Connected Sites
See Oi.Uchicago.Edu
Connected Sites: 3
Established in 1919 by James Henry Breasted (the person who coined the term "Fertile Crescent") building on the collection of the Haskell Oriental Musuem - a Christian institute aimed at increasing knowledge of the Holy Lands . It was originally significantly funded by money from John D Rockefeller - who Breasted knew personally and who had supported the University of Chicago since 1891. It occupied its current building in 1931 and is still a prestigious centre of research into Middle Eastern archaeology but, between the wars and funded by Rockefeller dollars, it embarked on a series of massively funded and extravagently operated, excavations and studies around the Middle East and acquired from them, by means typical of the agreements of the day, a large number of artefacts. These are on show in its museum. Following Breasted's death in 1935 Rockefeller withdrew funding. The Institute is known generally as the "OI"