Help transcribe financial lists of donors to the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1902-1903

The Egypt Exploration Fund was set up in 1882 by Amelia Edwards, a travel writer, and Samuel Birch of the British Museum. Through this Fund, individuals and private organisations could donate money towards the Egyptian excavations, enabling artefacts to be brought back to Britain's museums and leading to the regional museum growth of the late-19th century.

This project is focused on who was donating to the EEF from 1899-1907 and is part of a wider project looking at donors from 1885-1923. These donors are listed in the reports from the Annual General Meetings of the EEF, allowing us to see who was donating, what they were donating and their link to the fund. With this information we can begin to understand patterns in donors and suggest why they may have donated.

The period of 1902-1903 was an interesting time for Egyptology. The Fund primarily supported the 4th year of work at Abydos, excavated by teams of Egyptians under the direction of Flinders Petrie. This had excited great interest in the field with an exhibition of the finds at University College London before they entered the British Museum, the Ashmolean in Oxford and museums across America. The Fund was very popular there as it enabled Egyptian antiquities to enter American museum, however disagreements meant that following the closure of the Fund's affiliated branch in New York, branches in Philadelphia and Chicago were also disbanded. Under the Graeco-Roman Branch, further exciting excavations included that in Hibeh, directed by Dr. Grenfell in the search for papyri.

The Fund was a way for people, particularly women, to increase their social standing. As Egyptology wasn't yet a discipline, there were less boundaries limiting those who could be involved and thus large numbers of women took on the role of local honorary secretaries and campaigned locally for the EEF. This project will be able to identify more of these individuals and their roles.

It is worth noting that the EEF's annual report from 1900-1901 has not yet been digitised (and due to the current climate is impossible to do so), however with the remaining 6 reports from this critical period we can begin to understand the people involved. This cannot be done without the transcribing of the lists of donors that will enable data collection and analysis.