The LOC.GOV Wise Guide : Victorians In Egypt

Elizabeth Peters (the pen name of Egyptologist Barbara Mertz), creator of the popular Amelia Peabody mystery series, delivered the annual Judith Austin Memorial Lecture at the Library of Congress on Nov. 4. In the lecture, titled Amelia Peabodys Egypt, Peters discussed her latest book, her beloved main characters the Emersons and Egypt past and present.

William Henry Jackson, The Sphinx, ca. 1894

William Henry Jackson, Hieroglyphics, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., between 1900 and 1912.

Under the pen name Elizabeth Peters, Mertz has written 15 historical mysteries set in Egypt featuring Amelia Peabody and Radcliffe Emerson, a husband-and-wife team of Victorian Egyptologists. In addition to the Amelia Peabody series, she has written approximately 50 thrillers under the pen names of Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels. In real life, she is an expert on Egypt who holds a Ph.D. in the subject from the University of Chicago and is the author (writing under her own name) of two important scholarly works on Egyptology (Red Land, Black Land: The World of the Ancient Egyptians, and Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs: The Story of Egyptology).

Even if you missed this fascinating lecture, you can still see Peters deliver it at CyberLC, the Librarys Web page that offers selected programs online.

The culture of ancient Egypt has fascinated people for centuries. Many photographs of the pyramids, the Sphinx even hieroglyphics can be found in the American Memory Web site, especially in Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920. To find the Egypt images, click on Browse by Subject, to the Discovery and Exploration link. Scroll down to Egypt and click.

The photographs of hieroglyphics, surprisingly, were not made in Egypt but at the Library of Congress. They are part of the Evolution of the Book series of murals in the magnificent 1897 Thomas Jefferson Building. You can take a virtual tour of this building, which has been called one of the most beautiful public buildings in America, and see for yourself why.

A. William Henry Jackson, The Sphinx, ca. 1894. Detroit Publishing Co. Collection, Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction information: Reproduction No.: LC-D4271-119 (b&w film copy neg.) DLC; Call No.: LOT 11948, no. 119

B. William Henry Jackson, Hieroglyphics, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., between 1900 and 1912. [Photograph of mural, called Egyptian Hieroglyphics, in the "Evolution of the Book" series, at the Library of Congress Jefferson Building]. . Detroit Publishing Co. Collection, Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction information: Reproduction No.: LC-D418-28014 DLC (b&w glass neg.): Call No.: LC-D418-28014 [P&P]