Women in the Valley of the Kings by Kathleen Sheppard is the never-before-told story of the women Egyptologists who paved the way of exploration in Egypt and created the basis for Egyptology.
This was such a fascinating story! The information in this book is endless. And very well researched.

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Kathleen Sheppard.s Women in the Valley of Kings will open readers’ eyes to the largely unknown role women played in Egyptology from the 1860s into the early decades of the 20th century.

I was especially surprised to learn how early women became Egyptologists by accident, falling into the work after traveling to the area for health reasons. Lady Lucie Duff Gordon, for example, arrived in Egypt at age 41, leaving behind a husband, children, and the cold, damp English weather for the dry Egyptian climate in hopes of curing her tuberculosis. Learning Arabic and teaching English to local children, she wrote detailed letters home depicting the Luxor area and culture. Her published letters inspired others, particularly women, to travel to Egypt. One such woman, Maggie Benson, also came for the “air cure,” not only for tuberculosis but also for anxiety issues. The first woman to apply for and receive permission to excavate the Temple of Mut near Luxor, Benson was joined a year later by Janet “Nettie” Gourley. Together the pair of women excavated and repaired statues from the temple, replaced them, and produced an 1899 book still considered important reading for archaeologists and anyone interested in Egyptology.

While Western men often fought Egyptians and even each other, competing for excavation permits and excavated objects to be removed from the country and sold in their home countries, for example to the British Museum, the women tended to work more closely with the Egyptians, preserving objects, using their artistic skills to replicate such things as tomb murals to be reproduced for scholarly purposes, writing, working on and off site, using their own money and raising money, teaching, working with museums and scholarly societies, and generally focusing on more constructive work than did the men, who were largely focused on excavating and selling.

In seven chapters, some focused on a single female Egyptologists and others on two, Sheppard describes the women’s work and the challenges they had to overcome in a male-dominated field, fills in personal background information, and points out how each individual’s contributions led to the subsequent women’s work.

While Sheppard'’s well-researched book should be read by students and professionals in the field, general readers interested in Egyptology, cultural history, and women’s history will find it easily accessible, educational, and even entertaining.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance reader egalley of this highly recommended new non-fiction study of women’s contribution to Egyptology.

What a beautiful story about this Women. These women have a lot of obstacles to face in their lives. How often they travel there in 1840 to 1920?
Egypt. They did this alone and they were very fascinated.By the pyramids and what was in them. Some came for health reasons and some came to Explore new ways of doing things. They travel by themselves which was very unusual for that time. They formed friendships with other women. Some of these women were married and they formed friendships with A n t h e r Woman. They were exploring these Pyramids in Egypt.And what's been very hard for them. This woman of courageous for their time because they couldn't even get degrees Some schools.. They also broke Social C Rules for that time.

I remember when I told people I wanted to be an Egyptologist and was rather tersely informed that it was a tough job, physically demanding, and required an imposing presence to keep the dig site in motion, and that most locals, even in the US, responded better to a man being in charge than a woman, and that was in the 1980s. With dreams fueled by King Tut's world tour and lines wrapping around The Met, all I saw when I entered were photos of men handling these glorious objects with their sandy, stubbly faces...none of which looked like me. The only women I saw in those photos were off in the background, slightly out of focus, in their pristine dresses with perfect hair and big hats to keep their faces shadowed, serving as the perfect compliment to the men in hyper focus. So, you can only imagine my delight when I saw a book that brought these women out of the shadows and into the full bright Egyptian Sunlight!

These are the stories of women who fought for their place in a man's world, and who contributed so much to the exhibitions that I still scamper to see like a little girl when I visit any museum. How wonderful it is to find sisters that I never knew, who could inspire me to look deeper and dust off my trowel, pick up a field guide, and get back to looking down to see what treasures I can find.

Kathleen Sheppard’s Women in the Valley of the Kings is a book that will show you, in vivid detail, the lives and contributions of women in so many different aspects of what it meant to dig and record finds in the Golden Age of Egyptology. Women who could be both archeologist and patron like Emma Andrews, whose skill, knowledge and dedication opened doors for so many who came after her. The incredible artists like Amice Calverley and Myrtle Broome whose precise paintings, sketches, and illustrations are still not only used by scholars to see what the tombs looked like as they were discovered, but are prize worthy works of art that many have in their homes today. And the women, like Margaret Murray, Kate Bradbury and Caroline Ransom, who worked at museums and universities, whose work was dedicated to cataloguing, processing, and curating the finds of those in the field. Their stories are a welcome and much needed new volume about the epic history that was co-written By Women In The Valley Of The Kings.

