning about ancient Egypt, the pyramids, the ancient artifacts, the excavations, mummies, etc. I was very excited to see a book was about women's involvement in this field including those who donated money, traveled to the sites and about the first woman granted permission to excavate. How thrilling for them to be able to travel there, to live there, to share their travels, their successes, their thoughts, and their struggles.

It is obvious that a tremendous amount of research went into the writing of this book. I could feel the author's enthusiasm for this subject and the women she shares with readers. I appreciated how she focused on women and their accomplishments, their traveling and inquisitive spirits, their determination and drive. Readers are also given insight into their lives, their love lives, and their marriages.

This book had so many positives, but it felt clunky at times and did not follow, at least for me, any sense of order. Plus, as other reviewers so aptly mentioned, this does feel like an academic book. I was hoping to feel more for the women, their drives, their travels, and their involvement surrounding the digs and local communities. I love learning new things and reading about real people but this book, while informative and extensively researched, didn't wow me as I had hoped.

But I do believe there is an audience for this book. There are some very interesting sections and I admired the women and their tenacity in this book. Please read the reviews of others who have enjoyed this book more than I did and decide for yourself.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com 📖

[Catharine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Special thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Originally when asked to read and review this book, I was elated. FINALLY!!!! A book about some women and their prominent roles within the shaping of Egyptology. I was excited to start learning a more well rounded historically accurate telling of who was prominent within this time period…not just the men, but finally women included!

Unfortunately, this book does not help fuel a want to learn more about women’s roles within this time period (late 1800s, early 1900s). The biggest issue I had in this book was that it is written like a college paper. Potentially this was a PhD dissertation before coming a full text? It reads horrifically dry, full of fact after fact that I feel all students write in to impress their professors. It assumes you know A LOT about this time period in history, and any lay person is going to be ridiculously confused. I personally have knowledge of Egyptology and some of the people involved in this text, and yet I was still constantly Googling who everyone was.

If that isn’t annoying enough, each chapter has about 5,000 names in it with zero context. What I mean by that is each chapter will speak about one or two specific women, and then add another bunch of names of people they knew or met, which you are supposed to just know already who they are DUH!!

The chapters are also not chronologically written, with the author talking about a women’s death and then in the next paragraph going back to them being alive and well working a project. I don’t understand why someone would write like this? Am I insane for assuming someone writing a biographical chapter about a historical figure would want to write from birth to death in order of big events? I can understand introducing a person and THEN going back to their “XYZ was born in blah blah blah,” but I don’t think I can wrap my head around the constant bouncing around.

If that isn’t enough, some people are writing into earlier chapters when their specific chapter isn’t until later in the book. I assume the name dropping is supposed to OOOH and AHHH the reader for what’s to come but in reality, I was incredibly frustrated trying to get through this piece because I had no idea who anyone ever was.

I will say I DID finish this book, solely because I try and finish all books I am reading, and not because I was engaged or wanting to read more. It was a slog to say the least, and that pisses me off because I feel it’s important to have contemporary pieces mentioning those who have been discarded or ignored before in history (specifically women in this case).

If you are someone who knows a LOT about history, specifically this “guilded age” of Egyptology…then I would recommend this book to you. It is full of information, but holy shit it will read like a text book and force you to contemplate what you’re doing with your life to get that information.

If you are a lay person, with not much knowledge about this era, or you THINK you know a lot, trust me this book will show you you don’t know shit and make you feel horrible about yourself for ever thinking you knew anything about Egyptology around the 1900s.

I do not recommend this piece, and I am angry that I have to say that because I was so excited for this one. Insert GIF of Tyra Banks in America’s Next Top Model screaming, “I was rooting for you, we were all rooting for you! How dare you?!”

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a sentence about 1/5 of the way into this book that I stopped and highlighted, because it seemed to sum up things so well. "If one had the time to travel and the money to support excavations or purchasing artifacts, or both, that was enough to make you an archaeologist at this point in the history of archaeology in Egypt." One has to take this fact into account when reading the stories of the women covered in this book (most of whom were British).

