This was an interesting read , However , I would love to hear how Egyptians feel about this book and the overall narrative .

Thank you Netgalley for the Arc and thank you to SMP .

There was a sentence about 1/5 of the way into this book that I stopped and highlighted, because it seemed to sum up things so well. "If one had the time to travel and the money to support excavations or purchasing artifacts, or both, that was enough to make you an archaeologist at this point in the history of archaeology in Egypt." One has to take this fact into account when reading the stories of the women covered in this book (most of whom were British).

Some of them indeed had time and money, and after wandering into Egypt in hopes of a more healthful climate, they were smitten with what they saw going on, and decided they wanted to do it too, so they got together a bunch of money, found some man who was interested in or experienced with archaeology, and went off and started a dig; at which point they managed the day to day hiring and paying of the local workers who REALLY did the work. Some of them ended up holding the reins at home of academic departments, or of foundations set up to promote interest in and solicit funds for archaeological activity in Egypt, which they did extremely well. Some of them were such talented artists that they made better documentation of the interior art in excavated tombs than contemporary photographers could do. On the whole, I do not come away with the impression that they did research and chose likely locations to dig in, and had a leadership role in the actual archaeology.

On the other hand, at least pre 1900, given that nobody really had any expertise in this field, the men who were out there leading digs mostly seemed to be bashing about shouting "By jove" and "What ho" and often destroying as much as they appropriated. So context is important!

I am most convinced of the substantive work of Caroline Ransom, who almost singlehandedly documented and managed the Met Egyptian collections, and also traveled around documenting other collections as well. She had to amass a huge amount of knowledge in order to create guidebooks for the popular audiences who were flocking to see these items, as well as develop a procedure by which teams from the University of Chicago created hand-made copies of tomb art (which began to decay and vanish as the outside air flowed into the excavated tombs).

A few things needed the eye of a careful editor. For example, she refers to "hospital parades" a dozen or so pages before she actually tells you what they were. Occasionally a sentence just doesn't quite make sense or read smoothly and could have benefited from some rearranging. The chronology became a little confusing, as following the story of one woman would mean bringing in another one, briefly, even though her chapter was yet to come. At one point, someone is accompanied somewhere by "Nettie" but there is no indication that Nettie Gourlay was present at that site so I'm not sure how she popped into that paragraph and perhaps that was a mistake?

On the whole, it's fair to say that Egyptian archaeology, such as it was between 1880 and 1930, would not have been able to accomplish what it did without the skills and talents of these women, even if they were not out leading digs. That doesn't mean everything they did was super fascinating. If you already have some interest and background in ancient Egypt, this book will make a lot more sense to you; if you don't, this may or may not be a good place to start.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me a chance to read an advance galley of this book. I wish the pictures had been in it!!!

“Women in the Valley of the Kings” is a fascinating look at the women who never made the headlines for their archeological work in Egypt in the late 1800s and early 1900s — those accolades went to William Petrie, Howard Carter, and others. Female scientists were few on the ground, and even when they were responsible for ground-breaking work, men took the credit.

The author's primary research into the women’s papers and books gives her “characters” depth and makes them real. It seemed like these women knew how to have fun, even in challenging circumstances — and while wearing crazy petticoats in 100F heat.

I thoroughly enjoyed this deep dive into ancient Egypt and the stories of the women who helped build our understanding of it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

What an interesting story about strong women venturing into Egypt and working among other archeologists. In a man's world at the time I had not heard this story and was very engaged with the characters. This was an easy read with a great history that I was not aware of. A must-historical read on a subject I knew little about before this book.

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Kathleen Sheppard
Women in the Valley of the Kings

Finally, a book acknowledging women for their contributions to Egyptian archaeology.
This is also a book about women’s friendships in the 19th and 20th CAD. Their subsequent books and journals assured female readers that they could travel alone confidently, have fun and survive quite nicely. Kathleen Sheppard uses original sources to create this very interesting story that reads as smoothly as fiction. So many intrepid ladies deserve excavation credit as well as the local diggers, but history credits men until this book. They even engaged in a bit of antiquities smuggling. They financed some of the most amazing discoveries. They trained the locals in proper digging techniques.
It boggles my mind that these tough ladies wearing yards of fabric, voluminous skirts and cinched waists, managed the Egyptian heat and managed an excavation with diligence and exactness.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

“Women in the Valley of the Kings” is a non-fiction book by Kathleen Sheppard. Let me start off by saying that Ms. Sheppard did a lot of research before writing this book. This book has not only stories of women most have never heard of before, but their stories are fascinating. I did find, at times, the details a bit too detailed and also having to stop more frequently than normal in order to take a break from all the information. However, I think that if one has an interest in Egyptology and want to know more about the contributions of women to that subject, this book would be a fantastic one to read.

