Urania travels to Egypt
Education and the Orient around 1900
12 December 2012 to 30 June 2013"… in competent hands…" – this was the motto of a group of seventy persons which in 1912 at Easter set out on a tour of Egypt with the president of the Vienna Urania as its head. The tremendous success of this initial tour made such guided tours into a tradition for Vienna’s Volkshochschulen (VHS), which celebrated their 125th anniversary in 2012.
The exhibition Urania travels to Egypt follows the long forgotten trail of the 1912 trip and is based on material that was found in the archives. It reconstructs the planning and day to day events of the journey while at the same time examining the backgrounds of those who took part in it, Vienna’s educated class and other participants from all parts of the Habsburg Empire.
Austria’s somewhat lesser known involvement in Egypt and the contemporary impression of the Orient is examined as are the widely held aims of the so-called People’s University Education, the VHS.
The rich array of historical documents on display provides the visitor with an impression of this most exclusive journey.
Unique hand painted glass slides dating from 1910 and a so-called Skioptikon, a projector, are on display for the first time ever. Furthermore, the exhibition provides insight into what at that time was considered suitable dress for such a journey and the typical souvenirs brought back from the land on the Nile.
Numerous photographs and pictures as well as picture postcards from the trip are also on display.
In 2012 the Austrian archaeological excavations at the Pyramid in Gaza celebrated their 100 year anniversary. Hermann Junker, head of the dig, in 1912 personally led the on-site tour for the Urania group. Some of the items then discovered are also on display.
Historical photography combined with modern digital techniques provides the visitor with a time journey spanning 100 years.
An exciting exhibition led by the curators Christian Liebl and Clemens Gütl in association with the Österreichisches Volkshochschularchiv and the Verein Egypt and Austria.