By Laura Ranieri Roy
As we celebrate Canada Day, it’s fitting to look beyond our borders and recognize some exceptional Canadians who have made lasting contributions to the field of Egyptology. These individuals, through pioneering archaeological work, meticulous documentation, museum building, and groundbreaking discoveries, have deepened the world’s understanding of ancient Egypt. Their legacy reaches from the shifting sands of Deir el Bahri, Abydos, Karnak and Mendes… to the museum halls of Toronto and Niagara Falls.
Here are six remarkable Canadians whose work in Egypt deserves special recognition.
- 1. Charles
Currelly: Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) Founder and Egypt Explorer (1876-1957)
Often called the “Father of the ROM,” Charles Currelly was not only the founding director of the Royal Ontario Museum but also a pioneering Egyptologist in the early 20th century. Born in Exeter, Ontario, educated at the University of Toronto and later an archaeology apprentice under famed archaeologist Flinders Petrie, Currelly participated in excavations at Abydos, Deir el-Bahri, Sinai, and other important sites in Egypt.
Currelly had a sharp eye for antiquities and a passion for preserving history. Through his fieldwork and museum acquisitions, he brought thousands of ancient Egyptian artifacts to Canada, forming the cornerstone of the ROM’s now world-renowned Egyptian collection. These include everything from stelae and coffins to everyday items and ritual objects. His most important personal “find” I give the award to the magnificent Hathor Cow Shrine from the 15th c BCE, New Kingdom – a jewel of the Cairo Egyptian Museum today.
His 1956 memoir, ‘I Brought the Ages Home’, is a captivating first-hand account of his adventures in Egypt and his life-long mission to create a museum that would educate and inspire Canadians. His work not only helped shape Egyptology but brought ancient Egypt to life for generations of Canadians.
- Amice Calverley: Epigrapher Extraordinaire from Oakville (1896-1954)
Born in London, England, and later settling in Oakville, Ontario, Amice Calverley was one of the early 20th century’s most important epigraphers. Although she had no formal training in archaeology or Egyptology, her skill as an artist led her to Egypt in the late 1920s & 30s, where she joined the team documenting the intricately carved wall reliefs of the Temple of Seti I at Abydos.
Her work was so meticulous and artistically refined that it revolutionized the field of epigraphy. Calverley’s detailed drawings captured subtle details in the reliefs that were often missed by photography at the time. Her published volumes with the Egypt Exploration Society remain key scholarly resources today.
Despite the challenges of working in a male-dominated field in a remote desert environment, Calverley produced some of the finest documentation of Egyptian temple art ever created. Her legacy lives on in both the academic and artistic appreciation of ancient Egyptian monuments.
- Dr. Donald Redford: Scholar, Teacher, and Excavator of Egypt’s Forgotten Cities (1934-2024)
One of Canada’s most distinguished Egyptologists, Dr. Donald B. Redford left an extraordinary scholarly and field legacy that shaped modern Egyptology. Redford received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from McGill University and the University of Toronto, where he taught from 1962 to 1998—first as Assistant and Associate Professor, and later as Full Professor. He was known for his deep classical training, having studied Semitic languages under Wilfred G. Lambert and Abraham Sachs, and Egyptian language with such masters as Hans Jakob Polotsky and Ricardo Caminos.
Redford participated in the renowned Old Jerusalem excavations (1964–1967) under Kathleen Kenyon, but it was in Egypt that he made his greatest mark. His Akhenaten Temple Project, begun in 1972 with his wife Susan Redford, encompassed four major excavations: Karnak, Mendes, Tell Kedwa, and the Theban necropolis. His work at Karnak helped uncover the foundations of Akhenaten’s early religious revolution, the subject of a 1980 National Film Board documentary The Lost Pharaoh: The Search for Akhenaten. At Mendes, Redford excavated one of the most significant Delta cities, bringing to light a massive temple complex and important inscriptions. His book City of the Ram-Man details these findings. As a prolific writer, Redford authored numerous groundbreaking studies, including Akhenaten: The Heretic King, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times (winner of the 1993 Biblical Archaeology Society award), and edited The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, which won the American Library Association’s Dartmouth Medal for outstanding reference. His interpretations of the Exodus story have also sparked major scholarly debate.
In his final years, Redford continued to mentor, publish, and shape the field. He retired from Penn State University in July 2024 and passed away in October of the same year. He is remembered as a passionate scholar, a meticulous excavator, and a mentor to generations.