This was a fascinating book. Not only did I enjoy the look at ancient Egypt, but the story of the women who worked there was wonderful

This book explores the unknown women Egyptologists during the height of scouring Egypt for archaeological finds. This book does a wonderful job of starting out stating that these women were just as guilty as the men of helping steal Egypt’s history and sell it off to European museums. However, most people only talk about the men that found and stole those artifacts. These women were instrumental in helping with that endeavor. Whether it was doing the paperwork behind the scene, securing funding for the excavations, or educating other people to become Egyptologists, these women made it happen. Seeing how Egyptology grew because of these women and how their lives crossed similar paths is fascinating to read about.

The book focuses on 11 women in 7 chapters. Each of the chapters explains how that woman/women were influential in a particular way with the growth of Egyptology and getting women involved in it as well. Pictures and references to primary sources help piece together exactly what these women did even if history didn’t choose to remember them.

As a lover of history, I understood the love the ladies had for ancient Egypt. It was the time period that first captured my interest as well. They wanted to know more and they wanted to get others involved in discovering the secrets of Egypt’s past.

As someone who studies and teaches history, I hated how careless most of the people were with the artifacts they found. Stealing, smuggling, or using explosives to find artifacts is detrimental to the country which the items belong to. You’re ruining their history. If something is stolen or smuggled, it could be lost forever and any insights that the artifacts may have had are also gone. I understand that during the time period of these women, those ideas were not even an afterthought, it does not condone their actions but provides examples of what not to do going forward. The women in this book though, worked tirelessly to try to preserve the history they were helping to discover and understand. Luckily, modern day archaeologists have found safer ways to remove and study these precious items so the amount of loss is greatly reduced.

* Special thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love Egyptology and the history of exploration, but this was a bit of a dry read. Despite these women being interesting and adventurous people in unique circumstances, I had a very hard time staying engaged - unfortunate, because I kept trying to like it!

Reading about Egyptology from the viewpoint of the women involved was refreshing and delightful. The author starts with women traveling to Egypt which opened the way for women to get involved in Egyptology in a variety of different ways. I liked the chronological format of the book, and how each story overlapped slightly with the one before it. I enjoyed learning about the women's lives, and also gaining a new view on the history of Egyptology. This book would appeal to historians, as well as people interested in women's studies. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

While this book is about a time and place I find very interesting and I enjoyed that it was about the women who went to Egypt to work in the archeology digs, I found it difficult to read in long stretches. I realize the women did not approach the work in the same way the men did; they were involved in education and health care for the locals as well. They also entertained tourists who came to see the digs (or just to sponge off them for a few days). All these other duties kept them from their Egyptology. I was less interested in the details of their other duties and there were a lot of these details. This work is more of an academic book that students of female archeologists in Egypt would be able to mine for information. Sheppard has studiously referenced many sources and footnoted assiduously. She really knows her subject and has done students of Egyptian archeology a great favor by bringing all the work together. I wish the ARC showed the images instead of just providing the captions
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC; the opinions expressed are wholly my own.

Before reading Women in the Valley of the Kings, I was totally unaware of the number of women who were present and participating in the then budding field of Egyptology. I am definitely going to seek out the original works mentioned in Kathleen Sheppard's book.

It's not often you find historical accounts of the contributions of women working in Egypt. This book was very well written. Kathleen Sheppard did a wonderful job and kept my attention throughout the whole book. If you have interest in Egyptian history, give this book a go. You won't regret it.

This is a well researched and detailed history of women egyptologists during the Gilded Age. Amazing stories are unearthed of women who contributed to the birth of egyptology. Women preserved the history of this time period with detailed drawings of tombs, meticulous records of excavations, and diaries to give us a real idea of the day to day life in Egypt. This book is a fascinating read because these women traveled extensively in a time period that would have made it challenging on many levels. They had to overcome societal and cultural biases to live their dreams. They often worked hard in research, publishing, and academics without recognition.
This book will be a wonderful read for people who want to learn more about the history of egyptology and the role of women that was crucial to its’ success and preservation.

Thank you St.Martin’s press and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.

It is difficult to find a work of nonfiction that does not lose my interest after the first couple chapters. As much as I love reading microhistories, sometimes the nuance of the history and its players becomes too hard to follow for non-experts. Kathleen Sheppard's writing is nothing like this. She renders these women with such familiarity and accessibility to a general audience, each of these women's personal lives--their desires, struggles, ambitions--is memorable, impressional, and absolutely inspirational. Sheppard writes with the passion of a historian who has done her due diligence--and it most certainly shows in the way she skillfully scaffolds each woman's contributions and connections to Egyptology throughout the book. When women are purposefully forgotten in the historical record, researching women is no easy task; I applaud Sheppard for her work and making it look easy. This is a beautiful and necessary book. I could not get enough about these women and the everlasting marks they left on the field of Egyptology.

