The Founding of ARCE

Among an impressive pantheon of ARCE’s founders and early influencers, Sterling Dow is distinctive.

Although Dow is primarily known in the academic world for his innovation in the field of Greek epigraphy, his varied endeavors intersected more broadly in the field of archaeology. Dow was a faculty member in the classics and history departments at Harvard University for more than three decades. During World War II, Dow traveled to Egypt as part of his military service on leave from his position at Harvard. His inspiration took root in the years after the war, generating several new projects and initiatives. Two of Dow’s creations—the American Research Center in Egypt and Archaeology magazine –celebrate a 70th anniversary in 2018.

Sterling Dow presents compelling arguments for supporting ARCE then and now. His enthusiasm and energy are evident in the following account of the establishment of ARCE, published in the Autumn 1948 issue of Archaeology magazine. The legacy of Dow’s influence remains as vital to ARCE’s work today as it was in 1948.

The piece below originally appeared in the Autumn 1948 issue of Archaeology magazine during its first year of publication and is published exactly as it appeared.

“The Founding of an American Research Center in Egypt”

Sterling Dow, American Institute of Archaeology

When any new organization is founded, whether it is a new archaeological school or any other new organization, different people see in it different possibilities, and support may come to the new venture from a variety of sources and for a variety of reasons. If the reasons are real and the supporters numerous, and if they all unite, then success is likely and is deserved.

I. REASONS

The reasons for founding an Egyptian School are various, and they are strong. In the background there is one big general reason. It is that in times of great prosperity, organizations, like people, can often afford to act independently of each other. In times of stress, there is a tendency to pool resources and to act together. Something of this sort has happened in Egyptian Archaeology.

Before the war our country sent to Egypt archaeological expeditions which, taken together, were more elaborate in their equipment, more ambitious in their objectives, and more generously financed, than any archaeological expeditions sent by any country to any area. Now all the big expeditions have ended. This past year there has been no American excavation at all in Egypt; a few American Egyptologists visited the country for reconnaissance. In fact the only non-Egyptians excavating in Egypt were two Frenchmen. The two great American leaders, JAMES HENRY BREASTED and GEORGE ANDREW REISNER, died some years ago, and their influence in favor of sound methods, although it did not die with them, has not been renewed. No excavation and no institution exists in which young Americans can be trained in Egyptology.

For the sake of our standing in Egyptian archaeology, and for the future of the subject in America, and in Egypt, and elsewhere, all American Egyptologists have felt an impulse to act together.

Some sort of School in Egypt, like those which the Institute founded long since in Athens, Rome, Jerusalem, Baghdad, and Santa Fe, and like the American School of Prehistoric Research, would go far to do what the Metropolitan Museum, the Oriental Institute, the Museum of Fine Arts, and other organizations, can no longer do separately. In fact America never did have a permanent American archaeological base in Cairo, although the French and British have such establishments and the Germans used to.

Egyptologists are not the only persons, however, who have felt that there was a need to be met. Another quite different aspect of Egyptian interests has also played a part in the numerous conferences which have been held in the American Embassy in Cairo, in the Visiting Committee here at Harvard, in the Executive Committee of the Institute, and on various occasions in other places. This aspect is the lack of Americans who have any real knowledge and understanding of Egypt and the Near East in general as they are today. Many Americans have come to realize that the vast Muslim world of 200,000,000 people is unknown in America to all but a few specialists. It took a global war to prove to us that good neighborliness is not an ideal limited to the area of the old Monroe Doctrine, and also to prove that good intentions alone do not by themselves create good neighborliness. There must be a national effort toward sympathetic understanding, which means not merely book-knowledge, but actual experience under favorable conditions. Arm-chair neighbors, like arm-chair generals, are not effective.

Arabic, particularly the classical Arabic of the Koran, is not an easy language for most Americans. Classical Arabic is not easy, in fact, for many modern Arabs, who laughingly say that the angels in their heaven speak classical Arabic—adding that only an angel could do it. Be this as it may, classical and/or modern Arabic are taught (or until recently were taught) in less than a half-dozen universities. One, Princeton, is attempting an “area program.”

