New Excavation at Medinet-Haboo
1860, printed 1862
Medium
Albumen print, from the album "Egypt, Palestine and Nubia," vol. 4, (1862)
Dimensions
Image/paper: 16.3 × 22.6 cm (6 7/16 × 8 15/16 in.); Mount: 31.6 × 43.4 cm (12 1/2 × 17 1/8 in.)
Classification
albumen silver print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
38052
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 hieroglyphi...
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...