When most people think of Egyptology, what first comes to mind is a list of male archeologists. Howard Carter, the man who discovered King Tut's tomb, is practically a universally recognized name, yet there are many who made contributions to the field that barely get a footnote in the history books. This book focuses on the women, travelers and amateur archeologists, whose actions were crucial to the forming of the field as we know it today. This book included a lot of names I didn't recognize, and she gives each their time in the spotlight with chapters dedicated to their backgrounds and contributions.

Women in the Valley of the Kings clarifies the influence, expertise, and curiosity of women in the world of Egyptology compared to the praise heaped on men whose success and recognition were often supported and led by said women. The commitment and excitement of discovery, the endless hours of excavation, their care on site, and the perfection that was so often part of recording their discoveries is painstakingly considered in this book.

Kathleen Sheppard carefully describes the biographies of and relationships these pioneer women exhibited. The women did often seem terribly patient and supportive of the men who used their skills to further their own careers. In the book, the women's intimate relationships to each other in a society where such a thing was not exactly fully embraced at the time are pointed out. And of course some of the women married and had children.

The details of the various excavations and hunts for temples, graves, and grave art are fascinating. The Temple of Mut was excavated by Maggie Benson and Nettie Gourlay, and Amice Calverley and Myrtle Broome worked on site at Abydos. The three women who first went to the Valley of the Kings in search of what ancient Egypt had to offer led the way: Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst. Kate Bradbury and Caroline Ransom took Egyptology into academia, and ensured that eventually, museums and universities incorporated what all of these women had studied and discovered. And, there are references to extremely wealthy men without whose financial help much of this discovery would not have been possible.

Perhaps the only aspect of these searches which might have been treated in some depth is the apparent ease with which artifacts were taken from their original sites to other countries and other exhibitions. However, Sheppard does refer to Egyptian officials and official guidelines that somewhat tempered what was extracted from the temples and grave sites.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this wonderfully informative and well-written book.

I have read some of this book and found it really interesting, but the ebook format for the ARC is quite blocky and isn't working very well for me, so I will revisit this book once it comes out and I can either a physical copy or an audiobook. What I did read was a 5 stars though!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I love these women. They were amazing women.i had never heard of any of them but am fascinated by their work.

A wonderful, amazing story that will stay with me.

Thank you netgalley and publisher

All thoughts and opinions are my own and aren't influenced by anyone else

Synopsis (From Netgalley, the provider of the book to review)
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. The never-before-told story of the women Egyptologists who paved the way of exploration in Egypt and created the basis for Egyptology.

The history of Egyptology is often told as yet one more grand narrative of powerful men striving to seize the day and the precious artifacts for their competing homelands. But that is only half of the story. During the Golden Age of Exploration, there were women working and exploring before Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tut. Before men even conceived of claiming the story for themselves, women were working in Egypt to lay the groundwork for all future exploration.

In Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age, Kathleen Sheppard brings the untold stories of these women back into this narrative. Sheppard begins with the earliest European women who ventured to Egypt as travellers: Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst. Their travelogues, diaries and maps chronicled a new world for the curious. In the vast desert, Maggie Benson, the first woman granted permission to excavate in Egypt, met Nettie Gourlay, the woman who became her lifelong companion. They battled issues of oppression and exclusion and, ultimately, are credited with excavating the Temple of Mut.

As each woman scored success in the desert, she set up the women who came later for their own struggles and successes. Emma Andrews’ success as a patron and archaeologist helped to pave the way for Margaret Murray to teach. Murray’s work in the university led to the artists Amice Calverley’s and Myrtle Broome’s ability to work on-site at Abydos, creating brilliant reproductions of tomb art, and to Kate Bradbury’s and Caroline Ransom’s leadership in critical Egyptological institutions. Women in the Valley of the Kings upends the grand male narrative of Egyptian exploration and shows how a group of courageous women charted unknown territory and changed the field of Egyptology forever.

I so wanted to be an Egyptologist when I was growing up but knew that the heat would kill me – a trip to Egypt confirmed this….bubble to those people who say BUT IT IS A DRY HEAT … it was unreal, In MARCH. These women were fascinating and wonderful to spend time with --- I had never heard of any of them but am now considering them rock stars especially as they are uncredited for their work

Perfect for book club and feminists … or ANTI-feminists like me! Highly recommended.

#shortbutsweetreviews