Beyond Music: Henry Maurer and the Rediscovered Images of the Siwa Expedition
- Sergio Volpi
- Aug 7
- 1 min read
In addition to a previous post from 2020 regarding Brigitte Schiffer’s visit to Siwa for her doctoral research on Siwan music, I would now like to provide further information about Henry Maurer, who organized the expedition and took the photographs of Siwa. Some of these images have already been shared, and I am now including additional photographs that I discovered among the materials donated by his wife to the Archaeological Society of Alexandria after his death.
Who was Dr. Henry Maurer?
Henry Maurer was a Swiss dentist, known for being the personal dentist of King Fuad I of Egypt. In addition to his medical profession, Maurer was also a passionate photographer and an active member of the Archaeological Society of Alexandria during his stay in Egypt in the first half of the 20th century. His passion for photography led him to document many archaeological sites and natural landscapes in Egypt and Africa, using advanced techniques for the time.
The Trip to Siwa with Brigitte Schiffer
In 1932, Henry Maurer led an expedition to the Siwa Oasis. On that occasion, he accompanied the German composer and ethnomusicologist Brigitte Schiffer, who traveled there to conduct field research on the musical practices of the local Amazigh communities. The expedition, organized and guided by Maurer, was crucial for Schiffer’s work, as she collected recordings and observations that formed the basis of her doctoral thesis and her subsequent publication “Die Oase Siwa und ihre Musik” (1936).
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