Women in the Valley of the Kings by Kathleen Sheppard is an ode to all the women who played a role directly or indirectly in the realm of Egytology.

The author's extensive research helps a reader go into the lives of these women. These women, in a lot of ways, were pioneers in a world of men. The author has included plenty of references to the women's families, their friends, spouses, and partners for a reader to get a complete picture of how and why Egypt was important to them.

I honestly was extremely intrigued by this book. I love anything Egypt and was expecting a grand adventure. I got some adventure but not what I expected. This book is more academic, like a lot of reviews state. There's a lot of names that I expected, but after a while, it was hard to keep up with all the information for me. I did enjoy the book, but at the same time, I wanted more of the actual Egyptian discovery. The best part for me was the discovery of tomb KV55 from the book.

Thank you, St. Martin's Press for this book.

“Women in the Valley of the Kings” is the fascinating story of first women that explored Egypt and helped to define the study of Egyptology. These women, often overlooked, funded, participated in excavations, documented, and cataloged the ancient Egyptian tombs often along side, in the lead or behind the scenes of men during the Golden Age of Exploration.

Sheppard has crafted an incredibly researched and well structured account of the women that helped created the discipline of Egyptology. I found the writing, use of citations, and the structure of the book very accessible and loved how the stories flowed one to the other over time. I appreciated the connecting the dots and summary of these amazing women. This book will make you want to visit Egypt if you didn’t already want to and leave you googling for more information and looking up Nile River Cruise and Egyptian tours!

***ARC received from St. Martins Press and NetGalley in exchange for honest review, opinions are all my own. Thank you!***

Women in the Valley of the Kings tells the stories of many of the women that helped shape Egyptology. Each chapter tells of a woman or two that explores their stories from earlier in their life to the end of their life, not just focusing on their time in Egypt. It was fun learning about their adventures and why for many of them it was health that brought them to the country but love for what they found that kept them there. Many of the women went with female companions, sometimes friends other times their lovers exploring a freedom that we forget sometimes women may have had even during a time of female oppression.

Sometimes the chapters overlap since they spent time in Egypt at the same time as others but they also explore from the closer to the beginning up to after the war when Egypt was finally allowed to flex autonomy over its own land. Its interesting seeing how the women responded to this. I also liked seeing how they were influenced and followed in the path set by the women that came before them. Likely there are others that were fully lost to history but I am glad to have had a chance to learn more about the women that did have an impact on what we know about ancient Egyptian history.

While the book starts out slow it does build up and while the writing is good, if a bit overly clinical. It can get heavy on details but particularly in the first chapter but the writing seems to find her grove with a balance of giving detail and fleshing out the women of the stories life. Going into a little more detail about what they did in personal lives. While the book touches on it in the beginning I wish it had gone into a little more detail or be a little more honest about how these women treated Egypt and its people. The men don’t really get spared, many of them were destructive in their search for gold but it never felt like the women were looked at in a critical light in the same way. There is nothing wrong with being honest in how westerners, even these women, treated Egypt like a playground only for the white folks.

As much as I liked this book I just kept feeling like I wasn’t the target audience. There is so much information in this book, so many names thrown out without any explanation for who they are it got a bit overwhelming of a read. Like I have a basic understanding of Egyptology and the discovery of the tombs but that just wasn’t enough. I think people that have a much stronger understanding and already know who many of these people are would likely find more enjoyment in this book as they wouldn’t have to be like me constantly trying to figure out who these folks are.

In the end Women in the Valley of the Kings is an interesting look at the unsung stories of the women that helped shape out understanding and the workings of Egyptology.

I have always been interested in Egyptology and was excited to read this book. I had no idea there were so many women that went to Egypt. There is a lot of information and I wasn’t able to read it straight through. It seems to be thoroughly researched. It did feel like I was reading a textbook at times, but I learned quite a bit which I appreciate.

Thank you to the author, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) copy of this book and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

I found this book, Women in the Valley of the Kings, to be a bit different than I expected. I had no doubts at all that women, in every educational endeavor back in the late Victorian/Edwardian times, took 2nd place--if that--to men, who possibly were not as well educated in a field as a woman was, but due to her sex and lack of opportunity, had to take that back seat to men in almost every field. The glass ceiling back then was a LOT higher and harder to break through than it is now, and almost everyone expected women to be glad to even have a 2nd place to claim! It was interesting to learn that archaelogy was one of the first educational fields to actually welcome women in those days.

