Figures of modernity: Heinrich Schiemann, Kate Field and a Smithsonian Collection

Authors

  • Georgia Flouda Heraklion Archaeological Museum - Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5617/clara.v4i0.4373

Keywords:

history of archaeology, modernity, Heinrich Schliemann, Sophia Schliemann, Kate Field, Smithsonian Institution, Schliemann Collection, Troy, Truxtun Beale, U.S. diplomats, heritage, museums

Abstract

This paper intends to document how an assemblage of 177 archaeological objects excavated in Troy in the nineteenth century became entangled within the historical circumstances of the era and Heinrich Schliemann’s continuous social movement. The circumstances that led to the donation of this Trojan collection of antiquities by Sophia Schliemann to the Smithsonian Institution in 1893 and the earlier background of the story shed light to the protagonists of this historical event, namely Heinrich Schliemann, the U.S. journalist Kate Field and the U.S. diplomat Truxtun Beale. The story of the movement of the artifacts from the Troas, to Greece and, ultimately, to Washington DC is mostly based on archival research. The paper also explores how facets of Schliemann’s archaeological conduct were enhanced by universal social aspects of modernity, such as the connection with capital and the use of the public sphere profile. It also discusses how the donation of the Trojan collection attracted media attention by making an appeal to the late nineteenth˗century American antiquarianism and, eventually, made the archaeology of the distant Troas -- at that point a part of the Ottoman Empire -- a subject of public interest for the Americans. Ultimately, the Smithsonian ‘Schliemann Collection’ acquired some form of agency fostering future research and providing the foundations for American involvement in the exploration of Aegean prehistory in the twentieth century, mainly through Carl Blegen’s excavations.

Author Biography

Georgia Flouda, Heraklion Archaeological Museum - Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports

Dr, Curator in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum - Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports

References

Anonymous, 1891, ‘Dr. Henry T. Schliemannʼ, The Popular Science Monthly 38: 803˗807.

Anonymous, 1893, ‘For the National Museum. Trojan Relics From the Mines of the Ancient Cityʼ.

Arentzen, W. 2014 Schliemann and the making of his second fortune. In Thanos & Arentzen (eds), 9-100.

Arndt, K.J.R. 1981, ‘Schliemann's Excavation of Troy and American Politics or Why the Smithsonian Institution Lost Schliemann's Great Troy Collection to Berlinʼ, Yearbook of German-American Studies 16: 1-8.

Aruz, J. (ed), 2003, Art of the first cities. The third millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (exhibition catalogue).

Beale, M.O. 1954: Decatur House and its Inhabitants, National Trust for Historic Preservation: Washington/DC.

Bobou-Protopapa, E. 2004: Sophia-Eggastromenou-Sleman. Grammata ston Erriko, Kastaniotis Editions: Athens.

Bölke, W. 2013: Neues aus den Archiven in Sachen Schliemann, W. Bölke: Bocksee.

Bonsal, S. 1912: Edward Fitzgerald Beale, a pioneer in the path of empire, 1822˗1903, The Knickerbocker Press: New York & London.

Buzan, B. & Lawson, G. 2012 The Global Transformation. History, Modernity and the Making of International Relations (Cambridge Studies in International Relations: 135). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Calder, W.M. & Traill, D.A. (eds) 1986 Myth, Scandal and History: the H. Schliemann Controversy and a First Edition. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Capps, E. 1920-1921, ‘Fourtieth Annual Report of the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1920˗1921’.

Chambers, M. 1990: ‘Schliemann and America’, in Calder & Cobet (eds), 397˗414.

Chippindale, C. 1989: ‘‘‘Social Archaeology’ in the Nineteenth Century: Is it Right to look for Modern Ideas in Old Places?’, in Christenson (ed), 21˗33.

Christenson, A.L. (ed) 1989 Tracing Archaeology’s Past. The Historiography of Archaeology, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press.

Cobet, J. 1990: ‘Heinrich Schliemann nach hundert Jahren: Die Historisierung von Mythos und Ärgernis’, in Calder & Cobet (eds), 12˗26.

Calder (III), W.M. & Cobet, J. (eds) 1990 Heinrich Schliemann nach hundert Jahren, Frankfurt: Vittorio Klostermann.

Cobet, J. 1997: Heinrich Schliemann. Archäologe und Abenteurer, Munich.

Constable, G. 2015 The Rothschilds and the Gold Rush: Benjamin Davidson and Heinrich Schliemann in California 1851˗52 (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 105, Part 4). Philadelphia.

