The Karcher‑Keach Gift

Provenance: From the Nile to San Antonio

The nineteen Egyptian objects gifted by Chris Karcher and Karen Keach to the San Antonio Museum of Art share a remarkable journey. According to SAMA's January 2026 acquisitions announcement, the objects were collected in the early twentieth century by noted Egyptologist Keith C. Seele.

Keith Cedric Seele (1898–1971)

Keith C. Seele was one of the most distinguished American Egyptologists of the twentieth century. A Professor of Egyptology at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, he spent decades directing archaeological expeditions in Egypt and the broader Near East.

Seele began adult life as a missionary in Germany, where he met his wife, Diedericka Millard Seele. The pair were inseparable — Keith refused to have children because he couldn't bear to leave Diedericka behind when he went into the field. They often lived aboard a boat on the Nile during excavation seasons, returning to their home near the Oriental Institute during the academic year.

His most significant archaeological contributions include:

• The Nubian Rescue Expedition — Seele directed the Oriental Institute's campaign to document and salvage archaeological sites in Lower Nubia before they were submerged by the Aswan High Dam.
• The Tomb of Tjanefer at Thebes — Published in 1959 as Oriental Institute Publication 86, a key reference in New Kingdom tomb studies.
• When Egypt Ruled the East — Seele's revision of this foundational textbook remained vital reading for Egyptology students for decades.
• Editor of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies — He edited JNES from 1948 until his death in 1971.
• The Qustul Incense Burner — Recovered during his Nubian work, this artifact became central to debates about the origins of pharaonic kingship.

Beyond Egyptology, Seele had a fascinating parallel life. Every summer, he and Diedericka traveled to the Blackfeet reservation in Montana, where he befriended Chewing Black Bone, one of the last old-time Blackfeet elders. Chewing Black Bone gave Seele the name Ish-tut-sick-taupi — "Sits in the Middle."

Seele died on July 26, 1971, at age 73. His New York Times obituary noted his distinguished career.

From Seele to Karcher-Keach

The objects — clay vessels, stone jars, a faience Taweret figure, a fragmentary royal portrait, and other pieces — are characteristic of artifacts an early twentieth-century field Egyptologist would have acquired through excavation partition, institutional distribution, or the then-legal antiquities market.

The Donors: Chris Karcher & Karen Keach

Chris Karcher is a San Antonio-based collector with deep ties to the study of ancient Egypt. He and his wife Karen Keach made their first gift to SAMA in 2021 — three objects including a limestone female figure, a terracotta mother-and-child group, and a faience Taweret — and followed with sixteen additional objects in 2025.

The Karcher-Keach objects add depth to SAMA's Egyptian galleries, which constitute the largest ancient Egyptian collection in the southern United States, anchored by foundational gifts from Gilbert M. Denman Jr.

The Objects

Nineteen objects spanning nearly six thousand years of Egyptian civilization — from a Predynastic polished red-ware jar (ca. 3900 BC) to Roman-period bronze tweezers (ca. 300 BC – AD 400). Click any object to explore.