A College of Arts graduate has launched a Facebook page where he can showcase the pieces of art he succeeded in collecting over the years.
The page is becoming a virtual museum that takes visitors into a riveting journey through time.
Called ‘Found in the Streets Museum’, the page contains ancient advertisements, notes, photos, and collectibles.
The virtual museum, launched by Ahmed Hamed in 2019, reflects Egypt’s history and heritage, by parading this collection of art pieces and belongings.
“Egypt has a matchless history,” Hamed told the Egyptian Mail.
The collection exhibited on the museum traces its roots in Hamed’s constant passion for finding old antiques, papers and letters.
These materials, he said, make up for an absent aspect of contemporary social life in Egypt and other Arab countries.
This aspect, he added, reveals Egyptians’ social life as well as their art, culture, heritage and traditions.
“It even exposes the type of romance prevalent in the good old days, one that manifested itself in a large number of romantic letters,” Hamed said.
Hamed moves like a traveller between different brocantes markets, spending his times inside these markets and knowing when and where each of them is held.
He goes to the Friday Market in southern Cairo and the Saturday Market in downtown Cairo. He also chases rare books at second-hand book shops everywhere around the nation.
Hamed dives into old papers and stories, bringing back to human interest things that might have been forgotten by their owners or the people who penned them.
He does this to discover unknown parts of these people’s lives, traditions, values and relations.
In one section of the Found in the Streets Museum, visitors can, for example, see an advertisement of American airline, Trans world Airlines (TWA). The advertisement was made in the late 1940s or early 1950s, when Egypt was still a monarchy.
The airline’s programme in Egypt included important destinations, such as King Farouk I Airport and the Royal Egyptian Library.
Hamed said the cultural treasures of the Egyptian capital qualify it to become a meeting point for art and history lovers from around the world.
“As an Egyptian citizen, I feel obliged to show people some of these treasures,” Hamed said. “I contribute to preserving these treasures in my own way.”
The museum also contains posters of old Egyptian movies, such as Taala Salem which starred late singer Farid el-Atrash, and late belly-dancer-cum-actress Samya Gamal.
The same film also starred late comedian Ismail Yaseen and was directed by Helmy Rafla.
The poster gives insights into the type of cinema propaganda prevalent at the time, which marked a complete departure from the propaganda of the present where technology and social media play a major role.
Hamed said such photos draw a clear line of demarcation between the present and the past.
“They give the chance to today’s generation to see the difference in the quality of the pictures, colours, simplicity and even the low costs of their making,” Hamed said.
Apart from the aforementioned poster, there are also photos of some of Egypt’s squares in the past set against the photos of the same squares at present.
They include Ramses Square, the bustling centre of the Egyptian capital. The photo was snapped in 1951 when the square was called ‘Bab el-Hadid’ (Arabic for Steel Door).
The museum also contains a tourist promotion for Lebanon that reads: “Escape from Egypt’s sizzling heat to Lebanon’s beauty”. The promotion was run in 1922 by a major tourist company that invited Egyptians to spend their summer vacation in Lebanon for a small amount of money.
Beside this, there is also electoral propaganda by the Arab Socialist Union between 1957 and 1978.
The propaganda promotes Nasr el-Sabahi, a party candidate in the parliamentary elections, reading: “Just relax, he is reassuring”.
The propaganda sheds light on political conditions at the time.
There is also a photo of nurses training in the use of gas masks at Kasr el-Aini Hospital in Cairo.
Hamed said he hopes his Facebook page would turn into a virtual museum that is easy to access by everybody interested in Egypt’s heritage and culture.
“I want to document, archive and digitize all these precious items,” Hamed said. “I also hope that they can be registered on important cultural heritage sites.”
