Amelia Blanford EdwardsDied 15 Apr 1892 at age 60 (born 7 Jun 1831). Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards was an English novelist, traveller and Egyptologist whose account of her travels in Egypt, A Thousand Miles Up the Nile (1877), was an immediate success. During the last two decades of her life, she became concerned by threats to Egyptian monuments and antiquities, raised funds for archaeological excavations and increased public awareness by lecturing at home and abroad. She also wrote a huge number of popular articles. She establish the Egyptian Exploration Fund (1882). By the 1883 season, the Fund sponsored the young Flinders Petrie who went on to make substantial contributions to Egyptology. Edwards recognized his genius, and provided in her will the endowing of a university chair for him. For this, she chose London's University College (UCL), which was the only school then admitting women. This extended her active work for women's rights. Petrie was made Edwards professor of Egyptology at UCL upon her death in 1892.« |
