Egyptian Mirage

The Griffith Institute in Oxford has one of the largest collections of 19th-century "studio photographs" of Egypt. They were taken by professional photographers who had their studios in the major tourist centres of Egypt such as Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said, Luxor and Aswan between about 1860 and 1890. The photographs show ancient Egyptian, Christian and Islamic monuments, as well as scenes of contemporary 19th-century life.

The purpose of this database is twofold:

• To make a large and important body of photographic evidence available for study to Egyptologists and other scholars and interested persons.
• To provide an easy-to-consult corpus of 19th-century photographs of Egypt which will help in the study and preservation of other photographs of this type elsewhere.

There are four possible ways of approaching these photographs. You can go to:

• the first record if you wish to investigate the database systematically;
• the unlimited search option;
• the list of sites and photographers represented in the database. You can see all photographs for a site or by a photographer by clicking on the name;
• the gallery of the photographs included in the database (of particular interest for picture researchers).

We shall be very grateful for any corrections or additional information (contact details).

(December 17, 2006)