Accordingly many Americans who had been in the Near East and knew our shortcomings felt an impulse to establish a disinterested, non-governmental institution where Americans could learn the language, customs, and culture of our Arab neighbors at first hand. That understanding would include something of the whole Muslim past, and above all would be concerned with the living Muslim present.

Between the Arab period in the Near East and the more remote culture of ancient Egypt, other famous periods intervened: the Hellenistic Greek and Roman eras, and the Byzantine-Coptic. These periods have been much studied in the last half century, but they need more study, and interest is active in them today. Non-specialists, and perhaps even some classical teachers, may be surprised to learn that no part of the whole Greco-Roman world is known to us in such detail as Egypt from ca. 300 B.C. to ca. 300 A.D. A center in Cairo could assist vitally in the study of the thousand years between the Greek and Arab conquests.

It might be urged, and I think with some justice, that all the reasons thus far given apply more to persons who are in some sense specialists than they do to the average American “in the street.” Has a Near Eastern Center any meaning for people who do not study hieroglyphs, temples, or Arabic?

Obviously this is part of a much larger question, the question namely to what extent these great cultures, centered wholly or partly in Egypt, ought to enter into American education. That is a good question to ask, but it is too large to be answered here. Of all the values involved, one may be selected for mention. It is the one which JOSEPH LINDON SMITH, by his life work, and EDWARD WALDO FORBES, in all our discussions, have kept constantly before us. In fact, if it had not been for Mr. FORBES and his interest in this one central value, the new Center might never have been founded.

The art of ancient Egypt is one of the great arts of the world. Americans came to know it superficially in the 1920’s, when the discovery of the tomb of King Tut—in many ways the most sensational archaeological discovery ever made—occasioned a furore for Egyptian motifs, though not much real understanding of Egyptian art. Now, thanks to a more widespread appreciation of Archaic Greek sculpture, which derived in part from Egyptian, and due in part to the presence of many classical archaeologists in Egypt during the war, Egyptian art is beginning to be looked at, understood, and admired as a supreme achievement. Its riches can be fully appreciated, perhaps, only in Cairo, at Sakkarah, at Luxor, and at other Egyptian sites; but America is fortunate in having several grand collections and many lesser ones. It is notable that next fall two American universities will add Egyptian art to their curricula, one of them in conjunction with a newly-founded Egyptian Department.

Part of the goodness of all art and of all scholarship is that they belong in some sense not to one country or to a few countries but to mankind. From the beginning of the discussions, and without a dissenting voice ever being raised, there has been agreement that any new American school in Egypt should open its doors at all times to qualified students of every country—above all to Egyptians. The support and the administration must be mainly American. The benefits are to be available to all who show the ability and the desire to learn and to understand and to appreciate. Egypt is the land of the most venerable civilization of earth, out-dating China, far out-dating anything comparable to America, older than any civilization anywhere except perhaps in Mesopotamia, which may be as old but cannot be much older. In Egypt America would long since have had a permanent cultural center but for the very size and independence of American expeditions.

II. THE FIRST MEETING

On May 14, 1948, a group of thirty persons assembled to discuss the founding of an Egyptian school. The meeting was held at the Club of Odd Volumes in Boston, after a luncheon at which the hosts were Mr. EDWARD W. FORBES, Mr. FREDERICK FOSTER, Mr. EDWARD J. HOLMES, Mr. CARL T. KELLER, and the Archaeological Institute. Mr. JOSEPH LINDON SMITH, not yet returned from Egypt, was associated with them as an honorary host. Mr. FORBES presided over the meeting. Mr. CHARLES R. D. MILLER, Secretary of the Mediaeval Academy, and Secretary of the American Council of Learned Societies’ Secretaries, served as Secretary; his notes form the basis for the present account. A list which includes the names of those who attended is given at the end of the present account.

