2022 Study of Collections Fellowship Report: Kelsey Museum Archives
Joseph A. Greene, Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
An ASOR Study of Collections Fellowship funded my travel to the University of Michigan to complete work in archives related the 1925 Michigan excavations in the Carthage Sanctuary of Tanit (tophet). The excavator, Professor Francis Kelsey, died before completing a final report, but he left behind an extensive archives, held both at the Kelsey Museum and at the Bentley Historical Library.
The 1925 expedition directed by Kelsey was the forerunner to the 1975–1979 ASOR Punic Project, directed by the late Professor L.E. Stager (1943–2017). Dr. Brien Garnand and I have now taken responsibility for publication of the Punic Project, and we are using the opportunity to include Kelsey’s unpublished results with those of the ASOR Punic Project.
Francis Kelsey with his very smartly dressed Carthage excavation team. Kelsey is on the far right in dark three-piece suit holding white pith helmet. (University of Michigan, Kelsey Museum Archives)
Carthage Tophet under excavation in 1925 with stelae and cippi exposed in situ, view northwest. The flat, vertical wall on righthand side is an intrusive 4th c. A.D. Roman vault (see also plan, Fig. 3). (University of Michigan, Kelsey Museum Archives)
Dr. Garnand completed much work in the Michigan archive before 2022. For example, Kelsey’s 1925 site plan had already been integrated into the ASOR 1979 site plan. Field notes and excavation diaries from 1925 have been scanned and edited, along with plans, sections, drawings, field photos and other documentation. The drawings and photographs have been edited and annotated so their format corresponds to that of the ASOR Punic Project records. All of the annotated 1925 field photos and plans will be included in the digital publication, while a selection will appear in the printed version of the final report.
Certain other tasks planned for 2022 have also already been completed. Photography of 78 paper squeezes of Tophet stele excavated by Kelsey was undertaken by the University of Michigan Imaging Services. Likewise prints of the 1925 expedition photographs (the negatives are lost) have also been digitized. Thus, we now have a detailed inventory of squeezes and photographs.
With help of Kelsey Museum Registrar Michelle Fontenot, I was able to identify and organize a residue of ASOR Punic Project large-format plans unaccountably co-mingled in the archives with those from Kelsey’s 1925 expedition and the 1975–1979 Carthage-Dermech Michigan excavations. The physical plans remain at Michigan, but digital copies will be deposited in the ASOR Punic Project archives at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (HMANE). Also digitized were 15 large-format plans and drawings from the 1925 and 1975–1979 Carthage Tophet and Harbor excavations. This was completed with assistance from Kelsey Museum Collections Manager Sebastian Encina and undergraduate intern, Isabella Blanton, who accompanied me to the Clark Library where we scanned the material using a large-format scanner under the guidance of map librarian Karl Longstreth.
Plan of 1925 Carthage Tophet excavation area. The “Vault” in upper lefthand side is an intrusive 4th c. A.D. Roman feature (also visible in the photo, Fig. 2). (University of Michigan, Kelsey Museum Archives)
Another unanticipated but helpful discovery was the archive of 1978 exhibit “Carthage Then and Now,” originated at the Kelsey Museum, which then traveled to the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago and to the Semitic Museum at Harvard (now HMANE).
Finally, in the Bentley Library I completed the review of the relevant Francis Kelsey papers held there. Garnand had begun review 165 boxes of Kelsey papers on a previous visit, and it was necessary only for me to verify the box numbers which contained the relevant documents previously scanned.
