Dows Dunham Recollections of an Egyptologist

the galleries. The case had two glass doors that opened outward. After
arranging the vessels in the right half of the case, I opened the left-hand
door. Alas! In my inexperience, I had failed to make sure that the case
had been firmly attached to the wall. It tipped forward, shooting the
contents onto the floor, and several of the pots were broken. Appalled at
this catastrophe, I marched right over to Hawes, told him what had
happened, and tendered my resignation. He asked how many of the
vessels had been broken. “About ten of them,” I replied, and Hawes
said simply “Have them mended, and be sure next time that the case
has been properly secured before you use it. As to resigning, don’t be
ridiculous !”
Dr. Fairbanks retired from the directorship in 1925, and Edward Jackson
Holmes, a leading trustee and devoted benefactor of the museum, resigned
from the board in order to become director. He held this position
from 1926 to 1934, while Hawes remained assistant director. My own
dealings continued to be with the latter. Holmes was devoted to the
museum throughout his life and was a generous donor, but there were
certain difficulties in dealing with him as director. Unaccustomed to
keeping regular office hours, he was seldom available for consultation
until late in the afternoon, when everyone else had completed work
for the day. Thus, obtaining his decision on matters requiring his approval
often took considerable time.
In 1934 Holmes was elected president by the trustees and was succeeded
as director by Professor Harold Edgell of Harvard, while Hawes retired
from administrative work. Edgell had been for many years not only an
outstanding teacher at Harvard in the field of Italian painting but also,
for a time, in charge of the Graduate School of Architecture there. (I
had been one of his students in my undergraduate days.) During the
twenty years of his directorship at the museum my relationship with
him was always a happy one. On more than one occasion he was good
enough to say that the Egyptian Department, of which I was in charge,
was one that never caused him any serious trouble. The later years of
Edgell’s directorship were difficult for him, for his health was failing,
and the sudden, tragic death of his wife was a heavy blow. I was truly
grieved when he died in 1954 and felt that I had lost a sympathetic
friend as well as an understanding leader.
Edgell’s death left the directorship vacant, and for a year Henry P.
Rossiter, the senior curator at the museum and distinguished head of
the Print Department, served also as acting director pending the appointment
in 195 5 of Perry T. Rathbone, who came to us from the
St. Louis Art Museum (then known as the City Art Museum). My
relations with Rathbone were always easy, but officially they were of
short duration, for at the beginning of 1956 I retired from the curatorship
in favor of William Stevenson Smith, who had been my chief
assistant since 1940. Thus, from 1956 until Bill Smith’s sudden death in
1969, I remained at the museum as curator emeritus, without administrative
duties, in order to devote myself to publishing the work of the
expedition.
Under Perry Rathbone’s directorship the appeal of our exhibition galleries
has markedly improved, and a whole series of modernizations
have taken place these past years which have been of great value.
During his regime too, there has been considerable growth in the educational
activities of the museum, and the Department of Public Education
has become one of our busiest.
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