In his opening remarks as Chairman, Mr. FORBES outlined briefly the efforts made during the past two years to provide a future for the study of the great art and venerable civilization of Egypt. Although, he said, these efforts have met with some success locally in America, there is need for continuing work in Egypt itself, now largely suspended; not necessarily a need for costly expeditions, but for first-hand study of what has been found, and for the training of young scholars of every nationality.

Mr. FORBES then asked Mr. DOW to continue with the business of the meeting, which consisted first of discussion of the project as a whole, second of the constitution, and third of the election of officers.

The first speaker to be introduced was a guest of honor at the luncheon, Mr. ABD ESSALAM M. HUSSEIN, architect at Sakkara and himself a distinguished archaeologist and excavator, sent to represent the Egyptian Embassy in Washington. Mr. ABD ESSALAM spoke of his first meeting and subsequent association with JOSEPH LINDON SMITH, of the situation in Egypt today, and of the welcome opportunities for American cooperation with Egyptians in Egyptian archaeology.

Our national needs in the Near East, and the place of cultural relations in promoting friendliness between countries, were stressed by the Honorable WILLIAM PHILLIPS, the former Ambassador. Mr. PHILLIPS said that he considered an undertaking such as the proposed school to be of particular importance and worthiness.

Mr. MORTIMER GRAVES of the American Council of Learned Societies next presented several specific aspects of the project, calling attention to the need for a wide range of Near Eastern Studies, both ancient and modern. He expressed a hope that the new Center might not become a “Little America” isolated in the midst of “foreigners,” but rather a focus of real friendships and of understanding. Mr. GRAVES also drew upon his first-hand knowledge of the Fulbright Act and its proposed administration to give an encouraging view of the opportunities for the support of individual scholars under the auspices of the proposed Center.

A motion was then made by Mr. C. BRADFORD WELLES of Yale University, seconded by Mr. CARL T. KELLER of the Harvard Visiting Committee, and unanimously VOTED, “that the meeting proceed to the foundation of a Center of Near Eastern studies.”

After commenting on the number of hearty expressions of support and interest from the 99 persons (many in distant parts) who had received notice of the meeting resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole.

The Draft Constitution was the work of Professor JOHN A. WILSON, of the University of Chicago, at present Associate Director of the Oriental Institute, where he succeeded its founder, the famous Egyptologist JAMES HENRY BREASTED. Mr. WILSON had been selected to compose the new instrument after careful consultation with many Egyptologists. Owing to the failure of air transportation at the very last moment, he was unable to attend the meeting. Mr. DOW endeavored to lay Mr. WILSON’S views fully before the meeting, having had a long-distance telephone conversation with him a few hours previously, and having in hand a copy of Mr. WILSON’S first Draft Constitution.

The following were among the matters discussed with respect to the Draft Constitution:

Place of incorporation: Washington, D. C., was suggested.

Adequate statement of the international character of the organization.

Problems of corporation memberships and representation; this was referred to a proposed Committee on Revision.

Representation on the Executive Committee of each principal field of study; this was considered impractical.

Trustees: three classes of five each, each class serving three years; ownership of all property and assets to be in their hands, and power to curb spending.

Executive Committee of Trustees: it was particularly urged by Mr. HOLMES, President of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, that the Trustees should have their own Executive Committee. This was accepted as advisable.

Meetings regularly to be annual. Proxies to be honored only for particular questions.

By-Laws were advocated by Mr. HOLMES and Mr. KELLER, for the sake of simplicity in the Constitution and of flexibility in operations. An instance would be matters of personnel.

Collections of objects and the like: Mr. WASHBURN urged, with general approval, that the By-Laws should have provisions concerning any objects that might come into the possession of the Center.

Offers of hospitality by the Egyptian Government, and by any other government, should be envisaged and provided for in the Constitution itself; this suggestion by Mr. PHILLIPS was approved.

Revision: the provision for revision should specify that two-thirds of those voting, in person or by proxy, should be sufficient to pass a measure altering the Constitution.

It was urged that the section on purposes, in particular, should be redrafted to stress international cooperation.

