From Coal to Cairo, with Dr. Steve

William Jeanes Community Room. Dr. Steve of the UPenn Museum is back with a NEW talk! The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum) was founded in the late 1800’s. Soon after founding, Egypt became one of the first places in which the museum actively participated in archaeological excavations. One of the museum’s earliest supporters was Eckley B. Coxe, Jr., a scion of Luzerne County’s Coxe Brothers Coal Mining family. With his mother, Lizzie, Mr. Coxe made several trips to Egypt in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Eckley B. Coxe, Jr., a Penn alumnus, then became one of the Penn Museum’s first presidents and one of its most ardent supporters, laying the foundations for what is now over a century of Penn Museum excavations, excavations that to this day continue to reveal new and exciting secrets from the sands of ancient Egypt. This highly illustrated lecture recounts the story of Lizzie and Eckley’s family, their life in Drifton, PA, and their personal adventures in Egypt. The profound effect they had on founding Egyptology at Penn is evidenced by numerous ancient Egyptian artifacts now in the Penn Museum collections; a collection that today comprises more than 50,000 objects. Images of some of the finer pieces that the museum received through the support of Mr. Coxe are included in the presentation. The Penn Museum’s road to ancient Egypt does indeed begin at the train station at Drifton, Pennsylvania.