Andrew Oliver is a retired art historian and museum administrator with degrees from Harvard College and the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. He was director of the Museum Program at the National Endowment for the Arts and a curator in the Greek and Roman Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has written and lectured on the decorative arts of the ancient world for many years and has travelled widely in the Mediterranean. Mr. Oliver is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

• Map of EgyptAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 Americans in Eighteenth-Century EgyptWard Nicholas BoylstonJohn LedyardEuropean Travelers of This Period and Their AccountsBoylston in London and His Return to Boston2 Napoleon and the French Savants in Egypt3 Mehemet Ali’s New EgyptFrancis Barthow4 American Trade and the Navy in the MediterraneanThe Barbary Pirates and the American NavyMerhants in Smyrna and ConstantinopleAmerican Merchants in YemenAlexandriaTourists Only as Far as SicilyTourists in Greece and Turkey before 1820The War of 18125 The European Presence in Egypt from 1815 to 1825European DiplomatsEuropeans Working for the Pasha's EnterprisesEuropean MerchantsEuropean Collectors and ResearchersThe British Passage to and from IndiaTourists6 Americans Return to EgyptA Gentleman of BostonThe Alligator EpisodeCleopatra's BargeGeorge B. English, Luther Bradish, and George RaplejeEgyptian Mummies7 American Missionaries on TourPliny Fisk and Levi Parsons: Mission Postponed in Search of HealthThe Reverend Eli Smith in Egypt in 18268 The Eastern QuestionAmericans and the Greek War of IndependenceThe Greek BoyAmerican DiplomacyGreece, Egypt, the Sublime Porte, and the European PowersAmerican Shipping in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 1820s9 The Lure of EgyptEgyptian Revival and the Description de l'EgypteHenry OliverCornelius BradfordAllen, Oakley, and FergusonThe Obeslisk from Luxor to ParisMendes Israel CohenJohn Gliddon, United States Consular AgentJohn WarrenAmericans Who Almost Went to EgyptChampollion and Pariset in Egypt10 The US Naval Squadron: Egyptian Curios and Civilian PassengersThe United States Squadron in the MediterraneanThe First Encounter of the Squadron in EgyptThe Warren, Charles W. Skinner, in 1829The Concord, Matthew C. Perry, and the Kirklands in 1832The Delaware and Daniel T. Patterson in 1834The Constitution, the United States, the John Adams, and the Shark in 1836The Constitution, Jesse D. Elliott, the Hon. Lewis Cass, and Henry Ledyard in 183711 Keepers of Diaries: 1833 to 1835Eli and Sarah SmithJohn W. HamersleyJ. Lewis Stackpole and Ralph Stead Izard, Jun.William B. HodgsonRush and Rittenhouse NuttJohn LowellTwo Brigs from Boston Reach Alexandria12 Traveling in EgyptTravel in EuropePassports and Letters of IntroductionGuidebooksFundsHotelsDressFoodGuides and SecurityHealth13 John L. Stephens and Fellow Tourists of the Mid-1830sJohn L. StephensThe Haights and the Allens"Mr. Dorr and Mr. Curtis"James McHenry BoydA New Yorker in 1837Henry McVickar and John Bard14 Steamship Travel15 Professional VisitorsRev. Edward Robinson, Biblical ArchaeologistDr. Valentine Mott, SurgeonValentine Mott's Arabic ManuscriptHenry P. Marshall, US Consul to Muscat16 Mills, Giraffes, and Skulls (and even the Telegraph)Giraffes: From Sudan to BroadwayMorse's Telegraph: From Paris to the Pasha17 Shall We Meet in Egypt?Aaron Smith Willington, Publisher of the Charleston Courier"Mr. L. and Miss H."Simeon Howard Calhoun, Native of BostonA Nameless American Tourist in May18 Philip Rhinelander and His FriendsRhinelander and His Friends on the Nile"Dreadful Accident on the Danube"Rhinelander and His Friends Leave for Vienna19 After 1839Illustration CreditsEndnotesIndex

"The highly readable book is a major contribution to the history of Egyptology and to the study of East-West encounter." --Jason Thompson, author of A History of Egypt from Earliest Times to the Present "Andrew Oliver has rescued an earlier, happier American encounter with the Middle East - when American came to admire, to explore and to record. In many cases these American accounts, mostly unpublished, are less arrogant and more original than those by contemporary Europeans. Indispensable for anyone interested in the history of travel, and of the Middle East in the age of Mohammed Ali Pasha." --Philip Mansel, author of Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean. "This book on the little-known history of the American presence in Egypt, which was to have a continuing influence on American art and taste, fills a much-needed gap in both the modern history of Egypt and America" --Morris Bierbrier, Department of Egyptian Antiquities, British Museum. "For those interested in the study of travellers and travel in Egypt, this book is a welcome new source of information about many forgotten journeys and will be valuable for descriptions of Egypt and its monuments" --Neil Cooke, Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East; "a thorough compendium of travellers' tales, accompanied by appropriate and meticulously researched illustrations... this book is a significant contribution to the history of travellers from the United States to the lands of the Ottoman Empire ...The book could almost be a work of reference it is so packed with encyclopaedic detail ... a fascinating picture of two nations first emerging onto the world stage from the shadow of two great empires." Sheila McGuirk, ASTENE Bulletin 64;