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— 1930s —
1931
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
December 15, 1931
Dear Glueck:-
Allow me to congratulate you on your appointment as Director of the American School of Jerusalem from ’32-’35. It is our honorable and also an onerous position. I hope you will still be able to be [?] at least part of the time. The Auto will be going to and fro [?]. I suppose [?], of course, be with you at the School.
With kind regards,
Cordially,
Kyle
1933
YALE UNIVERSITY
409 PROSPECT STREET
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
APRIL 5, 1933
Professor Nelson Glueck
American School of Oriental Research
Jerusalem, Palestine
Dear Dr. Glueck:
Last spring a set of mosaics was forwarded to Yale University from Jerash. They were covered by insurance against breakage, and when they arrived badly broken we attempted to collect from the insurance company, namely Lloyd’s. Since the appraiser of the company admitted that it would cost $500 to restore the mosaics we endeavored to collect the full face value of the policy, which was 100 pounds. The insurance company refuses to pay more than 30 pounds, and though we have brought influence to bear in London we have been advised that no better settlement can be arrived at. Apparently the fault lies in the nature of the policy, and our friends in London indicate that if we expect to collect the face value of an insurance policy on antiquities shipped from the Orient, the policy must include the statement “to pay a first loss to any specific sum for the damage to the property.” This clause our policy apparently did not contain.
I am bringing this to your attention in order that, if further shipments are made either for us or for other schools cooperating with the American School, you may be in a position to protect the senders and avoid their having experience similar to that which the Jerash mosaics produced.
I was happy to receive from Professor Montgomery a copy of your latest letter from Palestine, dated March 20th, and to hear that you have now completed your staff for the excavations and will take Mr. Crowfoot into consultation concerning work connected with the churches. We are all greatly pleased with the aggressive way in which you have undertaken the work at Jerash, and assure you of our full cooperation.
With kindest greetings,
Cordially yours,
Carl Kraeling
—
YALE UNIVERSITY
409 PROSPECT STREET
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
July 18, 1933
Professor Nelson Glueck
American School of Oriental Research
Jerusalem, Palestine
Dear Dr. Glueck:
Many thanks for your recent letter from Jerusalem telling about the work accomplished during the last season at Jerash. We are all extremely pleased with the way in which you handled the Jerash matter. At the last meeting of the Archaeological Committee of Yale University, upon motion by Professor Rostovtzeff it was in this connection
Voted: That the secretary communicate to Dr. Glueck the thanks of the Archaeological Committee of Yale University for the valuable services he has rendered in the field to the joint excavations of Yale University and the American School at Jerash during the season of 1932-33.
I am glad to be able to bring this vote to your attention as an expression of our appreciation.
It has occurred to me that it might be possible for me to see you at New York upon your arrival from Palestine and before you return to Cincinnati, and to get from you your personal reactions to the whole Jerash situation as well as some statement about the work that still needs to be done. This is always better done by word of mouth than by letter. Now of course I do not wish to conflict with any plans you may have for entraining from New York for the West. But in case you might find it possible to send me somewhere in New York for an hour or so. I should be glad to be informed of the time of your arrival and have you arrange a rendez-vous.
With kindest greetings and many thanks
Cordially yours
Carl H. Kraeling
—
YALE UNIVERSITY
409 PROSPECT STREET
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
November 4, 1933
Professor Nelson Glueck
American School of Oriental Research
Jerusalem, Palestine
Dear Dr. Glueck:
In looking over my archaeological correspondence of last spring, I happened to notice a statement from Stinespring to the effect that you were to bring with you to America a set of photographs from the recent excavations at Jerash. There was also in one of your letter, I believe, some reference to a report on the work of the last season at Jerash. I suppose that in the haste of our meeting at New York you found it impossible to bring these matters further to my attention, but if you should have in your possession such a set of photographs and some written report which I could present to the Archaeological Committee here it would be of great help to me in making clear to them that progress has actually been made in the preparation of the proposed Jerash volume during the past year.
I learned from Professor Montgomery that you will in all probability return to Palestine this spring to complete your survey, and I hope that you will be good enough to let me know the approximate time of your departure so that if there be any special communications which we here should wish to make to Fisher, Albright or Stinespring we may have the opportunity to convey them to you for transmission by word of mouth or by special letter.
I am still trying to make up a budget of expenses for my projected year in Jerusalem, and wish in this connection to bother you with the following questions:
- Do people living at the School pay their board in Palestine pounds or in dollars, and if so, what is the rate charged for adults and for children?
