Modern Jews and Ancient Egypt: Patrons, Collectors and Scholars in Europe c1880-1950

This interdisciplinary PhD in collaboration with the EES explores the role Jewish actors played in Western European Egyptology from c1880 to the aftermath of WWII. These academics, collectors, curators, dealers, excavators and patrons can be regarded as agents of empire, members of diasporic networks and victims of discrimination and destructive nationalism. Utilising methods from art history and provenance research, I will examine how the institutional and intellectual history of Egyptology and collecting of Egyptian artefacts in Western Europe between c1880 and 1950 was shaped by transnational Jewish actors and Jewish concerns, and why this contribution has been obscured.