Some things were easier in the days before law and order, cars that worked, rules of the road, Tourist Police and clean petrol. At least if you had initiative.
In 1931/32 two Melbournian-Australian young women decided to motor from Melbourne to Monte Carlo to compete, in the Rally of course, and ended up in Luxor for a while.
Here is their car, a Lancia:
Here is a Luxor photograph of one of them, Kathleen Howell, later Gardiner, taken by her co-driver, Jean Robertson, later Beatson, on what appears to be the West Bank, possibly VOK, in 1931, notice what seem to be large fly wisks:
http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/webclient ... 947602~196 cant post the photo
(Locally made, historically accurate, fly wisks might have a tourist market at, say, $US25. Horse hair might be in short supply but maybe dog hair could be used – I can think of at least one recent local (dead) source in Djorf.)
Kathleen reciprocated with a photograph of Jean in what may be Karnak, notice the stylish deco/nouveau scarf which contrasts with the down market clothing of today’s tourists:
http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/webclient ... 0704328~58 same problem
They got to Monte Carlo, with the car intact. This is a photograph from c1932 showing them at the end of the rally with fellow competitors/friends:
http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/webclient ... 574300~458 same problem
They came 17th out of 150 competitors which was pretty good.
Jean was a good photographer and left her collection including of historically significant aboriginal scenes taken on their trip across Australia (1928) to a Public Library. For thousands of k’s roads barely existed but crocodiles, wild buffalo, floods and snakes were frequent.
In 1933 both of them crashed in a car race and suffered burns and broken limbs but as late as 1991 Kathleen Gardiner was still attending Lancia rallies as a revered explorer.
Clearly both were fearless, possibly eccentric, as seen from this photograph of Jean Beatson with her sheep dogs from the 1950’s.
http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/webclient ... 032302~515 same problem
Their story is full of other women rally drivers (something missing now), female mechanics and petrol station owners showing the past is an unexpected place and females driving around 90 years ago in Egypt not as exceptional as you might think.
They may not have been lady aristocrats taking the grand tour or staying at the Winter Palace for 6 months of slumber but a different species of mobile female traveller that typically gets less notice. Unlike the lady aristos they did not publish or seek attention but were possibly more exotic in their own way. They were definitely braver.
The story illustrates a time when travel was an adventure for the brave and women were there. It also reminds that until the 1970’s you could drive from London to Australia – and many did – and that Lancia is now a much degraded marque - just stylish rust.
Another Melbourne-Egypt local from the same mould operating in a man’s world was the noted archaeologist (never Egyptologist) Veronica Seton-Williams, (d 1992) author of the formidable Blue Guide to Egypt and much else. When I have time I might post more on her. Here is a long bio. https://www.brown.edu/Research/Breaking ... ronica.pdf. Note the Luxor tour companies in the 50’s, 60’s and even 70’s used real archaeologists like Seton-Williams who did more than pop in for an hour or two. Like some she found working with the Egypt Exploration Society frustrating but in a long life of rolling around in the dust she managed to avoid her rich parent’s expectations of social prominence, conformity and a ‘good’ marriage http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146452765
She led an unusual private life, as did many of the archaeologists, and their ‘descendants’ would be wise to all stay out of contemporary Egypt. Here is a photo of Veronica:
If you are mildly Asperger’s and don’t mind carrying around a weighty book (more archaeology than hotels) then her Blue Guide can still be bought second hand. Its more tome than guide but well regarded locally because the wife of the owner of my Cairo hotel excessively admired mine – following which it ‘disappeared’.
The prestigious Brown University in the USA is doing work to record the achievements of female archaeologists. Their web site is: https://www.brown.edu/Research/Breaking ... uction.php
Egypt couldn’t care less bout the contribution of women and really doesn’t care much for the contributions of people unless they are Egyptian self promoters. Very odd.
Another formidable female Luxor visitor. Margaret Benson (Daughter of the Archbishop of Canterbury) and her partner Janet Gourlay did early/the earliest work on the Temple of Mut 1895-97 http://www.williamhpeck.org/margaret_benson
Here is a photo of the two:
Unlike someone I can think of she published her research in a refereed journal. Like many of her family she was mentally unstable and much of her later life was sad.
Her siblings were all eccentric with unconventional (to put it mildly) private lives and several visited her in Luxor and wrote of their experiences. “At Abdul Ali’s Grave” and “The Image in the Sand” for example. Her scandalous mother also visited in 1897. Whilst in Luxor the Bensons befriended fellow digger David Hogarth who years later went on to ‘manage’ that sexual oddity T E Lawrence and the Arab Revolt. http://www.williamhpeck.org/e_f_benson_in_egypt
To describe the private lives of many archaeologists as ‘irregular’ would be an understatement – but I’m sure the current government, supported by the Coptic Pope will wipe it out. Maybe public hangings from mobile cranes, a la Iran, is the way to go. A purge of French and German archaeologists would be a good first step.
One weakness of the Brown University approach is that they ignore the female sources of rivers of money for archaeology in Egypt before WW2. For example Carnarvon has lost two fortunes before WW1 (he was a rotter, gambler, womanizer and drinker) and then married into the Rothschild money to make himself solvent. (Stg 60 million plus allowances) He didn’t even care that his wife was illegitimate and had inherited her money from the gay Rothschild – Alfred de Rothschild (zebras pulling his carriage in central London and more). It was his Jewish wife who paid for and followed carefully the Tut dig. Others funders included female Rockefeller’s, Harknesses’ and (on a very large scale) William Randolph Hearst’s formidable mother. Unlike one living fat old corpse, these people gave their own money and didn’t sell themselves shamelessly to the media. As far as I’m aware they were also not corrupt.
It’s a male story but also about giving not taking. Chicago House and its diggings are the University of Chicago. That university was founded and funded from scratch by Rockefeller and is now one of the world’s greatest. On the other hand the Egyptian tradition is that the super rich give not a penny away.
Nevertheless a major public statement should be made by the Government of Egypt that Tut was discovered with Jew Money – following which all the Tut objects should be reburied in the VOK. Maybe they should be burned.
More (but still partial) information on 19th century female Egyptologists http://museumcrush.org/the-victorian-fe ... ent-egypt/