The Committee of the Whole then rose and reported. On motion of Mr. CALVERLY, of the Hartford Theological School, duly seconded, it was VOTED unanimously that the Committee’s report be accepted and adopted.

Mr. DOW then presented nominations as follows:

Chairman of the Trustees: EDWARD WALDO FORBES
Chairman on the Executive Committee: JOHN A. WILSON
Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee: DOWS DUNHAM
Secretary: RICHARD A. PARKER
Treasurer: LUDLOW BULL

Other elected members of the Executive Committee:

CARLETON A. COON
JOHN D. COONEY
AMBROSE LANSING
HARALD INGHOLT
HUGH HENCKEN
ARTHUR JEFEREY

All were unanimously ELECTED.

Mr. Dow submitted a list of possible candidates for Trustees, and invited comments and additions from the floor.

The meeting VOTED to ask the Chairman (Mr. FORBES) to appoint Mr. WILSON and four others as a Committee to Revise the Draft Constitution. [This is the Committee which acted on 5 and 6 June 1948, consisting of Mr. WILSON, Chairman; Mr. FORBES, Mr. J. L. SMITH, Mr. W. S. SMITH, and Mr. DOW.]

The meeting VOTED that copies of the proposed revision be sent to all persons invited to the present meeting, and to such others as Mr. WILSON may designate, for a vote, and for comments, section by section; that sections voted upon favorably by two-thirds of those answering within 30 days be considered adopted, until the next meeting; that sections not voted upon favorably be redrafted to accord with criticisms, and re-submitted; and that the whole constitution in revised form be presented for a final vote at the next meeting.

The meeting VOTED to adopt the Draft Constitution, as a basis for present action, until a Constitution revised in the light of the meeting’s discussion could be presented and voted upon.

It was VOTED that the Executive Committee should draw up a panel of names of final candidates for the Board of Trustees.

It was AGREED, as the sense of the meeting, that Canada and Mexico should tacitly be included in the Center’s area of financial support on par with the United States of America.

It was VOTED to thank Mr. FORBES and Mr. DOW for their part in preparing the meeting; to thank the hosts for the luncheon, and the Club for hospitality.

The meeting then ADJOURNED (3:45 p.m.).

III. ATTENDEES

Due to various reasons, the invitations could be sent out only a fortnight or less in advance. To have secured the formal appointment of fully accredited representatives from all the possible interested organizations would have involved months of correspondence, and did not seem called for at a time when no certainty existed that a new organization would in fact come into existence. Proper notification will of course be sent to all interested organizations, with a view to entering at once into cordial and coöperative relations, looking to the strengthening of all common interests.

The persons invited were therefore those who happened to be known as having some connection with the Near East, particularly Egypt, and their relevant organizational ties are given here merely as background. The one exception was that in the case of the Egyptian Ambassador a special effort, happily successful, was made to secure an official representative.

The following includes those who could not attend but who expressed an interest. An asterisk marks the names of those who actually attended. Since the titles and positions in this list have been drawn from various directories, they may not in every case be up-to-the-minute:

*ABD ESSALAM M. HUSSEIN: Architect for Sakkarah, Service of Antiquities, Egypt.
WILLIAM F. ALBRIGHT: W. W. Spence Professor of Semitic Languages, Johns Hopkins University; Acting President, American Schools of Oriental Research; Director or Member, various Near Eastern expeditions.
GILBERT BAGNANI: Professor of Egyptology, University College, University of Toronto.
HON. F. LAMMOT BELIN: former Ambassador; Trustee and Vice-President, National Gallery of Art.
ROBERT P. BLAKE: Professor of History, Harvard University; President, the Byzantine Institute.
HON. ROBERT WOODS BLISS: former Ambassador; Co-founder, and Member, Committee of Administration, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection; President, Washington Society, Archaeological Institute of America.
ARTHUR E. R. BOAK: Richard Hudson Professor of Ancient History, University of Michigan; Director, University of Michigan Expedition to Karnis, Egypt, 1924-25, 1931-32.

