04

Jun

ARCE Chicago: The work I have so often dreamed of”: The Career of Caroline Ransom Williams, 1898-1952

Registration is required

Presented by: Kathleen Sheppard, Associate Professor, Missouri S&T



Registration link will be available in May

  • 5:00 PM CDT Illinois
  • Zoom
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Lecture Abstract:

Caroline Ransom, in her time, was an influential figure in the history of Egyptian art and archaeology, but today she is not well-known. Some have argued that her work was not as important as many other of her colleagues, and so she is not as worthy of study. However, in her time at institutions like the University of Chicago, Bryn Mawr College, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1898-1952, she established herself as a cornerstone of the discipline. I will discuss the life and career of Caroline Ransom in detail in order to demonstrate that her foundational work—the work she so often dreamed of—built the discipline of Egyptology in the United States in its earliest days. 

Speaker’s Bio:

Dr. Kathleen Sheppard is Associate Professor at Missouri S&T in the history and political science department. She is the author of two monographs: The Life of Margaret Alice Murray: A Woman’s Work in Egyptology (Lexington, 2013), and Tea on the Terrace: Hotels and Egyptologists’ Social Networks, 1885-1925 (Manchester UP, 2022) which is an analysis of the role of hotels in the development of the Western discipline of Egyptology. She also edited the collection of letters between Caroline Ransom Williams and James Henry Breasted in the archives of the Oriental Institute (Archaeopress, 2018). Sheppard earned her PhD in history of science from the University of Oklahoma in 2010.