On November 4, 1922, the Englishman Howard Carter revolutionized the world of archeology by discovering the tomb of the very young pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings. It was quite an event after the discovery of the Rosetta Stone which made it possible to decipher hieroglyphics.
Without knowing it, the Historical Archives of the Nobility, based in Toledo, kept a photograph of Carter. He is one of the most famous archaeologists and Egyptologists of all time. He appears supervising the transfer of the wooden bust of the pharaoh. “It was a surprise,” explains Alba María Villar, archivist at the General Subdirectorate of State Archives of the Ministry of Culture and doctor in Egyptology from the Autonomous University of Madrid.
The snapshot is part of one of several funds deposited in these public archives since 1993. It belongs to the family of María González de Quintanilla, a wealthy heiress of Mexican origin who became Marchioness of Torrelaguna and Mendigorría. She ends up separating from her husband and goes to live in Paris with her daughter Julia. Both dedicated themselves to traveling throughout Europe and Africa and found themselves in Egypt in 1923, a few months after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.
“At that moment, a real tutmania”, said Alba Villar. Of course, at that time, visiting the Egyptian Valley of the Kings was reserved for a few people who could afford it.
María González de Quintanilla and her daughter Julia were part of this privileged group. In March 1923, the aristocrat stayed in Cairo in the most sophisticated hotels, a meeting place for European and Egyptian elites.
The news of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb arouses his curiosity. She and her daughter spent weeks in Egypt and, as discovered in the Toledo archives, brought back many souvenirs as well as more than a hundred customs postcards, including a portrait of Howard Carter.
There are photographs of archaeological sites, such as the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid; the funerary temple of Ramses III or the temple of Luxor and even studio portraits of his young daughter taken by the famous Armenian photographer Aram Alban in the city of Alexandria. “I presented it at an Egyptology conference, in the academic field. The funds of these Historical Archives of the Nobility have given rise to several curious investigations and this is one of them,” explains the archivist.
And the noble archives are “authentic surprise boxes in which we find privileges granted by the Catholic Monarchs in the 15th century, correspondence or personal photographs”. In this case, they are a reflection of the relationships and friendships of those who held the political and economic power of each era.
María González de Quintanilla was a personal friend of the boss of the excavations of the tomb of Tutankhamun. George Herbert, known as Lord Carnarvon, was an ancient Egyptian enthusiast who, from 1907, funded excavations of the tombs at Deir el-Bahari. “He is known for this and also because the family owns Highclere Castle where the TV series was filmed. Downton Abbey“, says Alba Villar.
“What we found were photographs of the moment. The discovery of the tomb was “the most” for the aristocracy of the time, European and North American. THE tutmania “It changed architecture, fashion, literature and travel,” explains the Egyptologist. This particular club of the rich traveled to Luxor, becoming for some the world’s benchmark for tourism. “They stayed in the Former Winter Palace where Agatha Christie wrote her novel “Death on the Nile”.
All of these characters became an integral part of Howard Carter’s diary. “He spoke of “visitors” in his messages. During the excavations, they had to erect a wall to prevent them from falling inside. There are photos of this and they are very curious. There they waited with cameras, read and even crocheted to see what would come out. “This woman and her daughter participated in all of this.”
Personal photographs now provide another vision compared to what was collected by the press of the time. The grandson of María González de Quintanilla, the current Marquis of Mendigorría Rafael Fernández de Córdova, assures that his grandmother entered the tomb because of her friendship with Lord Carnarvon and with powerful Egyptian families of the aristocracy , although there is no graphic document at the moment. . “This indicates its position given that the then Queen of Belgium, Elisabeth of Bavaria, and her son Leopold, the future king, had entered the initial opening of the tomb.”
“We believe there may be other items of historical interest in the records. We have not yet been able to analyze the correspondences that allow us to move forward in the historiographical puzzle. Carter’s discovery was exceptional. It was an almost intact royal tomb, documented extensively. The documents in this collection help us contextualize the moment.
In 2024, the Historical Archives of the Nobility will celebrate their 30th anniversary. On Monday, November 4, as part of the series of activities organized for this year, this collection and what it can still reveal will be discussed through the conference Documents of a Spanish lady passionate about Egyptology: María González de Quintanilla which will be given by Alba M. Villar Gómez at the archives headquarters, at noon, in which some of these documents will be exhibited.
The current Marquis of Mendigorría, Rafael Fernández de Córdova, will also participate. “We want to open the archives, and in particular the noble archives, to the general public and demonstrate their potential,” says the archivist and expert in Egyptology.