- Have you any idea how much one would have to pay to obtain the services of a young girl who might possibly take care of children during the day time?
- About how much should one allow for the usual field trips of the School by way of calculating additional expenses?
- Do you think it would be at all desirable or feasible to take a not too old Ford along with the intention of scrapping it at the time of departure?
These are some of the questions that are running through my mind, and I hope you will not think me unduly importunate if I bother you with them now.
With kindest greetings and many thanks for any information you may be able to give me, I am
Cordially yours,
Carl H. Kraeling
1936
COMMISSION ON JEWISH EDUCATION
December 9, 1936
Dear Colleague:
We have received a communication from Prof. Nelson Glueck who, as you know, is now in Palestine as head of the American School of Oriental Research. In it he informs us that during his previous archaeological explorations he had occasion to examine carefully all the possible sites in Sinai which might be identified with Kadesh-Barnea. He says: “At only one of these places was there found an ancient settlement, consisting of a small Judean fortress, which could be dated by pottery finds to approximately the tenth century B.C.E. After mature consideration, I have come to the conclusion that the particular site of ‘Ain Qadeis’, where this fortress is located, is to be identified with Kadesh-Barnea – a conclusion which has been concurred in by a number of eminent scholars. I have detailed the reasons for this conclusion in my book ‘Explorations in Eastern Palestine, II’ which has appeared as Vol. XV of the Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research.
The site is easily accessible from Beersheba in Palestine, and “a direct road leads through the Negeb to the town of Qoseimeh, and from there to the storng spring of Ain Qudeirat which waters a rich little valley. In the middle of this valley stands the ancient Judean fortress, which, we believe, was built on the earlier camping site of the Israelites during their sojourn in Sinai. It is a small site, which can easily and inexpensively be excavated, and will, I believe, yield a great deal of information for the early history of Israel. There has as yet been no excavation conducted in Palestine under the auspices of American Jewry. Indeed, the land of the Bible so far as its archaeological background is concerned has been strangely neglected by the people of the Book.”
Spurred by this letter, the members of the Commission discussed the matter thoroughly at their last meeting and decided unanimously that it would be a fine thing if the children in our religious schools were to be told of Dr. Glueck’s suggestion and were given the opportunity of contributing to the excavation of one of the most important Biblical sites in the Holy Land. We have reason to believe that your interest in Jewish education as well as the romance of the undertaking will lead you to cooperate with us in this effort. We wish to raise, through our schools, the sum of $3,000.00 for this purpose during the current year. If each school would contribute $0.10 per child (for this year) out of the usual collections made in each school, the complete sum could be realized. The purpose is to make this an enterprise of the children in all our religious schools.
We are enclosing a little pamphlet entitled, “Let’s Dig For Buried Treasure,” a story for the children by Dr. Emanuel Gamoran. We are prepared to send you as many copies of these as you need for the pupils in your school. This will help you to obtain the contributions of the children, but, what is even more important, to interest them in the project. We shall bring to you and to the children, from time to time, news from the scenes of the excavations. Please the enclosed card, indicated how much we may expect from your school and how many pamphlets we should send you. If you wish, we can also supply you with a little envelope in which each child may enclose his contribution.
Dr. Glueck must receive permission from the Egyptian government to excavate the site. This, of course, will depend on our ability to raise the three thousand dollars. Under the circumstances, we should appreciate word from you as to whether you will participate in this undertaking and how much we may expect from your School. You would not have to send the entire check at once, but we should like the funds to be in our hands not later than March 1st. We trust we can count on your cooperation in this matter.
Sincerely yours,
David Philipson
Chairman
P.S. I know that your school is small. I hope that the school will contribute at least five dollars or as much as possible.
1939
February 17, 1939
Mr. A. S. Kirkbride
District Commissioner
Nazareth
My dear Kirkbride,
I was delighted to read in the paper yesterday morning that you have been appointed to be the next British Resident in Transjordan. I am sure that you are happy to return to Transjordan, and all of us feel that no better man could possibly have been selected for the position.
You will be pleased to learn, I am sure, that I have just received a cable from America, informing me that there will be funds to continue the excavations at Tell el-Kheleifeh by Aqabah. I propose to commence work about the middle of next month if all goes well. I trust that you will be able to come down to Aqabah and pay us a visit. Now that you are back in Transjordan, I hope that even despite the many demands of your new position, you will again have time to pursue your archaeological interests.
The Jerash volume has just been issued. We have not yet received a copy of it at the American School, but for all I know, you may have received on before we did. If you haven’t, or do not receive one in the near future, please let me know and I shall see to it that a copy is sent to you. I am almost certain that one has been or is being sent to you directly from New Haven.