Duesterberg, S. 2015: Popular Perceptions of Archaeology: Fictional and Factual Texts in 19th and Early 20th Century Britain, Transcript Verlag: Bielefeld.

Dyson, S.L. 1989: ‘The Role of Ideology and Institutions in Shaping Classical Archaeology in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’, in Christenson (ed), 127˗35.

Eberhardt, G. 2010: Spurensuche in der Vergangenheit. Eine Geschichte der frühen Archäologie, Darmstadt.

Eldem, E. 2011: ‘From blissful indifference to anguished concern: Ottoman perceptions of antiquities, 1799˗1869’, in Scramble for the past: a story of archaeology in the Ottoman Empire, 1753˗1914, ed. Z. Bahrani, Z. Çelik & E. Eldem, Istanbul: 281˗329.

Galanakis, Y. 2013: ‘The “Aegean World” at the Ashmolean’, in The Aegean World. A Guide to the Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean Antiquities in the Ashmolean Museum, ed. Y. Galanakis, Oxford & Athens: 21-71.

Galanakis, Y. & Hicks, D. 2013: ‘The Aegean and Cyprus’, in World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: A Characterization, eds. D. Hicks & A. Stevenson, Oxford: 312˗35.

Gere, C. 2009: Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism, The University of Chicago Press: Chicago & London.

Goebel, K. & Giannopoulou, C. (eds) 2010 Wilhelm Dörpfeld. Daten meines Lebens, Peri Technon: Patras.

Easton, D.F. 1982, ‘The Schliemann Papersʼ, BSA 77: 93˗110.

Hahn, H.P. & Weiss, H. 2013: ‚Introduction: Biographies, travels and itineraries of things’, in Mobility, Meaning & Transformations of Things: shifting contexts of material culture through time and space, eds. H.P. Hahn & H. Weiss, Oxford: 1-14.

Hamilakis, Y. 2015, ‘Archaeology and the Logic of Capital: Pulling the Emergency Break’, International Journal of Historical Archaeology 19.4: 721˗735.

Heuck Allen, S. (ed) 2002 Excavating Our Past. Perspectives on the History of the Archaeological Institute of America (Archaeological Institute of America - Colloquia and Conference Papers 5), Boston.

How Washington got them. A Diplomatic Incident Concerning the Trojan Relics.

Junqing, Y. 2006, ‘Dimensions of Modernity and their Contemporary Fate’, Front. Philos. China 1: 6˗21.

Kennell, S.A.H. 2006, ‘Schliemann and his papers. A tale from the Gennadeion Archives’, Hesperia 76, 785-817.

Kohlstedt, S.G. 1988, ‘History in a Natural History Museum. George Brown Goode and the Smithsonian Institution’, The Public Historian 10.2: 72˗76.

Konsola, D. 1990: ‘I Τroiki Syllogi tou Ethnikou Arxaiologikou Mouseiou’, in Troia, Mykenes, Tiryns, Orchomenos. Ekato xronia apo ton thanato tou Errikou Schliemann, Athens, National Archaeological Museum 15 June-2 September 1990, Berlin, Altes Museum, 4 October 1990-15 January 1991, ed. A. Demakopoulou, Athens: 79˗87, 149˗152 no. 5˗8.

Korres, G.S. 1974 Bibliographia Errikou Sleman (Library of the Archaeological Society of Athens). Athens.

Korres, G.S. 1977: Anadromai eis ton Neoklassikismon, Athens: Etaireia ton Filon tou Laou.

Korres, G.S. 1990: Heinrich Schliemann. Ein Leben für die Wissenschaft, Berlin: Nicolai.

Korres, G.S. 2012: ‘Mia zoi stin ypiresia tes archaiologikes epistemes’, in Archaeology and Heinrich Schliemann. A Century after his Death. Assessments and Prospects. Myth ˗ History ˗ Science, eds. G.S. Korres, N. Karadimas & G. Flouda, Athens: 184˗226.

Kotsonas, A. 2015: ‘Showcasing new Trojan wars: archaeological exhibitions and the politics of appropriation of ancient Troy’, in AEGIS. Essays in Mediterranean archaeology Presented to Matti Egon by the Scholars of the Greek Archaeological Committee UK, eds. Z. Theodoropoulou Polychroniadis & D. Evely, Oxford: 235˗242.

Lindquist, E.N. 1990: The Origins of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Princeton University Press: Princeton.

Lloyd, S. 1947: Foundations in the Dust. A Story of Mesopotamian Exploration, London.

