I really enjoyed reading this book. Egypt is not a topic I read a lot about, so I learned a lot from this book, but most importantly, I loved seeing that women were as influential as they could for the times.

The history of Egyptology often focuses on rich white men doing their rich white men things. But what often gets overlooked is the presence of women during the Golden Age of Egyptian archaeology (in relation to Western antiquarians). The author discusses some of the earliest European women who travelled to Egypt and became involved in excavations.

This work was wonderful, because many of these women played a massive role in twentieth century Egyptology but were rarely recognized the way they would have been if they were male. The author pointed out that much of what they did was deemed boring or tedious, certainly not the news-worthy opening or raiding of tombs, but that without their documentation and background work, much of the context and important information would have been lost. I also loved the fact that the women’s field journals and paintings/drawings of the tombs were much more detailed and useful than the men’s generally were (something I find especially relatable as an archaeologist) or even the photographs.

The author uses the women’s travelogues, diaries, drawings, and maps to inform her research for this work. I do think the scope of this work was a bit too broad, though. Rather than simply focusing on the women’s time in Egypt, there is an almost overwhelming amount of information included about their general lives, romance, loves, and other information that wasn’t necessarily relevant. With the number of women included in this work, there were many times when the information was more overwhelming than informative. The work also wasn’t set up in the most accessible manner, with chapters following a woman’s entire life but then the same woman being mentioned in new ways in following chapters due to overlapping timelines.

Overall this was an informative and well-intentioned work, but I do think the execution was lacking. Some additional editing and reworking probably would have gone a long way to helping this. My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Great look at the first female Egyptologists and archaeologists. Wonderful detailed looks at each of the women mentioned and their contributions to the field. Only wish the ARC contained the pictures it kept mentioning!

There are so many areas of history that women played a vital role in and either their stories weren't recorded or they've been forgotten. Of course every child has heard about Egypt and the pyramids, King Tut and Howard Carter, and so many other fascinating tales of ancient Egypt. However, prior to Women in the Valley of the Kings, I had never really heard much about the women who were in Egypt doing work to excavate and preserve Egyptian history, as well as those who supported efforts from afar.

Before I start a review of the book, I do want to acknowledge that the history of Brits and Americans and other colonial powers excavating and removing ancient antiquities has a problematic future, and still sees issues today. Much of the removal of ancient artifacts was done due to colonial beliefs that the countries they were occupying were backward and incapable of appreciating their history. There were also a lot of destructive actions that resulted as part of these excavations, as who can forget the fact that at one point there was a Victorian craze of ingesting ground up mummies.

Now on to the book. Kathleen Sheppard explores a part of history that has long fascinated audiences but takes a new twist in prioritizing and centering the role women played. She acknowledges that many of the men who were excavating and adventuring in Egypt were supported at home by women who kept things running and kept their lives in order so they could be off in the desert. Sheppard examines the life of several women who I had never heard of but should be taught alongside the stories of people like Howard Carter, as the reason we have any documentation and standardization in this area is due to the fact that women played a central role in establishing Egyptology as a field. The book is set up with each woman she's writing about having their own chapter. The reader will note that so many of these women overlapped and intertwined in their journeys throughout Egypt. Many of the women came from wealthy backgrounds, and that did play a major role in who had the ability to be an archaeologist. My book review would have to be very long to retrace each woman's story, and I am grateful the author poured so much into these women's stories. I really enjoyed the book, and for me this was a very readable book for the general audience.

Please be advised I received an Advance Readers Copy (ARC) from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Women seem to be showing up in all sorts of historical places: NASA control rooms, European spycraft, and now Gilded Age Egypt. They were always there, but their contributions were largely overshadowed by those of their male counterparts. Even if the male counterparts took credit for their work. Kathleen Sheppard follows a group of women who came to North Africa as travelers and left as seasoned Egyptologists- some even being credited for the excavation of the Temple of Mut. Perhaps not surprisingly, the social discrimination and gender norms that hampered the Egyptologists is an echo of the discrimination that haunted the Egyptian women laid to rest in the tombs they hoped to locate. Sheppard’s book is an excellent addition to the growing social history scholarship that puts women back in the historical narrative. I recommend reading this in tandem with Lynne Olson’s Empress of the Nile: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt’s Ancient Temples from Destruction. Both emphasize a fundamental truth: Women were present, women contributed, women made history.

In the last few years, there have been dozens of cases of historians uncovering the stories of heroic women that would have otherwise been lost to time. Many were contemporaries of famous male inventors and explorers whose exploits have been told and retold. Yet the stories of these women and their accomplishments remained hidden. This book turns the traditional wealthy European tomb raider stories on their heads. The women that are the subject of the book have interesting and complex lives, which are told beautifully. Let's hope that these stories become as well-known as those of their male counterparts.

This book was clearly well reseacrhed, and had an interesting premise, but I found it really dragged and was weighed down by too many details. I'd only recommend for people seriously interested in the subject matter.