Some of them indeed had time and money, and after wandering into Egypt in hopes of a more healthful climate, they were smitten with what they saw going on, and decided they wanted to do it too, so they got together a bunch of money, found some man who was interested in or experienced with archaeology, and went off and started a dig; at which point they managed the day to day hiring and paying of the local workers who REALLY did the work. Some of them ended up holding the reins at home of academic departments, or of foundations set up to promote interest in and solicit funds for archaeological activity in Egypt, which they did extremely well. Some of them were such talented artists that they made better documentation of the interior art in excavated tombs than contemporary photographers could do. On the whole, I do not come away with the impression that they did research and chose likely locations to dig in, and had a leadership role in the actual archaeology.

On the other hand, at least pre 1900, given that nobody really had any expertise in this field, the men who were out there leading digs mostly seemed to be bashing about shouting "By jove" and "What ho" and often destroying as much as they appropriated. So context is important!

I am most convinced of the substantive work of Caroline Ransom, who almost singlehandedly documented and managed the Met Egyptian collections, and also traveled around documenting other collections as well. She had to amass a huge amount of knowledge in order to create guidebooks for the popular audiences who were flocking to see these items, as well as develop a procedure by which teams from the University of Chicago created hand-made copies of tomb art (which began to decay and vanish as the outside air flowed into the excavated tombs).

A few things needed the eye of a careful editor. For example, she refers to "hospital parades" a dozen or so pages before she actually tells you what they were. Occasionally a sentence just doesn't quite make sense or read smoothly and could have benefited from some rearranging. The chronology became a little confusing, as following the story of one woman would mean bringing in another one, briefly, even though her chapter was yet to come. At one point, someone is accompanied somewhere by "Nettie" but there is no indication that Nettie Gourlay was present at that site so I'm not sure how she popped into that paragraph and perhaps that was a mistake?

On the whole, it's fair to say that Egyptian archaeology, such as it was between 1880 and 1930, would not have been able to accomplish what it did without the skills and talents of these women, even if they were not out leading digs. That doesn't mean everything they did was super fascinating. If you already have some interest and background in ancient Egypt, this book will make a lot more sense to you; if you don't, this may or may not be a good place to start.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me a chance to read an advance galley of this book. I wish the pictures had been in it!!!

[Heidi (can’t retire soon enough)]

DNF

I’ve been looking forward to reading this for months but sadly after two chapters in (audiobook), I folded like an old army tent. Why? One reason… dry as the sands of Egypt!

I love history. I love stories of unsung women in men’s worlds. I simply adore all things tomb- related. And yet, I just could not stay awake.

Maybe I’ll try the book format and maybe not. I suspect I’m just not serious enough of a reader.

(Must say, in my defense, it was oddly organized and while there was some lovely name dropping, I’d have liked more adventure and less travel itineraries of the Gilded Age.)

[Mary-Lisa Russo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is described as "the never-before-told story of the women Egyptologists who paved the way of exploration in Egypt and created the basis for Egyptology."

I was thrilled to be asked to read and review this book as I am deeply fascinated by the history of Egyptology, and especially by the contributions made by women in an early, male-dominated time period.

These women were highly intelligent, wealthy, and determined- a powerful combination that helped them carve paths that intermingled with each other in this field. Their contributions (which varied with each woman) are worth knowing, empowering the female reader with a sense of wonder and leadership. Their uncredited work is deeply fascinating and inspiring.

A great deal of their exploits is revealed through documentations spearheaded by these women, and through their diaries and letter writing. This is sad as there were no formal documentations- only what these ladies created themselves.

The female perspective opens up a whole new viewpoint in this field in such a male-dominated time. This is an 'educational' book and reads as such. It's factual and formal in its tone.

I note that the book reveals that the author did extensive research and wholly immersed themselves in this writing project as conveyed through the detailed information in this book.

I am glad this book came to light and that the author took the time to put it together for our reading pleasure.

A lovely book for those seeking to read about the early contributions of women in this field.

Thank you to Kathleen Sheppard, and St. Martin's Press for an advanced e-copy of this book.

