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The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum (REM), founded by the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, is a museum about Ancient Egypt located at AMORC's Rosicrucian Park in the Rose Garden neighborhood of San Jose, California, United States. The Rosicrucian Order continues to support and expand the museum and its educational and scientific activities.
History
The founder of AMORC, Dr. Harvey Spencer Lewis (Ph.D., F.R.C.), was a collector of various artifacts with mystical symbolism, some of them from the East. His very first artifact was a small Sekhmet statue. In 1921 he contributed financially to the archaeological excavations at Tel el Amarna (the capital city of the pharaoh Akhenaten) of the Egypt Explorations Society of Boston by receiving donations from AMORC members. In return, the Egypt Explorations Society donated several Egyptian antiquities to AMORC.
In 1928 he presented to the public a collection named "The Rosicrucian Egyptian Oriental Museum", located at the administration buildings of AMORC at San Jose, California.
After Lewis' tour in Egypt in 1929, AMORC received many more artifacts and donations and as a result the collection grew significantly, with more than 2000 exhibits.
The second Imperator of AMORC, Ralph Maxwell Lewis (F.R.C.), son of H. Spencer Lewis, decided to build new buildings for the museum. The new museum buildings opened in November 1966.
By that time the museum managed to become unique by:
- Having the largest exhibition of Ancient Egyptian antiquities in the Western US.
- Being the only such museum in the world with buildings constructed in Ancient Egyptian architectural style.
- Having a purpose-built planetarium adjacent to the museum. The Planetarium was the 5th opened in the United States, and the first with a Star Projector built in the country, constructed by H. Spencer Lewis.
- Having its buildings set in an Egyptian revival park.
In 1995 Julie Scott, M.A., S.R.C., moved to San Jose and became Director of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum."