Did you know that in addition to needing a larger museum building to house our Diplodocus, Dippy, the 1907 expansion was required because Andrew Carnegie purchased our 32-foot long wooden Egyptian funerary boat?
Carnegie apparently purchased the boat without the knowledge of then Director, W.J. Holland, who upon its
arrival, told The Pittsburgh Times that he “had not been in correspondence with anyone regarding such a relic.”
Still, by July 24, 1901, Holland reported to The Pittsburgh Post that “Mr. Carnegie is ever on the lookout to purchase antiquities that will tend to carry out his idea of making the Carnegie Museum the most comprehensive and complete institution of the kind in the world… Mr. Carnegie is thoughtful to the extreme in this respect and we are never at a loss to find a good place for anything that may come.”
This boat is still on display today in Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt!
