Amelia B. Edwards was a noted nineteenth-century author who wrote travel books and novels. She fell in love with Egypt in the 1870s and wrote a wonderful book on her travels, A Thousand Miles up the Nile. I liked it so much I brought it back into print!

More than that, she founded the Egypt Exploration Society, which still funds important archaeological research 125 years later. In her honor the EES has their Amelia Edwards Projects, which are clearly defined, affordable field projects that are funded by donations from members and supporters.

And she inspires more than research. Elizabeth Peters used Amelia Edwards as the model for her character Amelia P. Emerson in her wonderful and long-running series of Egyptology-themed murder mysteries (starting with Crocodile on the Sandbank).

That's influence that lasts and lasts!