James Henry Breasted
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| James Henry Breasted | |
 James Breasted in Chicago, 1928.
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| Born | August 27, 1865 Rockford, Illinois |
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| Died | December 2, 1935 (aged 70) |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | archaeology Egyptology |
| Institutions | University of Chicago |
| Alma mater | University of Berlin |
| Known for | Fertile Crescent |
| Author abbreviation (zoology) | a |
James Henry Breasted (August 27, 1865 – December 2, 1935) was an American archaeologist and historian.
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[edit] Early life and education
Breasted's English and Dutch ancestors came to the American continent in the 1600s with the surname Van Breestede.[1] His father was a small hardware business owner in the 8,000-strong town of Rockford, Illinois,[1] where just months after the assassination of Lincoln and end of the Civil War, Breasted was born.
He was educated at North Central College (then North-Western College) (B.A. 1888), the Chicago Theological Seminary, and Yale University (M.A. 1892), where he studied under the Hebrew scholar W. R. Harper. Harper encouraged Breasted to go to the University of Berlin, where he earned his (PhD 1894) under the instructions of Adolf Erman. He was the first American citizen to obtain a PhD in Egyptology. That same year he married Frances Hart and the couple honeymooned in Egypt which turned into a working vacation because he had been recruited to build a collection of Egyptian antiquities for the University of Chicago.[2] Hart was in Germany at the same time as Breasted, learning German and studying music along with her sisters; after her death several decades later, Breasted would marry one of her sisters.[1]
[edit] Academic career
Breasted was in the forefront of the generation of archeologist-historians who broadened the idea of Western Civilization to include the entire Near East in Europe's cultural roots. Breasted coined the term Fertile Crescent to describe the archaeologically important area from Palestine to southern Iraq (inclusive).
He became an instructor at the University of Chicago in 1894 soon after earning his doctorate. Five years later UC agreed to let him accept the Prussian Academy's invitation to work on their Egyptian dictionary project. Therefore, from 1899 to 1908 he devoted himself to field work which established his reputation. He began to publish numerous articles and monograms, as well as his History of Egypt from the Earliest Times Down to the Persian Conquest in 1905. At that time he was promoted to Professor of Egyptology and Oriental History for UC (the first such chair in the United States).
In 1901, he was appointed director of the Haskell Oriental Museum, forerunner of the Oriental Institute, which had opened at the University of Chicago in 1896. Though the Haskell Oriental Museum contained works of art from both the Near East and the Far East, Breasted's principal interest was in Egypt; he began to work on a compilation of all the extant hieroglyphic inscriptions, which was published in 1906 as Ancient Records of Egypt, which remains an important collection of translated texts; as Peter A. Piccione wrote in the preface to its 2001 reprint, it "still contains certain texts and inscriptions that have not been retranslated since that time."
He died on December 2, 1935 of a streptococcus infection after returning from his last expedition.[3][4]
| "If one were asked to name a scholar who, above all others, stimulated the development of ancient historical studies in the United States during the earlier part of the twentieth century, that honor would have to fall to the colossal figure of James Henry Breasted." |
| — Dictionary of Literary Biography by William J. Murnane |
In 1903 he successfully secured fifty thousand dollars from the Rockefeller Foundation to found the Oriental Exploration Fund so again in 1919 he turned to John D. Rockefeller to obtain funding for the Oriental Institute of Chicago, under whose auspices Breasted headed the University’s first archaeological survey of Egypt. During a visit to Egypt in 1920, he purchased the mummy of Meresamun, a singer in the inner Temple of Amun at Karnak. He worked with Howard Carter when the Tomb of Tutankhamun was opened in 1922.[5] In 1923 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He died in 1935 from pneumonia, while returning from a trip to Egypt. He is buried in Greenwood cemetery, Rockford, Illinois. His grave site is marked with a large marble obelisk, which was a gift from the Egyptian government. He had a personal residence built near the University of Chicago campus which now still stands as the fraternity house for Phi Gamma Delta.
[edit] Bibliography
- A History of Egypt from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1905. http://www.archive.org/details/ahistoryegyptfr00breagoog.
- Ancient Records of Egypt: Historical Documents from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest, collected, edited, and translated, with Commentary. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1906–1907. http://www.archive.org/details/ancientrecordse00breagoog.
- Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt: Lectures delivered on the Morse Foundation at Union Theological Seminary. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1912. http://www.archive.org/details/developmentreli01breagoog.
- Survey of the Ancient World. Boston: The Athenæum Press. 1919. http://www.archive.org/details/surveyancientwo01breagoog.
- Oriental Forerunners of Byzantine Painting (University of Chicago Oriental Institute Publications; 1). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1924.
- The Conquest of Civilization. New York; London: Harper and Brothers. 1926.
- The Dawn of Conscience. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1933.
- The 1905–1907 Breasted Expeditions to Egypt and the Sudan: A Photographic Study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1975.
[edit] Further reading
- Breasted, Charles (1977) [1943]. Pioneer to the Past: The Story of James Henry Breasted, Archaeologist. Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226071863 (paperback).
- Scott, John A. (1927). "Professor Breasted as a Historian of Greece". The Classical Journal 22 (5): 383–384. ISSN 00098353.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Bull, Ludlow; Speiser, Ephraim A.; Olmstead, Albert Ten Eyck (June 1936). "James Henry Breasted 1865-1935". Journal of the American Oriental Society 56 (2): 113–120.
- ^ Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002 Document # H1000011705
- ^ "Dr. Breasted Dies". New York Times. 1935. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30A16F73C5B1B7B93C1A91789D95F418385F9. Retrieved on 2009-02-24. "Authority on Egypt Victim at 70 Of Infection Incurred on Way Home From Expedition. Assisted at Tut-ankh-Amen Tomb. Discovered the Site of Armageddon. The following signed statement regarding Dr. Breasted's death was issued by his doctors: "Dr. James Henry Breasted died this morning at the Harkness ..."
- ^ "Dr. Breasted, Historian, Dies". United Press. 1935. http://www.library.uiuc.edu/idnc/Default/Skins/UIUC/Client.asp?Skin=UIUC&AppName=2&enter=true&BaseHref=TUC/1935/12/03&EntityId=Ar01109. Retrieved on 2009-02-24.
- ^ "Howard Carter", H. V. F. Winstone, p168, Constable, ISBN 0-09-469900-3
