ARCE was founded in 1948 in Boston by Edward W. Forbes , then the director of the Fogg Museum at Harvard , and Sterling Dow , then president of the Archaeological Institute of America , with the intention of creating a research center in Egypt on the model of similar institutions in Greece and Rome . The center 's Egyptian headquarters opened in 1951 in an office at the Office of U.S. Information and Educational Exchange in the American Embassy in Cairo . Throughout its early years , the center received substantial funding from the United States Department of State . In 1962 , the first edition of the Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt was published . All American staff were evacuated from Egypt during the Six-Day War , but returned after the cessation of hostilities , even though the United States and Egypt would not resume normal diplomatic relations until 1974 . In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in 1992 , ARCE was chosen by USAID to administer an American-funded initiative to restore damage done to Egypt 's tangible cultural heritage . This work , which resulted in the completion of more than fifty conservation projects throughout Egypt , was directed by Robert K. Vincent , Jr. until his death in 2007
earthquake in 1992 ,
1992 Cairo earthquake
American Research Center in Egypt