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DISCOVERING AND RESEARCHING THE ONLY FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF AMERICA'S PALEONTOLOGEXPLORATION OF FAIYUM PROVINCE IN 1907.

MORGAN, Vincent L., The Granger Papers Project, 16 Valentine Hill Road, Durham, NH 03824-3017, USA

isting histories of paleontologic exploration in the Faiyum Province of Egypt typically misstate the year in which the first

merican fossil hunt in the region took place and omit many of its details. Indeed, the event itself is barely mentioned. This

ersight is especially interesting since the expedition garnered considerable attention at the time. Not only was it the first Ame

nsoceanic fossil-hunt, political significance was attached to it as well: it was accompanied by a warm letter of introduction fro

pansionist US President Theodore Roosevelt to Lord Cromer, the British governor of Egypt. Published accounts of the 1907

pedition were given only by Henry F. Osborn, head of vertebrate paleontology at the AMNH and soon to become president oMNH itself. Historians have followed Osborn, although it isn't clear why some have held that the expedition occurred in "190

"1906-07" (eg., E.L. Simons in Early Cenozoic Mammalian Faunas, Fayum Province, Egypt, 1977, at p. 9, and E.H. Colbe

e Proboscidea: evolution and palaeoecology of elephants and their relatives, 1996, at p. xxiv), or misidentify the collector of

mall piece of fossil primate forehead bone in the AMNH Faiyum collection (E.L. Simons in Nature, April 1993, at p. 58). Fe

tories question Osborn's popular account of the expedition in Century magazine (October 1907 at pp. 815-835). None cit

pedition leader Walter Granger's formal report on file at the AMNH. Only paleontologist-historian George Gaylord Simpso

nior colleague of Osborn's and Granger's in later years, expressed subsequent puzzlement about the event (G.G. Simpson in

oncession to the Improbable, 1977, at p. 139). In 1977, Granger's handwritten day-by-day account of the expedition was fou

mong his papers stored in the attic of his youngest sister's home. This 72-page document was later verified as the only firsthan

count made of the 1907 American expedition, and it has illuminated the event anew. Expedition photographs were found as

d the result is that a significantly better understanding of the 1907 expedition, its participants, its results, and its place in Eg

d American history is now possible. The event no longer will be forgotten, misunderstood, or hazily understood. One intrigue

sed by the diary is why Granger created it, never used it, but let Henry Osborn construct his popular account for Century mag

m it. Another is why Henry Osborn in New York suddenly telegraphed Granger on his way back to Cairo ordering him back

e Faiyum until further notice. Granger's 1907 Faiyum diary and photographs are now in the possession of The Granger Pape

oject, an independent research and writing project. In 1997, the Project posted an abridged version of the diary on its website

p://www.nh.ultranet.com/~granger/FaiyumCover.html. Presentation will examine this Faiyum element of The Granger Pape

oject through slides and narration. Scheduled for Saturday, April 28, 2001, at 2:10 p.m. - 52 Annual Meeting of American

search Center in Egypt (Brown University).

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