The Museum that Queen's Gave Away: Rediscovering the Queen’s Museum of Near Eastern Archaeology

Abstract

On October 26th, 1954, a Museum of Near Eastern Archaeology opened in the Old Arts Building (modern Theological Hall), the home of Queen’s Theological College. The Museum had been conceived of and executed by Dr. A. Douglas Tushingham, a Biblical Archaeologist and scholar of Old Testament criticism, who came to work at the College as a new professor. The Museum only remained open for a little over one year until Dr. Tushingham, who had left Queen’s to accept a job with the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), requested the items. Upon his request, Queen’s agreed to dismantle the museum and transfer the materials to the ROM, where the items remain today. This undergraduate research paper (created by J. Elyse Richardson under the direction of M. Barbara Reeves) reveals how the Museum came into being, what its function at Queen’s was, and the context surrounding the sudden and tragic loss of such a culturally and educationally significant collection. The research collected has come from a variety of news sources, online publications, and archival material kindly provided by Queen’s University Archives and the Royal Ontario Museum’s Registration Department.