BROOKLYN, N.Y.-Egypt Through Other Eyes: The Popularization of Ancient Eygpt, presenting more than thirty books, ranging from the commercial to the commemorative, focusing on Western fascination with ancient Egypt will be on view in the ancient Egyptian galleries of the Brooklyn Museum. The long-term installation, including many works that have never before been on public view, is the latest in a series of exhibitions presenting rare material from both the world-renowned Wilbour Library of Egyptology and from the Museum’s holdings of ancient Egyptian art.

After the publication of Description de l’Egypte, an account of the Napoleonic expedition to Egypt from 1798 to 1802, publications about Egypt proliferated because of advances in printing technology that made available larger and less expensive editions of travel and history books. Articles about Egypt frequently appeared in newspapers and periodicals, further spurring interest among a large audience that was captivated by news of discoveries in Egypt. Included in the exhibition is a remarkable illustrated color plate from a book by Giovanni Belzoni, the first known European to enter newly discovered Egyptian temples and tombs, depicting the Interior of the Temple at Ybsombul in Nubia, opened by Belzoni in 1817. Among the other works is an illustrated page by from the catalogue that accompanied an exhibition of Egyptian antiquities from the collection of Henry Abbott at Manhattan’s Stuyvesant Institute. Abbot’s collection was later transferred to the Brooklyn Museum and several of the objects illustrated in this plate are currently on view elsewhere in the Egyptian galleries.

Also included in this presentation are: a color plate of Cleopatra’s Needle in Manhattan’s Central Park from a deluxe limited-edition volume; chromolithograph plates from books by Emile Presse D’Avennes, whose work provided the first reliable images of Egyptian architecture; a promotional piece for a Thomas Cook & Son tour of Egypt; a book by George Robbins Gliddon, one of the first Americans to write and lecture about ancient Egypt; and an illustration by Charles Dana Gibson that depicts an early excavation at the Temple of the Goddess Mut, where the Brooklyn Museum and Johns Hopkins University currently maintain an excavation site.