With heartiest congratulations to you and Mrs. Kirkbride, and looking forward to seeing you again in Transjordan.
I am,
Sincerely yours,
Nelson Glueck
— 1940s —
1940
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
October 18, 1940
Professor Nelson Glueck
162 Glenmary Avenue
Cincinnati, Ohio
Dear Professor Glueck:
Many thanks for you r kind letter of September 20, which has been forwarded to me here – I am on exchange with Professor A. P. McKinlay for the fall semester.
Your letter was doubly impressive because it happened to arrive simultaneously with the last (No. 7) of your Newsletters. This letter was really moving. Not merely did it re-emphasize the difficulties under which you labored in Jerusalem but it brought home to me the fact that your letters have come to be a very real part of my reading on the Near East. You succeeded remarkably in giving a personal touch to all of your scientific work and in making all of us outsiders feel we had a share in it.
By this time it will almost certainly be impossible to do anything further about the papyri in Palestine or about the photograph of the wax tablet which, so far as I know, has not arrived. What with the war practically breaking on the shores of Syria, it would seem now that there is nothing any of us can do but wait.
Many thanks and cordial regards.
Faithfully yours,
Casper J. Kraemer, Jr.
P.S. The note of Oct. 14 with Mayer’s letter has just reached me. Many stands for all you have done.
1943
THE PITTSBURGH-XENIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Aug. 12, 1943
Dear Glueck,
Welcome to U.S.A.! Alrbgith just wrote that you were in this board again.
I know you must be very busy just now and he said nothing of your plane. But here are two items I wish it put before you.
- I am specializing in pottery techniques. Therefore please don’t throw all your discarded sherds away but let me have a lot of your discards. When war is over, I will gladly pay all expense of shipment. You could sent them to Albright and I can get them there. I think Prof. Thonley the ceramic expert with whom I am [?] can tell a lot of new things about them, of our article in T.B.M. III
- I am also working on copper metaling them with the aid of several metalling cots. We have some trouble interpreting Ezion-geber data.
- The one analyses in “Over Jordan” did not help a great deal on this problem. Were sulphide ores used and if so, what kinds of sulphide ores and was much of the [?] of [?] sulphide ores?
- What percentage of the town was used for cooper working and what for [?]? Those [?] look as if they would give too high and oxygen content to copper and make it unworkable for either casting or hammering. Were there
Other rooms with crucibles but no forced draft where the copper could be deoxidized.
- Do you know the composition of the crucibles [?] there any graphite in them of only [?] send;
- Did you get any molds? What kinds?
Now if you are too busy to write just forget these questions. Be sure Mrs. [?] I look forward to your newsletters. There are excellent.
Best wishes to you and your family.
Your old friend
[?]
P.S. I have shown Albright some early drafts of a booklet on Cooper [?] in Ancient Pal, which I am trying to work, up as a foundation for future research. This shows my practical interest in [?].
1945
YALE UNIVERSITY
409 PROSPECT STREET
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
November 17, 1945
Dear Nelson.
Perhaps you have heard from Millar Burrows or Frank Brown Effendi that I expect to go east in the coming year. I am going to Damascus to do the final checking and recording on the Dura Synagogue, including the graffiti and dipinti, so that the monument can at least be published in its entirety. Sine there is no telling how long Frank will stay on the job in Syria, I am going or planning to go in June. Nick Toll our Kondakov technician and recorder is to go this December. Frank has cleared the way for our passports and visas through the State Department and the Syrian consulate.
At the present writing Palestine looks like the place to keep away from in the coming year, but you never can tell how things will turn out, and just to be fully informed, I thought you would not mind my asking what the chances are for my wife and myself to get room and board at the School in Jerusalem for a couple of months in the fall of next year. I know that is not the kind of question to which a positive answer can be given at this remove in time and place, but it may be that your resident population at the School is such that you can give a negative answer, which would be important to have as a guide-post in planning.
The reason for my inquiry is this. I shall probably get through the job of checking and recording by the end of September at Damascus, and I don’t know what living quarters Frank may develop there for continued residence. It will be important for me after the checking is done, to settle down where there are more extensive library facilities and where I can get together with Jewish scholars, while plugging out the final draft of the manuscript on the interpretation of the pictures and the building. Louis Ginzberg in New York has been my mainstay to date, and I can come back here and work at New York. However, since I shall be on leave at least till January of 1947, it would be ideal if I could settle down at Jerusalem and plug out the text where it is still possible to go back and verify anything on which I may have slipped, and where I can chew the fat with Mayer and Sukenik inter alios.
