Artefacts of Excavation

The objects that made up the earliest museum collection were acquired for display at the Chicago World's Columbian Exhibition held in Chicago in 1893-94. The Egyptian material in this first collection was ethnographic. The core of the ancient Egyptian collection was purchased by Edward E. Ayer, the President of the Museum, in Egypt in 1894 with the advice of Émile Brugsch Bey. Ayer made additional purchases in Egypt in 1896 and 1898. The museum was a partner in the Chicago Society of Egyptian Research (also known as “the Fund for Chicago”), founded in 1897 that raised subscriptions to support the EEF. Major purchases were made in the first decade of the 20th century, including a boat of Senwosert III from Dahshur, and the mastabas of Unis-Ankh and Netcher-User from Saqqara. James Henry Breasted of the University of Chicago purchased objects for the collection in the 1920s, including a statue of Senenmut. Into the 1930s, curation of the collection was entrusted to Breasted and T. G. Allen (also from the University of Chicago). Allen published a catalog of the museum’s stelae in 1936. The collection focuses on natural history, world cultures and anthropology.