*BERNARD V. BOTHMER(pictured above): Assistant, Department of Egyptian Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
GORDON BOWLES: Secretary for the Joint Conference Boards with Relation to the Fulbright Act.
JAMES H. BREASTED, JR.(pictured above): Director, Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles; Vice-President, Southern California Society, Archaeological Institute of America.
JASPER Y. BRINTON: Founding Member, Society for the Study of Hellenistic Culture: President, Cour d’Appel Mixte, Alexandria, Egypt; restorer of Abukir.
PAUL H. BUCK: Professor of History, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Provost, Harvard University.
LUDLOW BULL: Associate Curator, Egyptian Department, Metropolitan Museum; Professor of Egyptology and Curator of the Egyptian Collection, Yale University.
MILLAR BURROWS: Professor of New Testament, Yale University; President, American Schools of Oriental Research; Director, American School in Jerusalem.
HENRY J. CADBURY: Hollis Professor of Divinity, Harvard University; Secretary, American Schools of Oriental Research.
*E. E. CALVERLEY: Professor, Hartford seminary Foundation; Chairman, Committee on Near Eastern Studies, American Council of Learned Societies
GEORGE H. CHASE: Hudson Professor of Archaeology, emeritus, Harvard University; Trustee and Member of the Managing Committee, American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
*KENNETH J. CONANT: Professor of the History of Architecture, Harvard University; appointed Norton Lecturer, Archaeological Institute of America, 1948-49; Vice-President, Boston Society, Archaeological Institute of America.
CARLETON S. COON: Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University; appointed Professor of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania.
*JOHN D. COONEY (pictured above): Curator of Egyptology, Brooklyn Museum; on leave of absence for study in Egypt, 1946-47.
CHARLES C. CUNNINGHAM: Director, Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford.
J. FRANKLIN DANIEL: Curator of Classical Art, University Museum, Philadelphia: Editor-in-Chief, AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY; Member, Executive Committee, Archaeological Institute of America.
A. HENRY DETWEILER: Professor of Architecture, Cornell University.
ARTHUR S. DEWING: President, American Numismatic Society; Trustee, Archaeological Institute of America; Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
WILLIAM B. DINSMOOR: Professor of Archaeology, and Executive Officer, Department of Fine Arts, Columbia University; Honorary President, Archaeological Institute of America; Trustee, American Academy at Rome.
*STERLING DOW: President, Archaeological Institute of America; Professor of History and of Greek, Harvard University; Visitor the Department of Egyptian Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
PRENTICE DUELL: Field Director, Sakkarah Expedition, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, 1930-36; Visitor to the Department of Egyptian Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
*DOWS DUNHAM (pictured above): Curator of Egyptian Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Foreign Expert in the Antiquities Department, Egyptian Government, 1923-24, 1924-25; Member 1914-16, 1920-22, 1926-27, and Director, 1946-47, Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts Egyptian Expedition; Treasurer, Boston Society, Archaeological Institute of America.
*GEORGE H. EDGELL: Director, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Member, United States National Commission of UNESCO.
WILLIAM F. EDGERTON: Professor of Egyptology, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; Chairman, Department of Oriental Languages, University of Chicago.
*RICHARD ETTINGHAUSEN: Curator of Egyptian Art, Freer Gallery, Washington, D. C.
*WILLIAM S. FERGUSON: McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History, emeritus, Harvard University; Vice President, Archaeological Institute of America; Corresponding Fellow, British Academy.
DAVID E. FINLEY: Director, National Gallery of Art: President, American Association of Museums.
*EDWARD W. FORBES: Director, Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, emeritus; Martin A. Ryerson Lecturer in Fine Arts, Harvard University; Trustee, Archaeological Institute of America; Member, Board of Overseers, Harvard College; Chairman, Overseers Committee to Visit the Department of Egyptian and Semitic Civilizations, Harvard University.
*FREDERICK FOSTER: Member, Committee to Visit the Department of Egyptian and Semitic Civilizations, Harvard University; Visitor to the Department of Egyptian Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
HENRI FRANKFORT: Research Professor in Oriental Archaeology, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; Director, various expeditions for Egypt Exploration Society of London, and Oriental Institute of Chicago, in Egypt and Iraq; President, Chicago Society, Archaeological Institute of America.
LEE M. FRIEDMAN: Member, Committee to Visit the Department of Egyptian and Semitic Civilizations, Harvard University.
ALBERT M. FRIEND: Professor of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University; Chairman of the Board of Scholars, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D. C.; Henri Focillon Visiting Scholar in charge of Research, Dumbarton Oaks.
*RICHARD N. FRYE: Junior Fellow, Harvard University; Secretary, Committee on Near Eastern Studies, American Council of Learned Societies.
