Special thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Originally when asked to read and review this book, I was elated. FINALLY!!!! A book about some women and their prominent roles within the shaping of Egyptology. I was excited to start learning a more well rounded historically accurate telling of who was prominent within this time period…not just the men, but finally women included!

Unfortunately, this book does not help fuel a want to learn more about women’s roles within this time period (late 1800s, early 1900s). The biggest issue I had in this book was that it is written like a college paper. Potentially this was a PhD dissertation before coming a full text? It reads horrifically dry, full of fact after fact that I feel all students write in to impress their professors. It assumes you know A LOT about this time period in history, and any lay person is going to be ridiculously confused. I personally have knowledge of Egyptology and some of the people involved in this text, and yet I was still constantly Googling who everyone was.

If that isn’t annoying enough, each chapter has about 5,000 names in it with zero context. What I mean by that is each chapter will speak about one or two specific women, and then add another bunch of names of people they knew or met, which you are supposed to just know already who they are DUH!!

The chapters are also not chronologically written, with the author talking about a women’s death and then in the next paragraph going back to them being alive and well working a project. I don’t understand why someone would write like this? Am I insane for assuming someone writing a biographical chapter about a historical figure would want to write from birth to death in order of big events? I can understand introducing a person and THEN going back to their “XYZ was born in blah blah blah,” but I don’t think I can wrap my head around the constant bouncing around.

If that isn’t enough, some people are writing into earlier chapters when their specific chapter isn’t until later in the book. I assume the name dropping is supposed to OOOH and AHHH the reader for what’s to come but in reality, I was incredibly frustrated trying to get through this piece because I had no idea who anyone ever was.

I will say I DID finish this book, solely because I try and finish all books I am reading, and not because I was engaged or wanting to read more. It was a slog to say the least, and that pisses me off because I feel it’s important to have contemporary pieces mentioning those who have been discarded or ignored before in history (specifically women in this case).

If you are someone who knows a LOT about history, specifically this “guilded age” of Egyptology…then I would recommend this book to you. It is full of information, but holy shit it will read like a text book and force you to contemplate what you’re doing with your life to get that information.

If you are a lay person, with not much knowledge about this era, or you THINK you know a lot, trust me this book will show you you don’t know shit and make you feel horrible about yourself for ever thinking you knew anything about Egyptology around the 1900s.

I do not recommend this piece, and I am angry that I have to say that because I was so excited for this one. Insert GIF of Tyra Banks in America’s Next Top Model screaming, “I was rooting for you, we were all rooting for you! How dare you?!”

This book seems to be well-researched, but it was pretty boring. I was not expecting the amount of dry detail that went into each woman's story.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this book on the history of women in the field of Egyptology, their discoveries, their importance in educating others and how these women and their rich lives have been unfairly erased from history.

There is a lot of talk about the contributions of people unfairly forgotten by history. Most of these contributions are from women, people with different lifestyle choices, and people of color. The saddest thing about this is not that history has forgotten them, history is impartial, it is their fellow co-workers, researchers, teachers, and mentors who have omitted them. Sure it was of the time, but who made the time. And if these people could see so far in the past, couldn't they see the future should have a few more names to discuss. I have read many books on Egyptology, starting as a child, and seen even more mummy movies. Only one movie featured a woman being a researcher, and that was in the 1990's Mummy movie. Most of the rest are helpful, supportive, spouses, if women are even mentioned at all. I knew nothing of these women featured in this book, those who gave their health, their time, and lives to a field, though problematical, was one they popularized. Nor the rich lives and relationships they shared, even during an era that was known for its lack of freedom, any kind of freedom for women. Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age by Kathleen Sheppard is a history that is much more about women living their best lives, ignoring the constraints forced on them, and engaging in a new field of study that many made their own, and yet still were denied credit.

The book is broken into 7 chapters featuring women in duos, or alone who slowly entered the field of Egyptology, sometimes without knowing why, and blazed paths that allowed the women in the next chapter to follow. These women had a few things going for them. Wealth, power in some cases, a strong will, and a sense of adventure. And a strong intelligence. The book introduces us to women who found companions like themselves, sometimes after bad engagement, or marriages, many traveling to the deserts of Egypt for health. Many travelled because they could, again wealth being helpful. A few wrote books about their experiences, some that have gone on to be important in the field. Many of them stayed together their whole loves, a love that dare not speak its name, but right there for all to see. One taught for almost 40 years, teaching future Egyptologists how to dig, how to read, and how to act. While sharing chocolate, and talking about witches. The whol book has extraordinary stories about women, who shouldn't be forgotten, but shared and celebrated, for all that they accomplished.

