Ancient Egypt.
What images are conjured in your mind when you read those words? The pyramids? Pharaohs? Desert? The Nile? Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz defeating the cursed high priest Imhotep? Hercule Poirot onboard the steamer Karnak solving another murder. Or perhaps if you’re a fan of the MCU, Marc Spector or Steven Grant may have popped into your head, with a backdrop of the pyramid of Giza and the “silly old bird”!
I’ve always held a fascination for ancient Egypt which never left me but rather became subsumed by everyday life and more modern history. Recently I’ve let myself rediscover one of my first loves, and it has been a most rewarding experience.
Now you may ask, what on earth would Northumberland Archives hold on Egypt? I asked myself that very same question and began to dig, connecting the dots, leading me back to the traces of ancient Egypt that are held within the walls of our strongrooms.
This blog will look at one of my first discoveries, a photograph album of a journey to Egypt.
We hold the collection of the Carr-Ellison family of Hedgeley, near Powburn, and the photograph album – seen above – is from that collection. It documents the journey of Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Henry Carr-Ellison and his wife, Alice, as they travelled to India in 1911. Their travels took them through Egypt, where they stayed for almost three months, sailing down the River Nile to Khartoum.
A journey of such distance was not unusual at this period. Thomas Cook had popularised the Egyptian ‘package holiday’ in the late nineteenth century, and by Ralph and Alice’s journey in 1911, there was a well-worn path of visitor attractions to see. Yet to have a photograph album almost exclusively made up of personal rather than professionally produced photographs is rare.
The photographs within the album chart the couples’ journey, and many show the forms of transport used by locals and tourists’ alike –
A felucca (traditional wooden sailing boat) on the River Nile
The river steamer ‘Cedid’ on the River Nile
Alice Carr-Ellison riding a camel near the pyramids in Cairo
The album also shows the awe-inspiring monuments, sculptures and landscapes for which Egypt is famous for:
Abu Simbel, Aswan – in their original position, before their relocation due to the creation of Lake Nasser
The Collosi of Memnon in Thebes – statues of Amenhotep III
By October 1911, the Carr-Ellison’s adventures in Egypt were over, as they headed to Ceylon [Sri Lanka], India and Burma [Myanmar], before returning to their home in London at the end of April 1912.
This fascinating photograph album was the starting point on a journey to find Egypt within the strongrooms of Northumberland Archives. I couldn’t wait to see where my journey led from here…