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France. Commission des Sciences et Arts d'Egypte.

Description de L'Egypte...Tome Deuxieme.
A Paris, De L/Imprimerie Imperiale, 1812.

"Vues de la Gallarie Haute de la Grande Pyramide."


Stetson University. duPont-Ball Library. DeLand, Florida.

Stetson University is an independent, private university, founded in 1883 by Henry A. DeLand, a Fairport, New York businessman and philanthropist. Originally begun as DeLand Academy, the school rapidly grew to become DeLand University. The name was changed to Stetson University in 1889 to honor John B. Stetson, the nationally-known hat manufacturer from Philadelphia, who gave generously of his time and contributed $500,000 to the school. The University has shared an affiliation with the churches of the Florida Baptist Convention since 1887. The duPont-Ball Library, renovated in 1980, houses over a quarter of a million volumes and its collections include the Florida and Southern Baptist Archives.

Bert Fish Collection. Bert Fish was born in Bedford, Indiana, in 1875. As a young man he taught school in Florida and in 1900 became superintendent of schools in Volusia County. He received his LL.B. degree from Stetson University in 1902 and immediately began to practice law in DeLand as well as throughout the eastern and southern sections of Florida. From 1910 to 1917 he was judge of the criminal court of Volusia County and again from 1931 to 1933. Fish retired from law practice in 1926. He traveled abroad extensively including a trip round the world. In September, 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Egypt. Fish served as chairman of the American delegation to the international Egyptian capitulations conference in 1937, which concluded a treaty ending the 400 year-old-system of capitulations. As a result, foreign nationals were no longer exempt from Egyptian taxes or allowed their own legal system. In 1940, while minister to Egypt, Fish was also appointed to be the first American minister to the kingdom of Saudia Arabia. In 1941 he was appointed United States Minister to Portugal, a position which he held until his death in 1943. In 1935 Stetson University bestowed an honorary LL.D. degree on Fish.

Before his death, Fish established the Bert Fish Testamentary Trust, now Foundation, to maintain hospitals in central Florida. His library on Egyptology was donated by the trust to Stetson University in 1965.

Bert Fish had a unique bookplate, written in hieroglyphics. A translation reads:

[In front of the scribe] That which is in the library
of the Judge of the High Court Bert son of Fish born of
the Mistress of the house Sarah, daughter of Lee. He is
Envoy to the Majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt
Faruk, living forever.

France. Commission des Sciences et Arts d'Égypte. Description de L'Égypte, ou Recueil des Observations et des Recherches qui ont été Faites en Égypte Pendant L'Expédition de l'Armée Française, Publié par les Ordres de sa Majesté l'Empereur Napoléon le Grand. Antiquités, Planches. Tome Deuxième. A Paris, De L'Imprimerie Impériale, 1812.

France. Commission des Sciences et Arts d'Égypte. Description de L'Égypte, ou Recueil des Observations et des Recherches qui ont été Faites en Égypte Pendant L'Expédition de l'Armée Française, Publié Ordre de la du Governement... Antiquités, Planches. Tome Cinquiéme A Paris, De L'Imprimerie Royal, 1822.

This work serves as the definitive book on the antiquities and natural history of Egypt. Begun under the aegis of Napoleon Bonaparte, the series was finished under the government of Charles X. The series consists of ten extra large folio volumes and two atlases, containing 837 copper plate engravings as well as nine volumes of memoirs, description and commentary, a topographical atlas, and historical preface bound as a separate volume written by Joseph Fourier, the mathematician. Folio volumes I to V describes the antiquities of Egypt depicting the architectural and artistic legacy of ancient Egypt. Two other volumes show the artifacts and life of Egypt from the seventh to the eighteenth centuries and three more illustrate the natural history of the Nile Valley and the Red Sea coast. Publication of the work began in 1809 and finished in 1829. The primary contributors included engineers and architects who had accompanied Napoleon on his Egyptian Expedition, and its aftermath, from 1798 to 1801.

Henry Salt. A voyage to Abyssinia, and travels into the interior of that country, executed under the orders of the British Government, in the years 1809 and 1810; in which are included, an Account of the Portuguese settlements on the east coast of Africa, visited in the course of the voyage; a concise narrative of late events in Arabia Felix; and some particulars respecting the aboriginal African tribes, extending from Mosambique to the borders of Egypt; together with vocabularies of their respective languages. Illustrated with a map of Abyssinia, numerous engravings, and charts by Henry Salt, ESQ, F.R.S. etc. London: Printed for F. C. and J. Rivington...; by W. Bulmer and Co..., 1814.

Henry Salt, an English artist born in 1780, first travelled to Abyssinia in 1805 as secretary and draftsman to the future Lord Mountnorris. In 1809, because of the contacts he had made on an earlier visit, Salt was sent by the British government to Abyssinia to carry presents to the King of Gondor and to report on the state of the country and to develop friendly relations with the tribes on the Red Sea coast. Salt returned to England in 1811 and published A voyage to Abyssinia... illustrated with his own drawings. In 1815 Salt was appointed British Counsel- General in Egypt where he spent a great deal of time organizing excavations and collecting ancient Egyptian artifacts. Parts of his collection were later sold to the British Museum.

Francis Frith. Egypt and Palestine Photographed and Described. By Francis Frith... London: James S. Virtue City, Road and Ivy Lane, New York: 26, John Street, [1858-1859].

Francis Frith made three tours to Egypt, Nubia, Palestine, and Syria between 1856 and 1860, taking photographs of ancient Egyptian ruins and religious and historical sites. Frith, an English printer and businessman, was a pioneer in the commercial use of photography. He perceived an interest in Victorian England in his work on the Near East and was very successful in selling stereoscopic views, photographic prints, and photographically illustrated books. He established a reputation as the leading photographer of his day. Frith endured many physical hardships in preparing his photographs, including long journeys by carriage and boat and abysmal and even dangerous working conditions including high temperatures, robbers, and a shipwreck. Never-theless his work is of high quality and is now recognized as being among the most important photography produced in the nineteenth century.

Egypt and Palestine was issued by subscription, in twenty-five parts, beginning in 1858. The work was completed in 1860 in an edition of 2,000. The seventy-six albumen prints are mounted on cards with printed captions.