This book was not at all what I expected, and I am the better for it. So many great stories, so many strong companions, full of love and strength. Reading a book like this I expected to tear up because of mummy dust, and sand. Not about two people dying and sharing a gravestone of an obelisk with an Ankh carving in a cemetery in England. Sheppard has done a wonderful job of bringing these women to life, showing their unhappy lives in many cases, or in some cases odd marriages, and suddenly being overcome by Mummy-Mania. There is just so much here. Travels through Europe, up the Nile, bursting into tombs, and making great discoveries, and breaking a lot of stuff. Lectures of America. And women finding each other, making their lives complete, while the world shakes it heads at the lonely spinsters.

Amazingly in-depth research, and great writing. One of my favorite history books of the year, and probably my favorite book of the year. Recommended for history fans, Egyptology interested people, and for people in the LGBT community. These stories should be known. I found a whole group of new heroes here. I hope this book becomes a bestseller so others can know their tale.

Wonderful book. This book bring light to women whose work is not well known. Credit was often claimed by men. Sheppard's writing is good and you can tell she did extensive research. This book should appeal to a broad range of readers, especially women.

It was sixth grade Social Studies. I forget exactly what Mrs. Melquist was teaching us but I remember a slideshow, and I remember that it included pictures of the treasures found in King Tut’s tomb. That was the first I knew of archaeology and Egyptology. And I was hooked.

Not enough to become an archaeologist or an Egyptologist, but enough to consume all things Ancient Egypt that I came across from that point on. I knew about Howard Carter and the supposed curse of King Tut’s tomb before I started junior high.

What I didn’t know, until very recently, was what role women played in founding the science of Egyptology and uncovering some very important things beneath the sands of Egypt. And by ‘until very recently,’ I do mean until I saw Women in the Valley of the Kings available on NetGalley and read the summary. So you can imagine how pleased I was to receive an ARC.

Kathleen Sheppard paints a vivid picture of the women who went to Egypt seeking respite from their health issues and ended up uncovering temples, founding historical societies, and changing the understanding of the world at a time when were not, or at least are not remembered for, changing the world. It’s the very definition of falling down a proverbial rabbit hole and having your hobby become your passion become your purpose.

Some of the most fascinating parts of the story Sheppard tells are;

- that women who were in lesbian relationships with other women were often more successful because having a ‘partner’ rather than a husband put them on equal footing with the men working in the field, and it was easier to travel to and Egypt with someone than alone
- that some women Egyptologists tried to quit the jobs they had, because there was too much work (especially when they were also caring for husbands and parents), only to be stopped from doing that because it was cheaper to pay women than to pay men (so that hasn’t changed) in over a hundred years
- that even though the science of Egyptology has mostly developed in the last century and a half, so much of the contribution that women made in the early days has been buried and is rarely acknowledged in favor of the glamour of Howard Carter and other men, even as the research women like Lucie Duff Gordon, Amelia Edwards, Emma Andrews, and Margaret Murray (among many others) is still used and cited

If you’re a student of history, officially or unofficially, and you have an interest in Egyptology and/or the role of women in creating a branch of study dedicated to Egypt at a time when it was not easy to be a woman, I feel certain this is a book you’ll want to read.

— publish date of July 16, 2024

***I received a copy of Women in the Valley of the Kings through NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest and original review.***

This was a comprehensive, informative overview of the first female Egyptologists and their contributions. The focus is entirely on the women themselves and less about the history of Egyptology or historical Egypt. I appreciated the discussion of how difficult it was to find the legacy of some of these women, and how they may have remained unknown if it weren't for the letters, journals, and professional correspondence left behind. I also enjoyed the inclusion of the women who administrated as opposed to those who spent more time in the field. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Egyptology and anyone wanting to learn more about a group of women through their writings.

I found the information in this book to be very interesting, as I love both the gilded age and Egypt. I learned a lot from this book and am thrilled to now know about these amazing women. However, I felt like the author was very biased in some of her assessments and it bothered me. For example, the book argues that the women were likely in a romantic relationship with each other. However, there is no real evidence for this kind of relationship provided. The only "evidence" was the closeness of their relationship. If there was evidence of a real romantic relationship between the women, then including this information would make perfect sense and it then should be included! It just bothered me to spend so much time speculating based off of basically nothing. Obviously this is a small part of the book, but it is the first impression you get as it's found in the beginning of the writing.

Successful discoveries in the Valley of Kings have always been attributed to wealthy men, and the women behind the scenes were left in the shadows. This book brings their stories to life, laying the groundwork for women who came after them in the field of Egyptology. 