Frank left early this month and has not been heard from since his departure. I had a letter from Brad Welles in Cairo a couple days ago. He has been wondering when you will be coming back and asked that his greetings be transmitted to you. He’d be happy to see you again at Cairo on the way out, of course. You know that without my telling you. We see a good deal here of Eleanor Welles and the Welles children. Brad has been getting me some pictures of paprylogical sites in Egypt. Whether Frank Brown actually got the five Chryslers he was dickering for in New York to take along for the Syrian government, I never did hear.
We are looking forward to your book on the Jordan Valley explorations. It ought to be a bus-dinger. Since the Dumbarton Oaks lectures last spring, I have had to drop the Dura Synagogue for a while, because I am slated to give a set of Lowell Lectures at Boston in the spring on the early Church in the light of the archaeological evidence. Of course it all ties in with the study of ancient art and houses of worship, and puts me that much ahead, but it keeps my nose to the grindstone.
I suppose that you will be in the New York area for the Christmas meetings of the Schools, and hope that I shall have a chance to say hello there. With the best of greetings,
1946
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DUMBARTON OAKS RESEARCH LIBRARY AND COLLECTION
GEORGETOWN, WASHINGTON D.C.
October 28, 1946
Dear Nelson.
It was good to have your letter of October 3, to hear all the news form the School and to know that the Station Wagon did finally arrive, largely in tact. My mind turns back frequently, I confess, to the pleasant weeks it was my privilege to spend with you this summer, and to all the pleasures, intellectual, social, gastronomic and peregrinetic that it brought with it. Must do again some time. Just the other day there arrived also a letter from my new friend the Archimandrite at the Greek Patriarchate, Father Artemios, with whom I hope to go down to Mar Saba for a stay some time in the future (inshallah). He was kind to take time to write. As we have here at the Oaks a lot of people who can speak modern Greek I am harnessing one of them to help me set up an answer in Greek. My training in modern languages, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic is much neglected. They don’t understand here how come I can’t speak Russian. Guess I’ll have to buckle down.
Dumbarton Oaks is proving a perfectly marvelous place to work. I have never developed so much speed in getting out manuscript, there being every facility available for assistance in that direction. Already the opus on the Dura Synagogue is mounting in pages, and I see no reason why it should not get done before next summer in spite of all the complications. The complications arise from the visitors who appear upon the scene, and who have to be given the courtesies of the place. We had the Syrian minister in the other day. Then came Prof. Aubert of the College de France. Tomorrow we are expecting a lot of people from the State Department. Sir Kenneth Clark former director of the National Gallery in London was in. So it goes. But following your own example of meeting people without being thrown off your stride, I get along famously and don’t mind it a bit.
By the time this reaches you I hope that Shuchrie will have received his razor blades (which Mrs. Walton enclosed in a bunch of catalogues addressed to you), and that you yourself will have received the huge crate with the stove that I got down to the boat for you. That was an interesting episode and one the full story of which you ought to hear some time. Perhaps Mrs. Walton gave you some of the details. Since they could not get a truck to deliver the 640 pound crate at the dock (because of the trucking strike), they rented a truck and I drove the thing down. I wore the large button of my fishing license (!) on an old hat to show that I was a good union man myself. Arrived near the dock I found a line of trucks four blocks long waiting to get on the pier and fell into line with my dinky outfit, sandwiched in between tremendous six and eight-wheelers loaded with all manner of stuff for the ship. As the line did not move I finally got out and buzzed some of my fellow truck-drivers up ahead, discovering that I had to go to the dock, get my papers cleared and get a number that told me when my turn was to come. There was a mob of fellow truckers lounging about the dock, but I got my papers cleared and got a number, which was no. 143. I asked what number had recently been admitted to the dock and was told that truck 55 ha just moved in. That brought up the question as to when I might hope to get in and yielded the answer that it might be about 7 or 8 hours hence. Since it westhen 2 PM I had visions of spending the night in the borrowed truck either in Brooklyn or on the devious routes that trucks have to go to get to New Haven (parkways being Verboten). Well I finally recovered sufficiently from that shock to ask whether the procedure could not be shortcircuited, and was told that if I could mobilize a hand-truck and get some of the waiting truck drivers to help me, and could suborn one of the official checkers on the pier, I might be able to get in out of turn. So I sat down for 15 minutes and smoked a pipe nonchalantly with my fellow truckers, all in equal condemnation, hearing in the meantime the best line of marine profanity and the dirties stories I have heard in quite a while. My education has been sadly neglected.
