EDWARDS, AMELIA ANN BLANFORD

(1831–1892)

   British author, traveler, and patroness. She was born in London on 7 June 1831, the daughter of an army officer. She edited and published popular books and articles and visited Egypt and Syria from 1873–1874 and wrote the best seller A Thousand Miles up the Nile in 1877. She became concerned with the destruction of Egyptian monuments and founded the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1882 to encourage the accurate study, conservation, and excavation of Egyptian antiquities. She was the funds secretary and worked tirelessly on its behalf, lecturing both in England and the United States to raise money. She was an active supporter of Flinders Petrie and left money in her will to found the professorship at University College London for him. She died at Westbury-on-Trym, England, on 15 April 1892.