This was a page-turner, especially when retelling the famous digs that took place in the Valley of Kings. The author relies on the women’s journals and letters, which add a more personal touch to their lives. It was interesting to see how each woman’s contributions paved the way for the next generation of female Egyptologists. Whether it was financial support for historic digs, copying hieroglyphics on site, educating others in the field and gaining support, and curating Egyptian exhibits to ensure the artifacts found were preserved for many generations to come. It was also great to see the author giving credit to those who were actually doing the backbreaking work of physically digging up the tombs themselves. They also weren’t given any credit throughout history, even though they were the ones sweating their butts off. 
If you’re interested in Egyptology at all, I couldn’t recommend this book more. It was a great time.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-arc.

I really enjoyed this. The main focus in time is from about 1875 to 1930 with some outlying information. My knowledge of Egyptology comes nearly entirely from fiction. Primarily Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series (also Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's <i>Out of the House of Life</i>). It seems clear fictional Amelia began as an amalgam of the historical Amelia and likely other women Egyptologists of the era.

Chapters focus on specific woemen and are in chronological order. I appreciate the details of the relationships between all the different women. I don't mean specifically those who were couples, but how they also worked together. I did enjoy learning that Theodore Davis' fortune was ill-gotten gains!

For those with an interested in women overlooked by history, Egyptology in the gilded age, and fans of Elizabeth Peters.

With Women in the Valley of the Kings, Kathleen Sheppard strives to bring light to a demographic often left out of traditional history. She has more to work with by focusing on women instead of the local Egyptians that participated in digs and excavations, and she does an admirable job of sharing information that’s available. That being said, even then, it definitely feels like she is often working with sparse materials. Any one of these women could be the centerpiece of a standalone book for their lives, work and accomplishments if the source material was available. I don’t know if this lack of information led her to fill in reimagining daily undertakings, feelings and interactions or if it was a desire to make the book less dry and more readable, but there’s points where it doesn’t really work for me because it reads like the women telling their own story to Sheppard and her recounting it, rather than sourcing the information from letters, journals and public records. It’s a tricky balance making non-fiction easily readable without getting too speculative in filling in smaller details. As someone with a minor in anthropology I always enjoy getting to read books that tie into archaeology, especially when the focus of the book isn’t a western civilization wealthy white man. Even knowing practices were different in the time these women did their work, reading about the careless destruction that often happened, the lack of preservation when exposing tombs and artifacts caused deterioration, the desecration of mummies in the name of science because the technology wasn’t there to avoid it, and the overwhelming amount of history that was (legally) removed from its country of origin is cringeworthy in today’s terms. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What a well done book that included so many details that made the story so richly told. One never knows the amount of effort and time that women gave to projects of a time past.

This has always been a subject that is so interesting to me and I was happy to learn that these women were more conservators than those looking to cash in on their finds.

Rarely do we associate early Egyptological discoveries with the work and contributions of women. This books brings to light the stories of 11 women who were there and who helped establish the foundation of Egyptology today.

I love that Kathleen Sheppard choose to tell the story in a way that emphasizes the importance of not only each woman’s achieve but whole the foundation each woman helped set so that whoever followed her could built up off it. While Egyptology if mostly associated with the archeological work, Sheppard highlights the importance of written documents as well. These women wrote travelogues, drew maps, and wrote incredibly detailed notes in their diaries. All becoming important first hand accounts to their experiences and to the study Egyptology. Maggie Benson was the first woman to receive a permit to excavate and therefore open the door for so many others to follow. Margaret Murray becomes as teacher and helps shape a new generation of Egyptologists.

I’ve been a fan of Egyptology ever since I was a young girl and I dreamed of becoming an archeologist. I just had to pick up this read and I loved it every step of the way. Would recommend.

Detail in the wrong places | One would expect me to be the ideal audience for this book, a woman who has loved ancient Egypt and the study of it since early childhood, and who has devoured so many of the recent books that center women where they've previously been left out of modern history. And I tried to love this, I really did. That's why it took ages to read, because I wanted so badly to love it. But I just...didn't. I'm not convinced that Sheppard is quite ready to write for a popular audience as opposed to a scholarly one, for one thing. There are passages that shine for the general public, in which you can really see and feel the surroundings, but they stand out in the midst of long dry spells of rote exposition. But more to the point, in many cases there's so much detail about each woman's life before Egypt, then almost nothing about what she did there! The first few women introduced in the book spend chapters being introduced and traveling to the country, then have gone home a couple of pages later. In so many cases little enough was explicitly described about what the women presented here actually did in Egypt that it's hard even for me, who was willing it with all of my might, to justify writing about them. Just barely worth it for the hardcore Egypt fan like myself.