*SETH T. GANO: Treasurer, Archaeological Institute of America; treasurer, Byzantine Institute; Member, Executive Committee, Mediaeval Academy of America.
PAUL GARDNER: Director, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum, Kansas City.
BLAKE-MORE GODWIN: Director, Toledo Museum of Art.
*MORTIMER GRAVES: Administrative Secretary, American Council of Learned Societies.
WILLIAM C. HAYES: Associate Curator, Department of Egyptian Art, and Member of various Egyptian expeditions, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
HUGH HENCKEN: Curator, European Archaeology, Peabody Museum, Harvard University; Director, American School of Prehistoric Research.
PHILIP K. HITTI: Professor of Semitic Literature, Princeton University; Chairman, Department of Oriental Languages, and Literatures, Princeton University; Trustee, American Schools of Oriental Research.
*EDWARD J. HOLMES: Former Director; now President, and Chairman of the Visiting Committee for Egyptian Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
HALFORD L. HOSKINS: Director, Middle East Institute, Washington, D. C.; Co-organizer and Director, Foreign Service Educational Foundation sponsoring the School of Advanced International Studies and Institute for Overseas Service.
THOMAS C. HOWE, JR.: Director, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco.
GEORGE R. HUGHES: Epigrapher, Oriental Institute Expedition, Luxor, Egypt.
*HAROLD INGHOLT: Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology, Yale University; President, New Haven Society, Archaeological Institute of America.
ARTHUR JEFFREY: Professor of Arabic, Columbia University; Annual Professor and Director, American School, Jerusalem, 1946-47.
JOTHAM JOHNSON: Associate Professor of Classics, New York University; Editor-in-Chief, ARCHAEOLOGY; Member, Executive Committee, Archaeological Institute of America.
*CARL T. KELLER: Member, Overseers’ Committee to Visit the Department of Egyptian and Semitic Civilizations, Harvard University; Vice-Chairman and Trustee, Harvard-Yenching Institute.
WILLARD V. KING: Chairman, Board of Trustees, Archaeological Institute of America; Trustee, Columbia University; Member, Executive Committee, School of American Research, Jerusalem.
CARL H. KRAELING: Professor of New Testament, Yale University; sometime Acting Director, American School of Oriental Research, Jerusalem.
CASPER J. KRAEMER: Professor of Classics, and Chairman, Department of Classics, New York University.
CORNELIUS KRUSE: Executive Director, American Council of Learned Societies.
*AMBROSE LANSING: Curator, Department of Egyptian Art, and at various periods, in charge of expeditions to Lisht and Luxor, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Member, Committee to Visit the Department of Egyptian and Semitic Civilizations, Harvard University; Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; President, New York Society, Archaeological Institute of America.
HORACE L. MAYER: Member, Committee to Visit the Department of Egyptian Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
*CHARLES R. D. MILLER: Executive Secretary, Mediaeval Academy of America; Editor, Speculum; Secretary, Council of Secretaries, American Council of Learned Societies.
WILLIAM M. MILLIKEN: Director, Cleveland Museum of Art; President, Association of Art Museum Directors.
CHARLES NAGEL, JR.: Director, Brooklyn Museum of Art.
*OTTO NEUGEBAUER: Professor of Mathematics, Brown University.
RICHARD A. PARKER: appointed Wilbour Professor of Egyptology, Brown University; Director, Chicago House, Luxor, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
*ENOCH E. PETERSON: Curator, Egyptian Antiquities, Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Michigan; Director of Michigan excavations in Egypt.
*ROBERT H. PFEIFER: Curator, Semitic Museum, Harvard University; Lecturer, Harvard University; Director, Harvard-Baghdad School of Excavations, Nuzi, Iraq, 1928-29
*HON. WILLIAM PHILLIPS: former Ambassador; Member Anglo-American Commission on Palestine, 1946; former Member, Board of Overseers, Harvard College.
ARTHUR POPE: Professor of Fine Arts, and Director, Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University.
FROELICH G. RAINEY: Director, University Museum, Philadelphia.
MARVIN ROSS: Curator of Mediaeval and Subsequent Decorative Arts, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.
PAUL J. SACHS: Professor of Fine Arts, Harvard University; Director, Fogg Museum of Art, emeritus, Harvard University; Director, Fogg Museum of Art, emeritus, Harvard University; Chairman, Administrative Committee, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D. C.; Trustee, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Trustee, Museum of Modern Art, New York City.
CHARLES H. SAWYER: Director, Division of Arts, and Dean of the School of Fine Arts, Yale University; Trustee, American Federation of Arts.
DONALD SCOTT: Peabody Professor, Harvard University; Director, Peabody Museum, Harvard University; Trustee, American Schools of Oriental Research; Trustee, American School of Prehistoric Research; Trustee, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
KEITH C. SEELE: Professor of Egyptology, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; United States member, Executive Committee, International Association of Egyptologists.
E. BALDWIN SMITH: Professor of Art and Archaeology, and Chairman of the Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University; Director, College Art Association.

