Sara Yorke Stevenson

American museum curator and patron of archaeology, born in Paris where she spent her youth and learned to love Egyptian antiquities before moving back to North America. Living in Philadelphia with relatives, she married at 23 a prosperous attorney, Cornelius Stevenson and subsequently became deeply involved in the city's civic and philanthropic affairs. This and specifically her involvement with the American branch of the Egypt Exploration Fund led Mrs. Stevenson to be identified as a prospective benefactress for their fledgling University Museum by Dr. William Pepper and Dr. Charles C. Harrison of the University of Pennsylvania. Because of her strong interest in ancient Egypt, Sara Yorke Stevenson was selected to be curator of its Egyptian and Mediterranean section in 1890. She campaigned hard for a new museum building and was involved with its planning. She went to Egypt in 1898 in hope of organizing an archaeological expedition, hiring a young Mr. Rosher to work with Flinders Petrie. Her support of the American Exploration Society had already yielded objects from Petrie's excavations as early as 1890. From excavations at Dendereh, the University of Pennsylvania now received 42 boxes of artifacts. From 1889-1905, Mrs Stevenson developed the University Museum as a whole and its Egyptian Section in particular, aiming to display excavated materials whose context was known. As a major sponsor of Petrie's British School of Archaeology in Egypt, Stevenson continued to receive antiquities from the field. After gaining the presidency of her museum's Board of Managers, she resigned in protest over a personnel dispute in 1905. Afterwards she embarked on a literary career and became a columnist for the Philadelphia Public Ledger, where she worked until 1920. She also became a curator of what became the Philadelphia Art Museum and was much involved in the women's suffrage movement before her death in 1922.

Author of biography: Barbara S. Lesko
Includes bibliography? Yes

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Keywords: University of Pennsylvania Museum, Egypt Exploration Fund, William Pepper, Edward Yorke, Philadelphia, Cornelius Stevenson, Charles C. Harrison, University Archaeological Association, Egypt, Eduard Naville, James Quibell, George A. Reisner, Tanis, Cairo Museum, Victor Loret, Rosher, Flinders Petrie, Dendereh, David P. Silverman, Egypt Exploration Fund, British School of Archaeology in Egypt, University Museum, Philadelphia Public Ledger, Philadelphia Art Museum, women's suffrage