- Dr. Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner: Discoveries at Abydos
Among the new generation of Canadian Egyptologists making waves in the field is Dr. Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner, professor and graduate department head at the University of Toronto and director of the North Abydos Votive Zone Project. Although born in New Mexico, she has been a respected Egyptologist professor at the University of Toronto for decades.
In 2011, her team made headlines with the discovery of a previously unknown building commissioned by Hatshepsut, one of Egypt’s few female pharaohs. Even more exciting, she unearthed an extremely rare wooden statue of this female queen! This discovery added significantly to our understanding of Hatshepsut’s influence in Upper Egypt and her use of architecture to assert her authority.
Dr. Pouls Wegner’s research focuses on the intersection of ritual, kingship, and architecture. Her work at Abydos continues to uncover votive chapels, offering pits, and structures that illuminate religious life and royal power in ancient Egypt. With her strong academic presence and field leadership, she carries forward Canada’s proud legacy in Egyptology into the 21st century.
- Casey Kirkpatrick: Unearthing New Tombs in Luxor
A rising star in Canadian archaeology, Dr. Casey Kirkpatrick is an Assistant Professor of Archaeological Science in Simon Fraser University’s Department of Archaeology. In 2025, she played a pivotal role in the discovery of three New Kingdom tombs in Luxor’s Dra Abu el-Naga necropolis—part of the Kampff tomb excavations. With expertise in bioarchaeology, osteology, and ancient Egyptian fieldwork, she helped document lavishly painted wall art, hieroglyphs, and funerary artifacts from the 18th–19th Dynasties. Her multidisciplinary background demonstrates the scholarly breadth Canadians bring to Egyptology, fusing scientific rigor with cultural insight.
6. Sidney Barnett: The Ramses I Mummy and Canada’s First Egyptian Collection
In the 1860s, long before Canada had a national museum (and before Thomas Cook sent tours abroad), Sidney Barnett, an enterprising Canadian collector – son of the founder of the Niagara Falls Museum founder Thomas Barnett – sailed 1000 miles up the Nile with a band of intrepid Canadians. With the assistance of American-Quebec doctor-collectors James Douglas Jr. and Sr., he brought back 9 mummies (and assorted antiquities), ultimately assembling one of the first major Egyptian antiquities collections in North America. His dad’s museum in Niagara Falls, Ontario, was actually Canada’s first museum — a popular Victorian-era “cabinet of curiousities” that included mummies, statuary, and coffins – with fabulously made up stories around them.
Among the most fascinating—and ultimately world-changing—items in the Niagara Falls Museum was a royal mummy that had been purchased from a dealer in Luxor in the 1860s. For decades it sat quietly among the dusty cases until it was sold and eventually came to the attention of Egyptologists in the 1990s. After years of study and testing, the mummy was identified as none other than Ramses I, founder of Egypt’s 19th Dynasty and grandfather of Ramses the Great. In 2003, the mummy was returned to Egypt (via the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta) in a highly publicized and emotional repatriation ceremony.
Thanks to Barnett’s collecting efforts and the eventual identification of this extraordinary mummy, Canada played a surprising role in one of the most celebrated archaeological stories of the modern era.
A Proud Legacy
From the dusty cases of the Niagara Falls Museum to the cutting-edge digs of Abydos, Luxor and Mendes, Canadians have played a significant role in discovering, preserving, and interpreting the wonders of ancient Egypt. These excavators, collectors, scholars and visionaries have brought Egypt home to Canada—and Canada to Egypt.
On this Canada Day, we celebrate not just our national heritage, but also the global impact of Canadian curiosity, scholarship, and passion for the ancient world.
Happy Canada Day!
Laura Ranieri Roy: Championing Egyptology at Home and Abroad
This article was written by Laura Ranieri Roy, a proud Canadian Egyptologist who has spent over a decade promoting ancient Egypt through public talks, courses, museum collaborations, and immersive travel experiences. While she has lectured and excavated in Egypt, her greatest passion lies in celebrating and elevating the work of Canadians who’ve made lasting contributions to the field. Laura is the founder of Ancient Egypt Alive, through which she leads expert-guided, small-group tours to Egypt, created by Canadians, for curious and culturally engaged travelers. To learn more or join an upcoming journey, visit: ancientegyptalive.com/egypt-tours