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

Georgia Flouda

doi:10.5617/clara.v4i0.4373

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.

Highlights

This paper tells the extraordinary story of the ‘Schliemann collection’, an unpublished collection of 177 artefacts excavated in Troy in the nineteenth century and bequeathed in 1893 to the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, DC
It explores through archival research the role of Heinrich Schliemann, the entrepreneur and archaeologist, and how his approach to archaeology encapsulated universal aspects of Western modernity, including the connection with capital and maintaining a high public profile
In the era of rational state building, the forced ‘itineraries’ of antiquities due to archaeological expeditions acquired new meaning and gave rise to political agendas, as suggested by the seemingly insufficient Ottoman legal framework for protecting the cultural heritage112 and the Ottoman Empire’s belated attempt to prohibit the export of antiquities since 1869.113 Above all, the primary sources from the Gennadius Library at Athens and other evidence presented here adds to our understanding of the way antiquities could be moved beyond ethnic boundaries and become instruments in a transactional approach to archaeology by archaeologistcollectors like Heinrich and Sophia Schliemann, lobbyists like Kate Field and diplomats like Truxtun Beale, in order to achieve personal advancement or to further political interests through forging diplomatic relations

Summary

Introduction

This paper tells the extraordinary story of the ‘Schliemann collection’, an unpublished collection of 177 artefacts excavated in Troy in the nineteenth century and bequeathed in 1893 to the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, DC.

Results

Conclusion