Henry George Fischer (May 10, 1923 – January 11, 2006) was an American

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...

and poet.

Biography

Born on May 10, 1923, in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, Fischer graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1945, after that he was sent teaching English at the American University of Beirut. Returned in the USA, he became an assistant at the

University of Pennsylvania Museum The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology—commonly known as the Penn Museum—is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighb ...

and in 1955 he received a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from the same university. Shortly after he joined an expedition to Egypt and later he became an assistant professor of Egyptology at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

.
In 1958 he started working as an assistant curator at the New York

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, forming a bond with this place that will last for his entire life. In 1963 he became associate curator and in 1964, head of the Department of Egyptology. Since the same year until 1970 Fischer was a member of the committee for the salvage of Abu Simbel temples from being submerged by the Lake Nasser following construction of the

Aswan Dam The Aswan Dam, or more specifically since the 1960s, the Aswan High Dam, is one of the world's largest embankment dams, which was built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. Its significance largely eclipsed the previous Aswan L ...

: the small

temple of Dendur The Temple of Dendur (Dendoor in the 19th century) is a Roman Egyptian religious structure originally located in Tuzis (later Dendur), Nubia about south of modern Aswan. Around 23 BCE, Emperor Augustus commissioned the temple dedicated to the E ...

, which was donated to the United States in 1965 as a gratitude for its efforts, was originally intended to be reconstructed on the banks of the Potomac or the

Charles River The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...

, but Fischer persuaded the presidential committee that such a placement would have exposed the

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

blocks to excessive degradation, and the temple was reconstructed and exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum since 1978. In 1970 Fischer was awarded by the museum

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

Lila Acheson Wallace Lila Bell Wallace (December 25, 1889 – May 8, 1984) was an American magazine publisher and philanthropist. She co-founded ''Reader's Digest'' with her husband Dewitt Wallace, publishing the first issue in 1922. Early life and education Born Li ...

, earning a special chair as the

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of Egyptology. When he retired in 1992, he became a curator emeritus. Fischer's fields of interest were the

arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

and culture of the ancient Egyptian '' nomoi'' (provinces) and their differences, as well as the Metropolitan Museum collection and the

hieroglyphic Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...

writing system (his influential work ''The Orientation of Hieroglyphs''). After his retirement he focused on his other interests, such as writing poetry and playing the Renaissance

sackbut The term sackbut refers to the early forms of the trombone commonly used during the Renaissance and Baroque eras. A sackbut has the characteristic telescopic slide of a trombone, used to vary the length of the tube to change pitch, but is di ...

. Henry George Fischer died on January 11, 2006, in

Newtown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania Newtown Township is a township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Prior to 1789 it was part of Chester County. The population was 12,216 as of the 2010 census, and was 19,705 as of 2017. History The first mention of the township was in 1684, ...

, aged 82.

Significant works

* 1968 - ''Ancient Egyptian representations of turtles.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY * 1968 - ''Dendera in the Third Millennium B.C. Down to the Theban Domination of Upper Egypt.'' Locust Valley, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY * 1976 - ''Ancient Egyptian epigraphy and palaeography.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY * 1976 - ''Egyptian Studies I: Varia I.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY * 1977 - ''Egyptian Studies II: The Orientation of Hieroglyphs. Part I. Reversals'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY * 1984 - ''The Renaissance sackbut and its use today.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY * 1985 - ''Egyptian titles of the Middle Kingdom. A supplement to Wm. Ward's index.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY * 1986 - ''L'écriture et l'art de l'Egypte ancienne. Quatre leçons sur la paléographie et l'épigraphie ancienne.'', Presses universitaires de France, Paris * 1989 - ''Egyptian women of the Old Kingdom and of the Heracleopolitan period.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY * 1993 - ''Timely Rhymes'' (poetry collection) * 1993 – ''More Timely Rhymes'' (poetry collection) * 1996 - ''The tomb of I̕p at El Ṣaff.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY * 1996 - ''Varia nova.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY * 1998 - ''Night and Light and the Half-Light'' (poetry collection) * 1999 - ''Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy, A Beginner´s Guide to Writing Hieroglyphs.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY * 2002 - ''Small Ponderings'' (poetry collection)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, Henry George 1923 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American archaeologists American Egyptologists Writers from Philadelphia Princeton University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni American University of Beirut faculty Yale University faculty People associated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art Poets from Pennsylvania American expatriates in Lebanon Sackbut players Abu Simbel