Ludwig, E. 1931: Schliemann of Troy: the Story of a Goldseeker, London.

Matthews, R. 2003: The Archaeology of Mesopotamia. Theories and approaches, Routledge: London & New York.

Mavromichali, K. 2014: ‘In Search of the Utopia of the Past: Reflections of Antiquity upon a National Narrative’, in Museums and the Idea of Historical Progress, ICMAH ˗ COMCOL 2012, Annual Conference in conjunction with ICOM ˗ South Africa, eds. R. Omar, B. Ndhlovu, L. Gibson & S. Vawda, Cape Town: 93˗109.

McGuire, R. & Walker, M. 1999, ‘Class confrontations in archaeology’, Historical Archaeology 33(1): 159˗183.

Moss, C.J. (ed) 1996 Kate Field. Selected Letters, Southern Illinois University Press: Carbondale & Edwardsville, Il.

Mühlenbruch, T. 2010 Heinrich Schliemann. Ein Itinerar (Kleine Schriften des Vorgeschichtlichen Seminars der Phillips-Universität Marburg 58.2). Marburg.

Murray, J. & Christiansen, C. 2013: ‘Those who came before: Shetland’s antiquarians and the Neolithic’, in The Border of Farming. Shetland and Scandinavia. Neolithic and Bronze Age Farming, Papers from the symposium in Copenhagen, September 19th to the 21st 2012, ed. D. L. Mahler, Copenhagen: 92˗102.

Portolano, M. 1999, ‘Increase and Diffusion of Knowledge: Ethos of Science and Education in the Smithsonian’s Inception’, Rhetoric Review 18.1: 65˗81.

Said, E. 1978: Orientalism. Western Conceptions of the Orient, Routledge & Kegan Paul: London.

Salenius, S. (ed) 2009 American Authors Reinventing Italy: The Writings of Exceptional Nineteenth-Century Women. Padova: Il Prato.

Thanos, C. & Arentzen, W. (eds) 2014 Schliemann and the California Gold Rush. The 1850-1852 American Travel Journal of Heinrich Schliemann: A Transcription and Translation (The Schliemann Diaries 2). Leiden: Sidestone Press.

Samida, S. 2012: Heinrich Schliemann, A. Francke Verlag Tübingen and Basel: Tübingen.

Schlanger, N. 2002, ‘Ancestral Archives: Explorations in the History of Archaeology’, Antiquity 76: 127˗131.

Schnapp, A. 2002, ‘Between antiquarians and archaeologists – continuities and ruptures’, Antiquity 76: 134˗140.

Schnapp, J.T., Shanks, M. & Tiews, M. 2004, ‘Archaeology, Modernism, Modernity. Editors’ introduction to “Archaeologies of the Modern”, a special issue of Modernism/Modernity’, Modernism/Modernity 11:1: 1˗6.

Shanks, M. 1996: Classical Archaeology of Greece: Experiences of the Discipline, Routledge: London & New York.

Sheftel, P.A. 2002: ‘Sending out of Expeditions: The Contest for Delphi’, in Heuck Allen (ed), 105˗113.

Silbermann, N.A. 2002: ‘Between Athens and Babylon: The AIA and the Politics of American Near Eastern Archaeology, 1884˗1997’, in Heuck Allen (ed), 115˗122.

Thanos, C. 2014 The Transcription. In Thanos & Arentzen (eds), 107˗192.

Thanos, C. & Arentzen, W. (eds) 2014 Schliemann and the California Gold Rush. The 1850-1852 American Travel Journal of Heinrich Schliemann: A Transcription and Translation (The Schliemann Diaries 2). Leiden: Sidestone Press.

Traill, D. 1995: Schliemann of Troy: Treasure and Deceit, John Murray: London.

Uslu, G. 2009. ‘Ottoman Appreciation of Trojan Heritage 1870-1875’, Tijdschrift voor Mediterrane Archeologie 21, no. 41: 4˗10.

Weber, S.H. 1942: Schliemann’s first visit to America 1850-1851, Cambridge Massachusetts.

Wilhelm, J.T. 1984, ‘Heinrich Schliemann’s Sacramento Connection’, California History 63.3, 224˗229.

Winterer, C. 2002: The Culture of Classicism. Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780˗1910, The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore & London.

Wright, H.E. 2015: The First Smithsonian Collection. The European Engravings of George Perkins Marsh and the Role of Prints in the U.S. National Museum, Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press: Washington/DC.

Downloads

Published

2019-06-20

Issue

Section

Chronicle