Dows Dunham Recollections of an Egyptologist

The Egyptian Department, Gallery E7.
1931. On the wall are Joe Smith’s paintings of
the site at Meroë.
she undertook the serious study of Arabic and the Koran, and at home
she was active in promoting the welfare of the American Indians. After
my return to the museum in 1927, “Uncle Joe” (as we called him) was
a frequent visitor to the Egyptian Department; he was of great help
to me in my work and in maintaining liaison with the trustees and
with Reisner in Egypt right up to the latter’s death.
1966. After renovation.
The American Research Center in Egypt
At approximately the time that the Harvard-Boston Expedition was
closed down, in the spring of 1947, the Expedition of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York also came to an end. Thus, the two major
American archaeological undertakings in Egypt ceased after many years
of accomplishment, and many of us felt that this constituted a serious
blow to Egyptology in the United States. As a result of this unsatisfactory
situation, a number of scholars began to consider whether there
might be found some way of continuing in a small way American
activity in the field. In the same year, 1947, Joe Smith, Bill Smith, and
I, with the strong support of Edward W. Forbes, a trustee of the museum
and an influential leader in the Department of Fine Arts at Harvard,
together with a few other interested people, formed a modest organization
called the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE).
The purpose of the center, which was initially supported by voluntary
contributions from relatively few individuals, was to establish an office
in Cairo to serve as headquarters for scholars in Egypt engaged in
Egyptian and Islamic studies, aided by grants from museums and
universities. In due course the ARCE became incorporated as a taxexempt
educational institution, recognized by the United States government
and by the Egyptian authorities. Its membership was increased by
the inclusion of universities as institutional members. A second administrative
office was opened in Cambridge, and a board of directors
was elected through which a small group of qualified scholars received
grants for research in Cairo. The work of the ARCE was at first made
public in a series of newsletters sent to all members and later in the
Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, which has now
become a recognized vehicle for the publication of scholarly reports. For
some years William Stevenson Smith acted as president, then from 1966
until 1971 the presidency was held by Professor Gustave von Grunebaum
of the University of California, an eminent scholar in the field of
Islamic studies. The office was then moved to Princeton, more convenient
than Cambridge as a center for the expanded membership,
which now includes universities throughout the United States.
At the Boston Museum
When I first received an appointment as an assistant in the Department
of Egyptian Art, Dr. Arthur Fairbanks was director of the museum and
Charles Hawes assistant director. Fairbanks was an eminent classical
scholar, and as a very young and rather diffident junior in the museum
I found him rather formidable. My relations were mostly with Hawes,
whom I found kindly and understanding.
Quite early in my career at the museum an accident occurred while I
was installing a group of pottery vessels in a large wall case in one of
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