As Michel Dewachter highlighted in 1985, the title page on the earliest manuscript of the Journal d'Entrée, the accession registers for the Egyptian Museum Cairo, identifies it as the finds journal for “the Excavations of H.H. the Viceroy" Said Pasha, beginning in 1858, and the first several thousand entries are in the hand of Auguste Mariette, appointed by Said as antiquities and museum commissioner.
This article introduces the way in which the registers took shape, between archaeological sites and museum plans, and lists the several object assemblages to be found in the records for the first year 1858-1859. One group comprises basketry, cosmetic and food vessels, seal amulets, and the coffin of a woman. These finds offer an opportunity to assess the record of the deposit against the items identifiable now, 165 years later, in the museum, within the wider histories of archaeological fieldwork, ancient burial practices, and the vulnerable material frame of the museum collection.