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 The 1970s Treasures of Tutankhamun Tour
After the close of the 1960s exhibition, another decade would pass before artifacts from Tutankhamun’s tomb would tour the United States again. Then in the mid-1970s a consortium of American museums, headed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, worked together with the Egyptian Organization of Antiquities to develop a new exhibition.
The final momentum for the proposed tour came during President Richard M. Nixon’s visit to Egypt. He and President Mohamed Anwar el-Sadat signed an executive statement expressing the wish of both countries to create another traveling exhibition of the Tutankhamun masterpieces. An accord was quickly drafted and signed by Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy. With the signing of this document the new exhibition entitled Treasures of Tutankhamun was born.
The Scope of the Tour
A longer run than the first tour, this exhibition traveled from 1976-1979 to six different U.S. museums for four-month stays at each venue. Also larger in size than the 1962 tour, the exhibition contained 55 artifacts in honor of the 55th anniversary of the tomb’s 1922 discovery by Howard Carter.
In addition, the Metropolitan Museum of Art also supplemented the exhibition with photographs taken by photographer Harry Burton throughout the course of the Carter excavation.
 The Focus of the Tour
The show itself focused on the excitement of the tomb’s discovery and the painstaking work involved in removing thousands of artifacts. Exhibition objects were displayed according to the rooms in which they were found—the Antechamber, Burial Chamber, Treasury, and Annex—and Burton’s photographs revealed how they appeared at the time they were uncovered.
Billed as a bicentennial tribute to the American people from the people of Egypt, the tour was created to express good will between the two nations in an era marked by conflict. Income from the sale of exhibition-related materials went towards the renovation of the Cairo Museum and expanded, improved quarters for the Tutankhamun treasures.
A huge hit, the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition once again broke records across the U.S. and inspired fashion and pop culture—including one of Saturday Night Live’s most famous parodies, the song “King Tut” by Steve Martin.
Continue to the cultural photo gallery and the 1977 Chicago Tour. >>
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