title: "Booker T. Washington’s Challenge for Egyptology: African-Centered Research in the Nile Valley"
authors: ["vanessadavies.md"]
abstract:"In 1909, Egyptologist James Henry Breasted sent a letter to Booker T. Washington, along with a copy of an article Breasted had recently published in The Biblical World. To fully understand the short correspondence between the two scholars, this article delves into three related topics: Washington’s philosophy of industrial education and its complementarity with the educational program of his contemporary W. E. B. Du Bois; Washington’s prominent standing in educational, political, and social circles, including his professional relationship with the president of the University of Chicago William Rainey Harper and his advisory role to US president Theodore Roosevelt; and Breasted’s perspective on race and Egyptology. Washington, unlike Breasted, considered connections between ancient Nile Valley cultures and cultures elsewhere in Africa, a point of inquiry that has recently gained momentum in a variety of fields. In the correspondence between Washington and Breasted, we see demonstrations of precarity and privilege as related to scientific research, an imbalance seen also in the infamous syphilis study carried out at Tuskegee. This article points out the continued need to interrogate benefit by asking who constructs research questions and whom does research benefit."
abstract: "In 1909, Egyptologist James Henry Breasted sent a letter to Booker T.
Washington, along with a copy of an article Breasted had recently
published in *The Biblical World*. To fully understand the short
correspondence between the two scholars, this article delves into three
related topics: Washington's philosophy of industrial education and its
complementarity with the educational program of his contemporary W. E.
B. Du Bois; Washington's prominent standing in educational, political,
and social circles, including his professional relationship with the
president of the University of Chicago William Rainey Harper and his
advisory role to US president Theodore Roosevelt; and Breasted's
perspective on race and Egyptology. Washington, unlike Breasted,
considered connections between ancient Nile Valley cultures and cultures
elsewhere in Africa, a point of inquiry that has recently gained
momentum in a variety of fields. In the correspondence between
Washington and Breasted, we see demonstrations of precarity and
privilege as related to scientific research, an imbalance seen also in
the infamous syphilis study carried out at Tuskegee. This article points
out the continued need to interrogate benefit by asking who constructs
research questions and whom does research benefit."
keywords: ["Booker T. Washington", "James Henry Breasted", "W. E. B. Du Bois", "William Rainey Harper", "Theodore Roosevelt", "Egyptology", "ancient Nile Valley cultures", "Africa"]
Vanessa Davies is the author of Peace in Ancient Egypt and co-editor of the first modern handbook of Egyptian epigraphy and paleography. Her recent work examines the reception of ancient Nile Valley cultures in the writings of twentieth-century African descended intellectuals in the US.
Vanessa Davies is the author of *Peace in Ancient Egypt* and co-editor
of the first modern handbook of Egyptian epigraphy and paleography. Her
recent work examines the reception of ancient Nile Valley cultures in
the writings of twentieth-century African descended intellectuals in the
