New Excavation at Medinet-Haboo

Art Historical Context

**New Excavation at Med Habu** (1860, printed 1862) captures a pivotal moment in 19th-century through the lens of Francis Frith, a pioneering British photographer. Frith traveled extensively in Egypt during the 1850s and 1860s, ancient wonders with remarkable clarity before mass tourism. This albumen silver print, from his grand album series *Egypt, Palestine, Nubia* (volume 4), depicts ongoing excavations at Medinet Habu—a vast temple complex near Luxor built by Pharaoh Ramesses III in the 12th century BCE. Frith's image freezes workers amid the dig, revealing colossal columns and hieroglyphic walls emerging from the sand, bridging ancient Egypt with Victorian curiosity. The albumen print medium, coated with egg whites for its luminous tones and fine detail, was the gold standard of photography in the 1860s, allowing Frith to produce large, richly textured images ideal for portfolios. Printed two years after exposure, it exemplifies early travel photography's role in popularizing Orientalism, making distant ruins accessible to European audiences and fueling Egyptomania. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Photography and Media Department (16.3 × 22.6 cm image on a larger mount), this work highlights photography's emergence as both art and scientific record, preserving a "new" excavation that contributed to global understanding of pharaonic history. A window into lost worlds! (198 words)

About the Artist

Francis Frith · 1822–1898

Francis Frith (1822–1898) was born on 7 October 1822 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, into a prosperous Quaker merchant family as the second child and only son of Francis Frith Sr. and Alice Walker. Educated at Quaker schools including Ackworth and Camp Hill in Birmingham from around 1828 to 1838, he apprenticed in the cutlery trade before establishing himself as a wholesale grocer in Liverpool, suppl...