Well, after having got the fell of the situation and shared in the laughs, I posed my problem to a group of four husky drivers and told them it would be worth a dollar a piece to the four of them if they would get a handcart from the dock, help me unload the 640 pounds crate from the truck, and would slip a buck to one of the checks to receive it when we brought it in. They agreed, and soon everything was working smoothly. The checker was suborned, the dolly produced and the five of us dragged the “dolly” (terminus technicus for push cart of the dock variety) up to my waiting truck. With complete ease and entire mastery of the science, they let crate down from the truck onto the dolly and wheeled it onto the dock, putting it in a place where the checker would be bound to fall over it when he had completed the particular job he was about. Meanwhile we waited about and more stories were told. When the checker appeared he asked what this ***** (you fill it in) crate was doing here. I stepped into the breach in the guise of a rank amateur, got myself damned to hell as per arrangements but had the papers ready to push at the checker, got them signed and the job was done. Cost $5.00 US currency, with everybody happy. The last I saw of the foru stalwart worthies they were on their way to the nearest joint for a couple of beers. They even invited me to join them. Elsie and I are thinking of setting up the American School Forwarding and Trucking Corporation here, in case of future emergencies. Admission to membership is to be determined by a vocabulary test, but most of the words to be included in the examinationare not to be found in any dictionary. You can see we shall be an elite corporation. I am thinking of beginning my studies in modern Greek, Arabic, Hebrew and Russi and in the same general area. It may be more useful than the more polite grammar of the schools.
Well, I don’t know why I have told you all this. I thought it might produce a laugh for the assembled community in case you cared to tell it. My very best greetings to yourself, Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey, Messers Pope and Runner, Col and Mrs. Guy and all the other friends at the School. Have a good winter and enjoy that stove. I hope it got there in good shape. I did not think much of the job of crating the Gas Company did on it, but when I saw it, it was too late to do anything about that.
So long till some other time.
Yours,
Carl Kraeling
1948
YALE UNIVERSITY
July 22, 1948
Dear Nelson:
I have now had further correspondence with Messrs. Reynolds and Kunhardt about the nomination for Treasurer of the ASOR. Our committee has agreed on the following, namely, that we recommend to the Trustees at their next annual meeting the appointment of Mr. John W. Warrington to succeed Mr. Kunhardt as Treasurer and that I am instructed to ascertain through you whether Mr. Warrington would permit us to use his name in this connection. I solicit your good offices in furthering the welfare of the Schools, asking only that you let me know whenever convenient what you have learned from Mr. Warrington in the matter. We know that it is a good deal to ask of a persona of so many previous commitments as Mr. Warrington, but his evident interest in the work of the Schools and the knowledge that his acceptance of this responsibility would add greatly to the effectiveness of their administration bids us importune him.
With kindest greetings,
Sincerely yours,
Carl
—
NELSON GLUECK
162 Glenmary Avenue
Cincinnati 20, Ohio
August 2, 1948
Mr. Benjamin Katz,
The Gruen Watch Co.,
Time Hill,
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Dear Ben,
Enclosed are two copies of a memorandum of my interview with Secretary of State Marshall on July 27, 1948.
I am grateful to you for helping arrange the interview. I would like to suggest that you see to it that Senator Taft gets a copy of this memorandum, which I am sure he will consider confidential.
Would you please convey my thanks to Senator Taft and to Miss Reeves, in connection with getting this interview scheduled.
With regard to your suggestion that I might pay a brief visit to the Near East and Palestine again in the near future, for the sake of surveying on the spot the situation as it has developed since I left Palestine last spring, may I say that after considering the matter I think it important enough to be willing to go under proper circumstances. I should want to go only as an official or semi-official observer for our government, in however quiet and unostentatious manner that might be arranged. I believe that on the basis of my long experience in the Near East, and with the objectivity that I hope I have, the impressions I would gain from such a trip might be of value to our government.
—
NELSON GLUECK
162 Glenmary Avenue
Cincinnati 20, Ohio
August 5, 1948
Dear Carl,
I have just talked to John W. Warrington and he has agreed to accept the position as Treasurer to succeed Mr. Kunhardt, if it is offered to him. I am very pleased, as I know your committee will be, that he has agreed to accept this position. I think very highly of John Warrington, as I did of his father. I am sure he will make a most excellent Treasurer.
With cordial greetings, I am
Sincerely,
Nelson Glueck