Recommended reading graded 4/5

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Women in the Valley of the Kings is what might be considered an alternate history of the world of Egyptology, the study and exploration of the fascinating ancient world of Egypt. It covers the history of several women involved in this work from the late 1880s to ca. 1950 as a way of describing what their lives tended to be like, how they were educated, how they were introduced to or became involved in Egyptian studies, and how they pursued their own goals.

Shepherd makes several points clear: most of these women came from wealthy backgrounds or had wealthy supporters. Most, but not all, of the women she has chosen to profile are British. This makes some sense as the British were the governing control of Egypt at the time and a British Egypt society regarding artifacts had been formed. Digging (? plundering ) had been going on in Egypt for some time by men from many countries with little to no standards. This was slowly going to change and many of these women were going to be part of that shift toward professional archaeologists with standards.

Another point the author makes clear is the vulnerability of a single woman on a dig or even traveling alone in Egypt. Having a male sponsor or a female companion was actually necessary for safety. A few of the women profiled were in what appeared to be long term relationships with their companions, something that gave them emotional support and financial stability. My chief complaint about the book is the amount of detail provided on each individual involved. By the last individual, however, Caroline Ransome Williams, I began to relent on that feeling. The details so thoroughly backed up Shepherd’s thesis that these women had been uniformly ignored by their field for a century after working so diligently to document, organize, and create lasting Egyptian exhibits, documents and knowledge.

This was a difficult book for me to rate but I decided on 3.5* rounded to 4* because of the author’s dedication to her subject and these women who worked so hard for so many years, often creating collections or programs that inspired young and old for generations on both sides of the Atlantic, only to be largely forgotten as the men in the field received adulation and credit.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. The review is my own.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I cannot help but thing that a more fitting tribute to these women would have been a book about their work and its historical significance. Instead it was largely focused on their sexual orientation, the gender inequalities of the time, and how they were far superior to men.

[Bailey Chadwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Alisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fine as a summary of the women who played key roles in 19th-20th century Egyptology, but it didn't really grab my attention. It's possible that separate biographies would make me feel more invested. If you're a committed Egyptophile (if there is such a word!) or perhaps a devotee of the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters, you might find it interesting. As someone with a relatively casual interest, though, I wasn't hooked.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this digital review copy!

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad I spotted this at the library because this was fascinating and it gives a more unique look into the field of Egyptology. Do I want to rewatch The Mummy now? Yes.

[Madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is about a time and place I find very interesting and I enjoyed that it was about the women who went to Egypt to work in the archeology digs, I found it difficult to read in long stretches. I realize the women did not approach the work in the same way the men did; they were involved in education and health care for the locals as well. They also entertained tourists who came to see the digs (or just to sponge off them for a few days). All these other duties kept them from their Egyptology. I was less interested in the details of their other duties and there were a lot of these details. This work is more of an academic book that students of female archeologists in Egypt would be able to mine for information. Sheppard has studiously referenced many sources and footnoted assiduously. She really knows her subject and has done students of Egyptian archeology a great favor by bringing all the work together.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC; the opinions expressed are wholly my own.

[Heather Moll · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to learn more about Egyptology beyond Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon. I thought his daughter the was the only woman in Egypt at the turn of the century and am glad to be proved wrong.

This reads like a thesis rather than something meant to both inform and entertain. It was hard for someone with my casual interest to access because there was a lack of context. There was also a lack of a cohesive narrative across all of the women’s separate stories. There’s a wealth of knowledge here, it was just a slog to get through. Probably best for those more familiar with this niche interest and not a lay person like me.

I received an arc from NetGalley

[Carla Remy]

This is an interesting and good book. I just haven’t wanted to read it. Maybe someday.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It had such potential but fell woefully short. Talk about a slog to read! I felt like I was reading someone’s dissertation. I give it (a weak) two stars because I did learn about a time period I didn’t know much about and that is always a good thing, learning something new.

