The Story of James Henry Breasted

Pioneer to the Past: The Story of James Henry Breasted, Archaeologist, 

Told by His Son Charles Breasted. 

By Charles Breasted. 

Reprint of the Charles Scribner's Sons 1943 Edition with New Foreword and Photographs. 

Published in 2009.

Pioneer to the Past tells the intensely human, often poignantly moving story of the brilliant career of James Henry Breasted, one of the greatest Egyptologists and archaeologists America has yet produced. Breasted's greatest achievement was the founding of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago in 1919, through the generous support of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The Oriental Institute embodies Breasted's vision of an inter-disciplinary research center that unites archaeology, textual studies, and art history as three complementary methodologies to provide a holistic understanding of ancient Near Eastern civilizations, and the ways that they laid the foundations for what we think of today as "Western civilization." Breasted's legacy continues to flourish today.


OIDA 1. 
Letters from James Henry Breasted to His Family, August 1919 - July 1920.
Edited by John A. Larson.
2010
This presentation is based on the letters that James Henry Breasted wrote home to his family during the first expedition of the Oriental Institute to the Middle East (August 1919-July 1920). These original letters in the Oriental Institute Archives were transcribed into digital form and are presented - unedited - with supporting illustrations.