It opens The Spanish Embassy in Cairo an exhibition entitled “Archaeological inspection trips to Upper Egypt in the nineteenth century and the archive of Edward Toda”, in cooperation with the Luxor Museum under the supervision of Miguel Ángel Molinero Polo and Andrea Rodriguez Valls, from the archaeological mission working in the Theban Cemetery No. 209 (Al-Assasif, Luxor).
exhibition
This exhibition will be held on October 20 for the third time in Egypt, after the warm reception it received at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (2022) and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (2023). The exhibition aims to present some photographs from the preserved collection of Eduard Toda e Joel (1852-1941). In the Victor Balague Library and Museum in Vilanova i la Geltreu, which bears witness to the work of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities during the nineteenth century.
Eduardo Toda served as Spanish Vice-Consul in Cairo from 1884 to 1886. He established friendly relations with Egyptologists affiliated with the Ministry of Public Works, on which the service depended at that time, and also accompanied them on their trips, the most notable of which was the inspection trips to Upper Egypt in 1886.
Edward Toda reflected his knowledge of ancient Egyptian civilization in many books and articles. In addition, he collected an interesting collection of artifacts, casts and photographs. His texts and collections of objects from that trip – and related to the work he undertook – allow us to better understand the documentation methods used by nineteenth-century Egyptologists, methods that show the transition between hand drawing, tracing, and photography. Interest in ancient and modern Egypt has increased Spain Thanks to the publication of Eduard Toda, who is recognized as one of the most prominent Spanish pioneers of Egyptology. This interest was reflected, decades later, in Spanish participation in the campaign to save the antiquities of Nubia organized by UNESCO in 1960.
Dr. Miguel Angel Molinero is Professor of Ancient History and Egyptology at the University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands. Currently, he is the director of Project 209 (an archaeological mission in the tomb of TT 209 in Luxor) and the co-director of the Babasa Tomb Project (an Egyptian-Italian-Spanish mission specializing in Egyptian inscriptions in the tomb of Babasa, TT 279, also in Luxor). Dr. Andrea Rodriguez Valls, also from the University of La Laguna, has focused her research on Egyptology and religious heraldry. She has worked on organizing important temporary exhibitions in Madrid, and is currently a member of the previously mentioned Babasa Cemetery project.
The exhibition will remain open to the public until February 20, 2025.