JOSEPH LINDON SMITH (pictured above): Honorary Curator, Egyptian Department, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; artist specializing in copies of ancient relief sculpture.
*MYRON B. SMITH: Fellow in Islamic Archaeology and Near Eastern History, Library of Congress; Member, Royal Central Asian Society, London; Member, Middle East Institute, Washington, D. C.
*WILLIAM STEVENSON SMITH: Assistant Curator, Department of Egyptian Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Lecturer on Egyptian Art, Harvard University; Member, Boston; Member, Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Harvard University Expedition to the Pyramids, 1930-39.
*EPHRAIM A. SPEISER: Professor of Semitics, University of Pennsylvania; Field Director, joint excavations of the American School of Oriental Research and the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania in Mesopotamia, 1930-32 and 1936-37; Non-resident Director of the American School of Oriental Research in Baghdad, 1932-46; Fellow, University Museum, Philadelphia.
GEORGE L. STOUT: Director, Museum of Art, Worcester, Massachusetts.
FRANCES H. TAYLOR: Director, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Trustee, Archaeological Institute of America; Trustee, the American Academy in Rome; Member of the Visiting Committee, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, and of Amherst College Museum.
*WILLIAM THOMASON: Professor of Arabic, Harvard University.
*GORDON B. WASHBURN: Director, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.
*C. BRADFORD WELLES: Professor of Ancient History, Yale University; Member, Executive Committee, Archaeological Institute of America.
WILLIAM L. WESTERMANN: Professor of History, Columbia University, New York City.
THOMAS WHITTEMORE: Founder and Director, Byzantine Institute; Vice President, Archaeological Institute of America; American Representative to the Egypt Exploration Fund; Keeper of Byzantine coins and seals, Fogg Museum, Harvard University; Fellow for Research in Byzantine Art, Harvard University.
JOHN A. WILSON: Trustee, American Schools of Oriental Research; Professor of Egyptology, University of Chicago; Member, Executive Committee, Archaeological Institute of America; Member, Committee on Near Eastern Studies, American Council of Learned Societies.
HERBERT E. WINLOCK: former Curator, Egyptian Department, and Director, emeritus, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Director, various Egyptian expeditions for the Metropolitan Museum.
HERBERT C. YOUTIE: Professor of Greek, University of Michigan.