Banks of the Nile

Date1890s

MediumSilver bromide print from collodion negative

Credit LineGift of Margaret A. Carver in memory of Charles H. Carver, Emory '39

Dimensions10 9/16 x 8 3/16 in. (26.8 x 20.8 cm)

Object number1984.011.042

Label Text"It is a magnificent river with endless villages. . . . The most beautiful feature is the number of boats, which look like gigantic moths."

Edward Lear, Letter to his sister Ann, 1854

Scenes of everyday life were just as popular with tourists as were images of the ancient monuments. The village women collecting water in jars and the row of feluccas tied up along the bank would have been common sights along the shore of the Nile. Lear's description of the boats-"like gigantic moths"-gives an idea of how the feluccas looked with their sails unfurled.

Exhibition HistoryThe Fascination With The East: Early Photographs of Egypt (travelling show), Emory University Museum of Art and Archaeology, November 18, 1986 - February 28, 1987; Louisiana Arts and Sciences Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, September 19 - December 31, 1987; Red Mountain Museum, Birmingham, Alabama, April 10 - May 8, 1988
Along the Nile, Michael C. Carlos Museum, May - September 1993; June - September 1994
Souvenirs of the Nile: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Egypt, Michael C. Carlos Museum, July 1 - September 24, 2000
Published ReferencesMonique Seefried and Mary Cozine Woodward, The Fascination with the East: Early Photographs of Egypt (Atlanta: Emory University Museum of Art and Archaeology, 1987), 8.

ProvenanceEx coll. Maria Hersey (1843-1927), Portland, Maine. Thence by descent.

Status

Not on view

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