Boy was it a struggle to get the information though, the writing was so dry and the structure of the book confusing. Sheppard profiles what feels like a hundred women and by the middle of the book I was overwhelmed trying to follow who was who. The women being profiled overlap so you’d read about a woman and she’d die at the end of her chapter and then in the next chapter she would be alive again and it would be like twenty years earlier than what it had been at the end of the book. The book would have benefited from a list of characters for the reader to refer to.

I found the hyperfocus on the women’s sexuality irritating. Ok, sure, it is relevant to discuss why women needed to be single in order to work in the field of Egyptology. And it’s relevant to discuss the perils of traveling as a woman back then and the need for women to travel with other women. The assumption that they were all gay was a stretch. I’m sure some were. Maybe some were asexual? Maybe some were religious and abstinent? Who knows? It’s not really germane to the discussion at hand to go on and on and on about who was dating who. Based on supposition!

I appreciated that the author wanted to give credit to all the women who worked behind the scenes. The women running the offices, cataloging the dig finds, paying the bills, writing letters, teaching classes etc. The men were out there playing Indiana Jones while the women worked in supporting roles which are vital to keeping everything running smoothly.

I also appreciated the author pointing out that it was Egyptians who were doing all the actual work while the white European and American men got all the credit and prestige. Honestly, the Egyptologists were looting the country and it wasn’t surprising at all to read about the riots in Cairo during WWII when the European district was burnt. All those years of being mistreated, of course the Egyptians were angry.

I thought Sheppard could have focused more on the class and race issues of the archaeological digs of the 19th century. It was wild how wealthy and spoiled the earlier Egyptologists were. Bringing their butler to the desert? Lol. Eating on china and drinking out of crystal. They were basically sitting around drinking tea and watching Egyptians dig for artifacts. Voila, that made them an archaeologist!

I must give Sheppard props for all the research she did. It wasn’t easy finding information about these women and it was impressive the amount she did end up discovering. I think what would be more informative and interesting would be to read a piece of historical fiction about one of the women, instead of a nonfiction book about a dozen women. I would have gotten a deeper sense of the era that way.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kathleen Sheppard expounds on the legacy of women in the field of Egyptology in Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age.

To the reviewers calling this dry, too "scholarly", and lacking in biographical information about the women, what book were you reading? This was fascinating!

Sheppard devotes seven chapters to the women who "played major roles in many major finds in Egypt, but their stories are rarely mentioned (if at all)." The stories are thoroughly researched, the women's contributions detailed, their personal lives explored. The women were scholars and academics, patrons, curators, artists, record keepers, writers, and collectors. They had significant impact to the entire field, in Egypt and in institutions across the globe. That impact is still evident - if you've visited the Tomb of Perneb at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York you can thank Caroline Ransom Williams (chapter 7) who directed its preservation and reconstruction, opening to the public in 1916.

The stories overlap, which reinforces Sheppard's point that the circles these women inhabited were small, interwoven, and sometimes interdependent. They opened doors for each other and the next generation.

The detail is rich. We arrive on the shores of the Nile, feel the heat, climb the paths, sweep away the dust. We're in their world, experiencing their obstacles, admiring their tenacity.

The colonial history is problematic and Sheppard addresses it directly: "It is a period in which wealthy, white Europeans and Americans ran rampant over the cultural heritage of a colonized country and its people, vandalizing and pillaging as they went." and leads us through the end of British occupation in the 50s. The women appeared to give much more credit to the Egyptian workers in the excavations than their male counterparts. Many of the men come across as pompous buffoons, destroying artifacts as they scrambled to be first into the tombs.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC.

[Matt Waldrep · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book suffered from lack of a proper time line, jumping back and forth in the lives of the subjects. It also placed to strong of an emphasis on their sexuality and romantic relationships. I didn’t expect those details to be suppressed but it was clear there was a goal to, at least in part, define these women not by their accomplishments in the fields of archaeology and Egyptology but by their sexuality which is unfortunate and reductionistic. As a fan of the fields in which they worked, I would have been more excited by more details of their work and discoveries.

