74 / 90
Was born on February 24, 1872 in
Toledo Ohio and attended Erie
College and Mount Holyoke College
and was awarded an A.M. in classical
archaeology and Egyptology at the
University of Chicago where she
became America’s first
professionally trained woman
Egyptologist. She then went to Berlin
but completed her studies at the
University of Chicago in 1905. There-
after she taught at Bryn Mawr College.
In 1910 she joined the Department of
Egyptology at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where she co-authored The
Handbook of the Egyptian Rooms. In 1916 she married Grant
Williams. In 1932 she published Decorations of the Tomb of Per-Neb and
at the same time she worked on the Egyptian holdings of the Cleveland
Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. She also became
Honorary Curator of the Toledo Museum of Art. She cataloged thousands
of Egyptian objects for The New York Historical Society (This later became
the Brooklyn Museum). She joined the Epigraphic Survey in Luxor (Egypt)
and worked at Medinet Habu, the Temple of Ramesses III and on the
Coffin Texts at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. During this time she also
taught at the University of Michigan until she died on February 1, 1952.
The following lots 124-126 were purchased by Dr. Williams while in Egypt
representing the museum. The following letter was to the donor during
this time. Lot 127 was from her personal collection.
Caroline Louise RansomWilliams