The subject of this book fascinated me, but the writing was a bit textbook for what I was hoping. Nonetheless, it is an important book to highlight women in history, especially in this fascinating time.

Wonderful, and very enlightening of what was taking place during this time period. This a great read for young women looking for stories about them!

Great read! I had absolutely no knowledge of these women and their contributions to Egypt exploration. The story form of writing really engages the reader. I've always had a fascination with archeology and this just adds another dimension to that interest.

This here was an interesting read but a good book on women’s history involving Egyptologists! It was a good listen. I felt like it was more of an Amelia story because she set the blueprint for other women to follow in her footsteps! Set in the 1800’s where, of course, women couldn’t do a lot of things for themselves! Also, it felt chunky at times of unnecessary story but other than that a decent read!

This was an educational book that tried to be a biographical prose book. While I learned a lot, it was not what I had hoped it would be.

A look into the women archeologists who excavated ancient Egypt. I was expecting this to be more of a synthesized history, but it was more biographies. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had gone into it known it was more in biography style. It also was not laid out in the most logical sense. I don't mind a history so it wasn't an academic problem like I know some people disliked. For me, it was the layout that let down what could have been a really interesting history.

Highly researched, I thought this book would be a little more accessible to the average reader. It definitely has interesting stories about the women there, but it was a little dry for me. Recommend highly to those really interested in the history of Egyptology archaeology. For the casual reader, it might be too much.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. #sponsored

Meet the forgotten contributors to Egyptology…,women.

If you are like me, perhaps you went through a period of wanting to be an archaeologist. If so, was the very title of archaeologist synonymous with Egypt…the pyramids, the pharoahs, and all that went with it? For me that career choice didn’t last terribly long, which perhaps had a bit to do with the fact that all of the famous archaeologists about whom I read were men. Granted, the years when men like Howard Carter were setting up digs and unearthing tombs were not a time when most women pursued careers at all, not to mention one that would take them around the globe….and yet there were, in fact, women who did exactly that. These were women who had their own talents and motivations for traveling to and living in Egypt, sharing a love of knowledge and were in many cases more interested in preserving materials that were discovered rather than in digging things up and hauling them home (though some did a bit of that as well). Author Kathleen Sheppard has done tremendous research into these women’s stories, using written travelogues, artistic renderings of sites that were unearthed, and other records to create a portrait of women who inspired others (and in some cases taught the women who came behind them) to work in the shadow of men credited with the explorations and alongside the Egyptian people who similarly did much of the work yet received little if any credit for their labors. From Amelia Edwards to Caroline Ransom Williams, with a hat tip to Lucie Duff Gordon whose Letters from Egypt inspired many of her countrymen and countrywomen to visit the distant land where she had settled, it is an interesting look into how and why women were able to overcome hurdles and create lives pursuing intellectual freedom and making contributions to the field.
This is neither a quick nor an easy read; there is a lot of information revealed and an at times dizzying array of names and personalities to remember and sort out as timelines intermingle. I found it easier to read in chunks at a time, and while there were sections that were not as engrossing as others it was still a very worthwhile read. As has been documented in recent years, women in so many fields have not always received sufficient credit for their contributions to the world (recent books like Hidden Figures and the biography of tennis great Althea GIbson just to name a couple), and it is important that those omissions are corrected. Maybe a young girl going through her own “I want to be an archaeologist” phase might benefit from seeing that women can, and in fact have, made wonderful contributions in that field. My thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for allowing me access to this intriguing look into women who followed their passions and expanded the understanding of an ancient people in the process.

This was a fascinating and necessary read, as the women involved in these processes are largely underrated (as are many other women throughout history) for their contributions and discoveries. I really liked the content of this book, but it did feel a little dry in some sections and made it more difficult to get through.

Women in the Valley of the Kings was a read I appreciated as I have not read anything similar. Interesting overall and appreciative I had the opportunity to read.

Loved this book. All the reading I've done on Egyptology and the Valley of the Kings has always been focused on the men involved. It was so interesting to read about these strong women and their contributions to a fascinating history. It's about time the factual story includes the women who were exploring the tombs of the ancient Egyptologists.

Kathleen Sheppard has done something that those before her haven't. She's given a spotlight, voice, and insight into the women Egyptologists in the late 1800's and early 1900's. I am grateful for that. From those who first traveled to Egypt and excavated sites, to those who brought the artifacts back to other places so others could enjoy these hidden treasures, to those who helped fund the excavations, writing letters, helping with medical aid....so much that history has left out, Kathleen has brought back to the forefront and allowed us a window into what that looked like for these women in that time frame. Absolutely fascinating and highly recommend.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

An excellent volume on the history of archeology and Egyptology through the lens of women who pioneered in this field. Although this is non fiction it is written with an engaging style and one feels connected with these women in their adventures and struggles. They are among the unsung pioneers and heroes in this field. From the epilogue one of the phrases gives a terse overview : "They deserve a reckoning, these women in the Valley of the Kings."