Egypt Exploration Fund Gifts

Beginning in the 19th century, various Mount Holyoke College departments reached out to colleagues and alumnae across the globe in an attempt to secure representative collections for teaching on campus. One such relationship was forged between the Art and Archaeology Department and a London-based syndicate of universities and museums conducting excavations of ancient Egyptian sites under the name of the Egypt Exploration Fund. Through this partnership, hundreds of artifacts representing the full spectrum of life in ancient Egypt came to the Museum between the years 1904 and 1911. Highlights include Predynastic ceramics from 6,000 years ago, Dynastic shabtis and jewelry, and rare and fragile papyri documents from the Roman Period.