A fair bit of emphasis was put on the fact that many of the women involved in archaeology/Egyptology travelled/worked/studied in pairs, and were quite possibly gay. Apparently Queen Victoria thought it wasn't possible for women to pair up like that, and men, OTOH, were vigorously prosecuted for that same offense. That has to be one of the few cases of men NOT having things as well off as women in sexual matters!

It is rather amazing that some of the works produced by women in this field are still being studied and used; if a work is good over a 100 years after being written, it seems to have to be a rally good one!

I enjoyed reading this tome, and recommend it to history buffs as well as feminists! My thanks to NetGalley for sending me an ARC of this book for my review, which is entirely my own opinion.

Kathleen Sheppard’s Women in the Valley of the Kings is a fascinating exploration into the often-overlooked contributions of women Egyptologists during the Gilded Age. Traditionally, the history of Egyptology has been dominated by the narratives of influential men like Howard Carter, but Sheppard brings to light the equally important and groundbreaking work of women who paved the way in this fascinating field.

The book opens with pioneering travelers such as Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst, whose detailed travelogues, diaries, and maps introduced the wonders of Egypt to a curious European audience. Sheppard highlights how these early female explorers laid the groundwork for future archaeological endeavors. Notably, Maggie Benson became the first woman granted permission to excavate in Egypt, overcoming significant societal barriers alongside her companion, Nettie Gourlay. Their excavation of the Temple of Mut marked a historic achievement in Egyptology.

Sheppard features several other notable women, including Emma Andrews, who, as both a patron and an archaeologist, paved the way for academic advancements. Margaret Murray’s university work enabled artists like Amice Calverley and Myrtle Broome to produce reproductions of tomb art, while Kate Bradbury and Caroline Ransom took leadership roles in key Egyptological institutions. This book is sure to inspire future explorers to overcome barriers and share knowledge.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

DNF at 25%

I had really high hopes for this but it kind of felt like one really long apology for rich white colonizers.

They deserve a reckoning, these women in the Valley of Kings.

I'm very grateful to have received an e-arc of this through Netgalley!

This spoke to my elementary school self's Egyptology hyper-fixation and reignited my dormant fascination for Ancient Egyptology and the messy world of Egyptological excavation and unethical archeology habits.

So many of the accounts of Ancient Egyptology that are taught and available to consume are centered on the male archeologists of the time. Without this work I never would have known of the impressive number of women who led many of the greatest strides in the field, nor would I have known how ridiculously sapphic the history of Gilded Age Egyptology really was!

This was overflowing with admiration for the women of archeology, while also painting a very clear portrait of the evolution of the study and the inner workings of excavation sites and subsequently, the treatment and mistreatment of artifacts. This discussed the immorality with MANY of the practices and archeological "methods".

The overlooked women of Gilded Age Egyptology were given their flowers in this work, and the lyrical (and yet focused) writing did their histories justice. Younger me would have LOVED to have had this and had the opportunity to make everyone around me hear me recite the facts and revelations from this book.

Very interesting and informative!

I received an advance reading copy (arc) of this book from NetGalley.com and the publisher in return for a fair review. Egyptology has long been a fascinating subject with its many twists and turns. Most documentation, records, books, etc. have focused on the men (i.e., Howard Carter) who excavated the tombs, but there were many women who worked hard, if not harder, who were overlooked by history. Major contributions were made by several women who not only toiled at the excavation sites, but also documented their findings and taught students who would eventually have their own successes. Women like Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst to Kate Bradbury and Caroline Ransom, they traveled to Egypt and opened the doors for other women. While the story was interesting, I found it read more like a textbook and the multiple people involved were hard to follow. While the women's work was just as significant as the men's, they were paid much less and their contributions often unmentioned. Author Kathleen Sheppard had a good idea, but the book fell a little short for me as one woman blurred into the next. Sheppard also made assumptions about the unmarried ladies and their companions instead of focusing on their work. We will never know about their private lives, but their professional triumphs should have stood on its own.

Women in the Valley of Kings introduces us to a group of ten women that were the pioneers for Egyptology. Each woman's story is well researched and presented in a format that was very readable and fascinating. Each of these women dedicated her life to the study, but did not receive the renown (or pay) that their male counterparts did.
I will definitely look for more books from this author.

