Introduction
New! ASOR Receives Major NEH Grant
ASOR will soon be home to a remarkable resource for scholars working in the history of archaeology. ASOR, which was established in 1900, has been keeping records of its activities since its inception. These records are mainly housed in the Boston office, with a smaller amount of material in the Albright Institute in Jerusalem, and in the Harvard Semitic Museum.
The documents include numerous unpublished letters from figures such as Albright and Wright, minutes from Executive Committee meetings dating to the first decades of the 20th century, photographs of both archaeological sites and of their excavators, and records regarding ASOR’s involvement in the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The goal of the archiving initiative is to organize these archival holdings in such a way that ASOR can become a center for research on the history of the discipline, and for the history of American relations with the Middle East at the turn of the century. In order to achieve this goal, we need to properly conserve both the documents and photographs, organize them appropriately, digitize selections, and create a finding aid.