[Brianna Melick · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an archaeology student, I found it rare to find stories of females in the field. All we learned about were people like Flinders Petrie and Lord Carnarvon; never the women were behind the scenes creating curriculum, teaching new students, and even financing the digs, as well as on the front lines leading archeological digs for multiple seasons. Learning about so many new names, Myrtle Broome, Kate Griffith, and Emily Paterson, was fascinating when I only knew about the Maggies and Amelia Edwards. These women were pioneers of their times, breaking the mold of education for women in Europe and the predominantly male field of archaeology. Many of them were placed in the shadows of men like their fathers, brothers, and husbands, and they found their freedom in education and traveling using financing and publishing multitudes of seasons of archaeological digs. They were pioneers in their sexuality as well; for many of these women, traveling on their own was seen to be taboo. So, finding traveling partners like friends or lovers allowed them to be who they were, with no one getting in their way. This book also dives into the history of just how damaging the early years of archaeology were; even though many of these women thought to record things that were going on, there were still several things left unrecorded, not adequately recorded, as well as looted and stolen artifacts. The stories of these women are told through the facts, the diaries, the letters, and the photographs left behind by these women. I would love to see this book as either a required or recommended reading in archaeology programs at my university, where I studied both archaeology and the ancient world, as it opens up new perspectives and people to be explored.

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn on the rating for this one because I found the topic very interesting, but I wasn't a huge fan of the writing. For starters, I'm not entirely sure how historically accurate this is. There are a lot of points throughout where the author mentions the feelings and emotional reactions of the women, and I don't know how she could possibly know this information. I would have appreciated it if there had been a note at the beginning of the text about how these scenes were reconstructed/where the author was getting this information. I also grew annoyed in a few spots because interesting tidbits are inserted in the text and then never followed up on. Aside from the writing style, I also think there should have been more of a critical lens applied to these women Egyptologists. Most of them only got into the field because of their wealth and had no formal training. They were also just as complicit as the men in ignoring the Egyptian workers who did the actual excavation work and taking objects out of Egypt for their own collections. I'm also a little skeptical of the author's repeated claims that all of these women completely changed the face of Egyptology. Some of them (Caroline Ransom) definitely did, but it felt like the book was trying a bit too hard to convince me of the monumental impact of a few of the women.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading about Egyptology from the viewpoint of the women involved was refreshing and delightful. The author starts with women traveling to Egypt which opened the way for women to get involved in Egyptology in a variety of different ways. I liked the chronological format of the book, and how each story overlapped slightly with the one before it. I enjoyed learning about the women's lives, and also gaining a new view on the history of Egyptology. This book would appeal to historians, as well as people interested in women's studies. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Pooja Peravali · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the so-called Golden Age of Egyptology, it was men who were known world-wide as the archeologists and academics who wrestled the secrets of Ancient Egypt from the desert, carrying away much of what they found. In this book, Sheppard turns the spotlight on female Egyptologists, who had less recognition but were equally instrumental in the early days of the discipline.

I'm not very familiar with Egyptology in the Gilded Age beyond Howard Carter's famous "Yes, wonderful things!" and a vague understanding of how the colonial presence in Egypt allowed many artifacts to be carted off willy-nilly to other countries never to be repatriated. But when I thought of people out digging in the Valley of the Kings, I definitely always thought of men in khakis and pith helmets. This book does a great job of busting that misconception.

Sheppard highlights the work of half a dozen women who were in one way or another involved with Egyptology, even if they never called themselves such. She does a great job of showing how these women's efforts made the development of the discipline possible, as well as how their efforts were built upon by the generations of women who came afterward. Men might have dug for artifacts, but it was women who promoted their work, raised money for it, received and studied and disseminated information about what was discovered, and much more. It was interesting too to learn about what life was like on dig sites - the incredibly informal nature of it in the early years, how the visiting Egyptologists used and impacted the Egyptians who lived around them, and more.