I would call this a true history book, written like a textbook with many facts and details of these remarkable women. It is a compilation of many of the women who lived and worked on archaeological sites before it was fashionable for women to do what was considered a man’s job. They were ground shakers, rule-breakers, tough, and very independent, leading lives that were both rugged and meaningful doing the archaeological work that was their passion. This book is not written in a conversational tone and I wouldn’t call it an easy read book, however, if it’s knowledge that you are after, you would enjoy this book. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

This book offers an interesting overview of the women who shaped Egyptology and helped ensure its continuation as a discipline. All but one of the women was British, and the one who wasn't was American, so Sheppard does note that even when women stepped into the field it remained very Euro-centric. Initially, a lot of the women who joined Egyptology did so because they had the money to go on a European tour or a change-of-air health tour and found what was going on in Egypt interesting. This means that the field skewed definitively toward wealthier people.

I enjoyed learning about the women and how their contributions often weren't as obvious as men's (i.e., they weren't the ones doing the digging) but were as important and arguably more so. Many of the women here were integral for ensuring the proper recording, sorting, and preservation of artifacts, not to mention were often involved in processes like getting money for the projects to continue.

My main issue with this book is that I think the chapters are too long for how little they say. I think a lot of them could have been shorter or with editing could have cut down on some of the fluff to increase the amount of information provided on the women and still be the same length.

Overall this was a pretty interesting overview on women in the field of Egyptology. I enjoyed seeing how the field changed over time and how the women engaged in different activities that nonetheless were integral to the survival of the field and to artifacts.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for my #gifted copy of Women In The Valley Of The Kings!

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐈𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐄𝐠𝐲𝐩𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐈𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐠𝐞
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐊𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐩𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐝
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝟏𝟔, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

Women In The Valley Of The Kings is nothing like what I expected but I found it so fascinating. It’s one of those books that is so well-researched and teaches you so much about a topic that you had very little prior knowledge about. As a woman, I loved learned about the women who played such an important role in Egyptology, despite the fact that they were left out of the narrative, or only included as secondary characters in the grand narrative of Egyptology.

Kathleen Sheppard did so much research to tell these stories, traveling up and down the Nile, combing through journals, newspapers, photos, etc. As such, the book reads much like a text book in some ways. This book will be of interest to anyone who enjoys learning more about the history of Egyptology, specifically the role women played.

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As an archaeology student, I found it rare to find stories of females in the field. All we learned about were people like Flinders Petrie and Lord Carnarvon; never the women were behind the scenes creating curriculum, teaching new students, and even financing the digs, as well as on the front lines leading archeological digs for multiple seasons. Learning about so many new names, Myrtle Broome, Kate Griffith, and Emily Paterson, was fascinating when I only knew about the Maggies and Amelia Edwards. These women were pioneers of their times, breaking the mold of education for women in Europe and the predominantly male field of archaeology. Many of them were placed in the shadows of men like their fathers, brothers, and husbands, and they found their freedom in education and traveling using financing and publishing multitudes of seasons of archaeological digs. They were pioneers in their sexuality as well; for many of these women, traveling on their own was seen to be taboo. So, finding traveling partners like friends or lovers allowed them to be who they were, with no one getting in their way. This book also dives into the history of just how damaging the early years of archaeology were; even though many of these women thought to record things that were going on, there were still several things left unrecorded, not adequately recorded, as well as looted and stolen artifacts. The stories of these women are told through the facts, the diaries, the letters, and the photographs left behind by these women. I would love to see this book as either a required or recommended reading in archaeology programs at my university, where I studied both archaeology and the ancient world, as it opens up new perspectives and people to be explored.

I love learning about ancient Egypt, the pyramids, the ancient artifacts, the excavations, mummies, etc. I was very excited to see a book was about women's involvement in this field including those who donated money, traveled to the sites and about the first woman granted permission to excavate. How thrilling for them to be able to travel there, to live there, to share their travels, their successes, their thoughts, and their struggles.

It is obvious that a tremendous amount of research went into the writing of this book. I could feel the author's enthusiasm for this subject and the women she shares with readers. I appreciated how she focused on women and their accomplishments, their traveling and inquisitive spirits, their determination and drive. Readers are also given insight into their lives, their love lives, and their marriages.

This book had so many positives, but it felt clunky at times and did not follow, at least for me, any sense of order. Plus, as other reviewers so aptly mentioned, this does feel like an academic book. I was hoping to feel more for the women, their drives, their travels, and their involvement surrounding the digs and local communities. I love learning new things and reading about real people but this book, while informative and extensively researched, didn't wow me as I had hoped.

But I do believe there is an audience for this book. There are some very interesting sections and I admired the women and their tenacity in this book.

This is a dense book rich with information and knowledge. What a fascinating exploration of the women who travelled to Egypt and the work they did both in Egypt and behind the scenes. There are many developments in Egyptology and process that would not have happened apart from them. The author did a great job bringing those contributions to light.