This book focuses on early women Egyptologists. I like that this book gives attention to women who were for the most part completely forgotten. This book outlines their lives and their works. It was certainly a fascinating time period for exploring Egypt. Occasionally the text jumps rather too abruptly between time periods, but overall it is well organized.

The women in the Valley of the Kings gives an insightful biography of the eleven women who had a major role in development of Egyptology. These women made great contributions without the credit. pay or respect they deserved
For many years,I have found the field of Egyptology very fascinating .This book is filled with a wealth information and needs to be read in increments to absorb it all. Not for people with little interest in the topic.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. I look forward to the illustration s which will enhance my enjoyment even more of this nonfiction history .

“Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age” by Kathleen Sheppard is not the first book about women who are not given credit for breaking the glass ceiling in a field thought to be under the purview of men. This book reads like a textbook with thumbnail sketches of women who were not trained as archeologists but made their mark in the field.

It reminded me of the book “The Women Founders: Sociology and Social Theory” by Patricia Maddo Lengermann and Gillian Niebrugge but while Lengermann and Niebrugge lauded the women’s accomplishment and downplayed what may or may not have been their sexual orientation, Sheppard tries to comment on the relationships the women may or may not have had with the other female archeologists.

It is not a new idea that people do not get credit for their significant contributions and not just women. To that point, in the true story “The Dig,” made recently into a movie with Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan, Fiennes’s character did all the archeological digging and discovery and a man from the British Museum received all of the acclaim.

Sheppard describes what life was like for women in the 1800s and the 1900s but the Equal Rights Amendment has not been passed and many women remember what life was like in the mid-twentieth century before the second wave of feminism. It was a challenge. Laws protecting women against sexual harassment did not exist, for example.

Sheppard concludes with the statement that some women were never recognized for their accomplishments, that they deserved a day of reckoning but “unsung heroes or heroines” will always exist and there is merit in a job well done.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this book.

I was beyond happy to get my hands on this as I have read nonfiction on both subjects --the gilded age and the early days of Egyptology. I had no idea that there were women in history responsible for numerous discoveries and how their money was put to go use. Rather than tea parties with other socialites these women actually put their inheritance to good use. A path many of today's 1% people should follow.
Highly recommend for anyone interested in a part of Egyptology that has been hidden and pf course history lovers and those curious about women's careers set in a time when they really didn't have any options.

3 out of 5 stars

I went into Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age expecting something completely different than what I received. I anticipated a deep dive into the history of Egyptology and the great role women played in bringing the field to what it is today, but this book did not contain a deep dive.

Kathleen Sheppard explores the history of Egyptology during the Gilded Age (1865-1900) and into the twentieth century. Specifically, she examines the role of women and how they paved the path for future women in the field. Sheppard uses travelogues, diaries, and maps to show the women’s contributions to Egyptology. She highlights their accomplishments and explains how each led to the possibility of the next. Her analysis includes women in Britain and the United States and how they helped build interest in the subject on both sides of the Atlantic.

Although Sheppard provides a thorough description of each woman featured in her work, she does not paint a complete picture of the field of Egyptology at the time. I did not get the impression that the field could not have made it to where it is today without the work of those women. That is not to say that Sheppard did not do a successful job of highlighting the impacts of the women. She effectively showed that each woman contributed a great deal to Egyptology, but her argument did not convince me.

Even though the book’s argument falls short, Sheppard presents a detailed biography of each woman. She clearly shows how each woman dedicated a portion of their life to studying Ancient Egypt and the importance of their work. However, the book gave too much detail at times. I lost interest each time Sheppard included a full description of how the women spent their mornings before a dig.

I do not blame this book for being something other than what I anticipated, but I do wish Sheppard included more on the field of Egyptology and less on detailed descriptions of the everyday lives of the featured women. Women in the Valley of the Kings does a good job of bringing women back into the narrative and successfully shows their contributions.

Review also available on Goodreads from 5/08/2024.

Sheppard writes a well-researched book about the early women involved in truly creating the discipline of Egyptology. Unfortunately, I just didn't find it all that interesting. She does spend some time, but not a great deal, exploring their lesbian relationships, and that lessened my interest.

Egyptology really got its start with Amelia Edwards who was fascinated by Letters from Egypt published by Lucie Duff Gordon. Edwards made one trip to Egypt but was such a force for the exploration of the ancient civilaztion that her writings inspired many other wormen to follow.

Sheppard chronicles the work of many these and the challenges faced by women who weren't taken seriously. She digs deep into the work they did and all the truly foundational finds they made.

This one was just ok to me.
I think I would have enjoyed it more if maybe it had been focused on the women in a way that was a more readable format; maybe something from their POV?
A tid bit too textbook-y to me, even though I regularly read nonfiction.