The influence of the ancient Egyptians in the West .. Do they consider them in America the origin of civilization?

By the end of the eighteenth century, the Group of Antiquities and Museums in Egypt was established by European, British and American financiers, research organizations, and museums. The culmination of these excavations was Howard Carter's 1922 rediscovery of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

At the time of the discovery of these fossils from the middle of the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, the idea emerged that Egypt was the cradle of Western civilization, according to the hyperallergic website, but where did this idea originate? Between 1890 and 1900, artist Blushfield painted a mural inside the rotunda of the Library of Congress entitled “The Evolution of Civilization.” This brightly colored mural illustrates the apparent progress of civilization from ancient Egypt to America. Each step of evolution bears its own contribution: Egypt with the written record; Greece for philosophy; Rome Administration; Islam for physics; and America for Science.

Shortly after Blashfield's mural was completed, archaeologist and historian James Henry Breasted and founder of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago published several books identifying the "Great White Race" in his books Antiquity, Early World History (1916) and Conquest of Civilization (1926), Breasted defined a classification of "the white race" that includes southwest Asia and northern Africa, along with Europe.

By the 1920s, evolutionary developments developed by Blushvid murals and the writings of James Henry Breasted, among others, made this Western Civilization Code a standard college curriculum taught throughout the United States.

Concurrently, museums have provided an account of the march of civilizations: from Egypt, through Greece, Rome, and "the West", and this narrative is still found in many encyclopedic museums that often place their ancient Egyptian collections starkly among European art collections.

At Legion of Honor in San Francisco, for example, visitors can admire elaborate Roman vases and detailed glasswork alongside ancient Egyptian friezes, small carvings, and a standing mummy while waiting.

Likewise the fine ancient Egyptian collection of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art down the hall houses its equally remarkable Greek and Roman collections.

The Legion of Honor recently held an exhibition in San Francisco entitled: Mummies and Medicine from May 2016 through April 2019. While the exhibition continued its unique focus on ancient Egyptian culture and mummification, the walls surrounding the displays revealed a possible connection to the forms and interpretation of contemporary art.

Legion of Honor officials invited American-born street artist Ritna at an exhibition to cover the walls with calligraphy inspired by Egyptian, Coptic and Arabic. The graffiti-inspired graffiti seemed to blend ancient and contemporary arts together, creating a bridge between past and present.