Help transcribe financial lists of donors to the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1904-1905

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.

Despite a considerable deficit in the funds received, the period of 1904-1905 was an interesting time for Egyptology. Principle excavations supported by the EEF included those at Sinai and Deir el Bahari, excavated by teams of Egyptians under the direction of Flinders Petrie and Edouard Naville. In particular, the work at Deir el Bahari was exciting for its excavation of the early temple of Mentuhotep. However, while American donors to the Fund were initially critical in financing expeditions and enabling Egyptian antiquities to enter American museums, the growing interest in Egyptology led to a desire by American scholars to produce original work, withdrawing their support for the Fund. This created a competition for donors at this time, forcing the Fund to consider reducing the scope of its work.

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.