Fridays – From Coal to Cairo: A History of the Penn Museum and Luzerne County (PA) in Ancient Egypt

Instructor: Stephen “Dr. Steve” Phillips, Ph.D.

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum) was founded in the late 1800’s. Soon after founding, Egypt became one of the first places in which the museum actively participated in archaeological excavations. One of the museum’s earliest supporters was Eckley B. Coxe, Jr., a scion of Luzerne County’s Coxe Brothers Coal Mining family. With his mother, Lizzie, Mr. Coxe made several trips to Egypt in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Eckley B. Coxe, Jr., a Penn alumnus, then became one of the Penn Museum’s first presidents and one of its most ardent supporters, laying the foundations for what is now over a century of Penn Museum excavations, excavations that to this day continue to reveal new and exciting secrets from the sands of ancient Egypt.