A Tradition of Scholarship continues as witnessed in the Wilbour Library of Egyptology

This blog is a nod to history and the future of research and scholarship: on November 23rd, 1934 the Wilbour Library of Egyptology at the Brooklyn Museum was established with the personal library of Charles Edwin Wilbour, who was one of America’s first Egyptologists. Over the following 87 years the research collection evolved into one of the key resources for the history of Ancient Egypt serving many researchers ranging from Egyptologists to the general public. The legacy of the Wilbour Library is nicely summed up here by Roberta Munoz, previous Wilbour Librarian. With an extensive collection of books, periodicals, offprints, and rare items the Wilbour Library has provided a haven for many doing research on the Museum’s Egyptian collections and the history of Egyptology. Here are more links discussing the depth of these collections.

In addition to the public, Museum staff members have been key users of the Wilbour collections including Egyptologists, conservators, curatorial assistants, librarians, archivists, and educators who have contributed to documenting the legacy of the Museum’s interest in this field. In particular, the Egyptologists have written books, articles and didactic materials that have provided a better understanding of the Egyptian collections and their context within the fields of art and archaeology. This scholarship is evidenced in two recent publications, published by the American University in Cairo Press, co-written by Brooklyn Museum staff based on research conducted in the Wilbour Library: The Precinct of Mut at South Karnak: an archaeological guide by Richard A. Fazzini and Betsy M. Bryan and  The Afterlives of Egyptian History: Reuse and Reformulation of Objects, Places, and Texts a volume edited by Yekaterina Barbash and Kathlyn Cooney. 

The Precinct of Mut at South Karnak joins other publications on the goddess Mut in the Wilbour Library. Many were written by Richard Fazzini who joined the Museum as Assistant Curator of Egyptian Art in 1969, served as the Chairman of Egyptian, Classical and Ancient Middle Eastern Art from 1983 until his retirement in June 2006, and is now Curator Emeritus of Egyptian Art. The volume is illustrated with photographs by Mary McKercher. The subject of the new book is the history of the development and excavation of Mut Temple Precinct in Luxor, Egypt, a site where the Brooklyn Museum began to work in 1976.  Since 2001, the Brooklyn Expedition has shared the site with a team from the Johns Hopkins University led by Dr. Betsy M. Bryan. The expeditions operate independently but collaborate on projects as appropriate. Through the diligent work of Richard, Betsy and Mary, the history of the Mut Precinct is well documented in this new book. Numerous reports on the work of the Brooklyn team are available on the Museum’s website, in the Wilbour Library and through this online resource.

From the publishers’ website:

Mut was an important deity perhaps best known as the consort of Amun-Re and the mother of Khonsu, but her earlier and far more independent role was as the daughter of the sun god, much akin to Hathor. … The Mut precinct was a major religious center from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Roman Period, but evidence suggests the existence of an even earlier temple. … One of its most striking features is the hundreds of Sekhmet statues.

Publishing research in honor of noted scholars, known as festschrifts is common in the field of Egyptology. Richard Fazzini was honored in 2008 with the Servant of Mut. Another festschrift was recently published in honor of  Dr. Edward Bleiberg, who just retired from the Brooklyn Museum, entitled The Afterlives of Egyptian History: Reuse and Reformulation of Objects, Places, and Texts. The book was edited by Dr. Yekaterina Barbash, now the Curator of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art at Brooklyn, and Dr. Kathlyn Cooney, Professor of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at UCLA. Several of Dr. Bleiberg’s colleagues, including Richard Fazzini and Mary McKercher, contributed a compelling group of essays offering modern perspectives on topics ranging from Egyptian language to the display of objects. Dr. Bleiberg became Curator of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art in 1998 after teaching Egyptian hieroglyphs and directing the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the University of Memphis. Now Curator Emeritus, he is the author of numerous books and articles on ancient Egypt and has curated many exhibitions including Jewish Life in Ancient Egypt and more recently Striking Power: Iconoclasm in Ancient Egypt which hopefully will be presented at the Brooklyn Museum in the future. 

The Afterlives of Egyptian History: Reuse and Reformulation of Objects, Places, and Texts is an examination of the myriad lifetimes lived by ancient Egyptian artifacts. To quote from the book’s description: The Afterlives of Egyptian History expands on the traditional academic approach of studying the original function and sociopolitical circumstances of ancient Egyptian objects, texts, and sites to examine their secondary lives by exploring their reuse, modification, and reinterpretation. … this volume brings together a group of scholars from a wide range of fields, including Egyptian archaeology, philology, conservation, and art, to explore the historical circumstances, as well as political and economic situations, of people who have come into contact with ancient Egypt, both in antiquity and in more recent times.

In the introduction of The Afterlives there is a reference to objects that also applies to libraries in their role as keeper of “the history of histories”. That is especially true for the Wilbour Library of Egyptology. I have had the great pleasure to work with all of these colleagues at the Brooklyn Museum on building the Wilbour Library collections and creating installations and programs based on these unique resources. A few examples: a two part exhibition entitled Egypt Through Other Eyes developed with the curators; and a collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera featuring Dr. Bleiberg to discuss Verdi’s Aida.

These new publications offer the opportunity to recognize the contributions made by all of these scholars to the understanding of Ancient Egypt. Dr. Barbash is now the latest in a long line of scholars working towards the understanding of the Museum’s collections and who assist in the building of the Wilbour Library of Egyptology collections. 

I am so delighted that Abigail Dansiger is the new Director of Libraries & Archives! A long-awaited appointment since I left my position as Principal Librarian in October 2017. For many years I had the honor of overseeing the great collections held in the Museum’s two research libraries and the archives: the Art Reference Library, dating to the founding of the museum as a library back in 1823, with collections ranging from Islamic to contemporary art and the Wilbour Library of Egyptology, historically one of the finest research libraries collections for the study of Ancient Egypt. Together with the Museum Archives, these collections represent the depth and breadth of the Museum’s collections providing historical context as well as information about who made the objects, where, when and how. The Libraries and Archives are a key part of the Museum’s collections and deserve much more attention, care, and funding to continue their enrichment and use by researchers working now and in the future. 

I conclude with a quote from the Introduction of The Afterlives of Ancient History that speaks to the importance of objects and libraries: “Egypt has a … continuity of preservation in deep time … Thus objects and ideas could not only last but remain in use for millennia, demanding that buildings, objects, texts, and ideas needed to be continually adapted for novel, alternative, or competitive functions, thereby redefining their purpose and place in a changing society.”