However, I did feel that the style of the book was drier than I expected - while Sheppard tells us plenty about the women, she does not really explore their interior worlds - not why they were driven to the study, not how they felt being shafted and sidelined in a discipline they were often were more skilled in that their male counterparts, not what they thought of their time in Egypt and the native peoples they worked with there. Without any of this, the women remain frustratingly out of reach no matter how much we learn about their accomplishments.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Jeanne Adamek · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Julia Kerrigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

1) This is a Very Well Researched book. This is Not a Very Well Organized Book. Sheppard flings about names and events with no regard for the reader. The glossary will not help you here. If anyone in my life wants to read this, I BEG you to borrow my copy so you have my handwritten dramatis personae and aren’t left flipping through pages or constantly opening Wikipedia like I was. Bonus: my copy is signed (thank you Mom) so you can vengefully stare at the author’s own handwriting when she expects you to remember a figure introduced 90 pages ago and referred to by first (generic British) name only.

2) So…why four stars if this was such a slog? Because you cannot get this information anywhere else. Sheppard has gone to great lengths to pore through administrative documents and diaries for these stories. It’s a feat of research, bringing it all into one place together. At the end of the day, I respect it.

3) Physicians need to go back to prescribing single lesbians long stretches of tourism in Egypt so that I can meet someone.

[Julie Tulba]

Two things that make me thoroughly enjoy a work of historical nonfiction is one, learning about a period of history I wasn’t familiar with prior and two, learning about incredible women whose remarkable achievements have long been lost to history...until now. Ms. Sheppard’s book accomplishes both on this score. Okay, so while I’ve become somewhat knowledgeable on 20th century Egypt from an archaeological/historical perspective after doing my own research for my Egypt-based novel, I still learned about some amazing women from the real-life cast of characters written about in Sheppard’s book. These were women who didn’t just let societal and gender constraints dictate the way they lived their lives. Not only did they buck those same constraints but they lived out their life’s passion which was ancient Egypt. Sheppard does a wonderful job of not just telling their stories but bringing to life the incredible and awe-inspiring setting that is Egypt.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

All I could think about the whole time I was reading this was , “The Mummy” and my girl Evelyn and how her character was most likely modelled after the women in this novel. It’s always amazing to me the things women accomplish in a man’s world with so little credit. These women were adventurous, intelligent, and driven. They also were critical in many of the discoveries found within Egypt during the gilded age. I also liked that this book talked about all the Egyptian workers who did all the heavy lifting and like the women did not receive credit for the contribution.

[Jocelyn Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably not the best Egyptology book to start with. The topic is really interesting, and it’s great these women eventually got some recognition for their contributions. Without knowing all the sites and the historical importance, it’s hard to piece it together. It came across as chapters that weren’t always linked, which is sometimes just reality. But looking forward to learning more.

[HerbieGrandma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good info but not crazy about the writing style. 3.5 rounded up.

[Emily Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️
Confirmed. Egyptology is for the lesbians 🥰

[Lisa Funderburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This caught my eye at the library. The premise was intriguing and promising.

The narrative was a little rote- name, date, and experience. Sheppard reflected on unnamed Egyptian workers and others that history frequently overlooked, which was appreciated. She made sure to point out LGBT relationships that historians typically rush to over explain or pretend it isn't that, again appreciated. She clearly has a passion for her subject, which shined through.

[Jeanette Durkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting and informative book! If you're someone who's interested in Egyptian artifacts and history, you'll enjoy this book! The imagery is spectacular! I could picture myself in Egypt, with the views of the mountains and tombs! I also enjoyed reading about the women who made a legacy and left their footprints in time.

I was provided a complimentary copy of the book from St Martin's Press via Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Bridget · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh how I looked forward to reading this book! And oh how disappointed I was in it.

I was really excited to read about the roles played by women in the development of Egyptology, and their individual stories. I fave the book a star because the start was promising.

But I don't know if it is the author's writing, or the fact that every section with the story of an individual seemed so very similar. Which I get - I am well aware that early explorers and expeditionary travel depended upon a person's financial situation, and that the "gentleman or lady" scientist was often from the upper classes. But after I hit the third story of a woman that seemed almost completely interchangeable with the previous ones, I decided I was finished.