Chicago’s Oriental Institute — A hidden gem celebrates 100th anniversary in a very public way

The University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute is a combination research center and museum renowned in the archeological world but little-known among the general public.

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A fragment of the oldest known manuscript of “A Thousand and One Nights,” is part of a new Islamic exhibit of artifacts excavated by the Oriental Institute.

A fragment of the oldest known paper manuscript of “A Thousand and One Nights,” is part of a new Islamic exhibit of artifacts excavated by the OI.

Michael Tropea

The largest collection of Middle Eastern antiquities in the United States? Don’t look for it at the Art Institute of Chicago, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts or New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, as might be expected.

The correct answer is the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, a combination research center and museum renowned in the archeological world but little-known among the general public. 

To mark its 100th anniversary this year, the Institute is taking big steps to shake off its obscurity and boost its profile, including hiring a public relations firm and placing advertisements on bus stops downtown and billboards along the Dan Ryan Expressway.

Oriental Institute

Oriental Institute 100th Anniversary Public Celebration

When: 1 to 5 p.m. Sept. 28

Where: University of Chicago, 1155 E. 58th

Tickets: Public celebration, free. Regular suggested admission, $10 adults and $5 for children younger than 12

Info: oi.uchicago.edu (general information); oi100.uchicago.edu (Centennial events)

In addition, it is hosting a series of special events, including a free public celebration from 1 to 5 p.m. Sept. 28 and an Indiana Jones Film Festival on Oct. 11-12. (The Institute is thought to be an inspiration for the movie, and its founder, James Henry Breasted, apparently serving at least partially as a model for the fictional, swashbuckling archaeologist played by Harrison Ford.) As it is every weekend, parking for many of these offerings will be available free in the nearby Lexington Lot.

“We often hear that the OI is a hidden gem,” said Christopher Woods, the institute’s director, “and since I’ve been in this position the last two years, it’s been one of my goals to change that and to leverage our centennial for greater visibility and to increase the OI’s profile in the city and on campus.”

The Institute has even altered its name, emphasizing a new acronym — OI — but not completely abandoning its traditional moniker. “When the OI was founded 100 years ago, the Middle East was referred to as the Orient,” Woods said. “That’s a geographic use of the term, but like the Occident, it’s fallen out of the vernacular.”

A quartzite statue of King Tutankhamun (1355-1346 B.C.) that that stands more than 16 feet tall and weighs about six tons is among the highlights of the collections featured at the Oriental Institute.

A quartzite statue of King Tutankhamun (1355-1346 B.C.) that that stands more than 16 feet tall and weighs about six tons is among the highlights of the collections featured at the Oriental Institute.

Michael Tropea

At the same time, the Institute spent about $3 million to completely overhaul its 16,000-square-foot galleries — a project that began about five years ago and was completed in early September. The work included new display cases and updated lighting, reconsidered displays and narratives and an addition of 500 objects shown for the first time.

The Institute also created a new section devoted to early Islamic antiquities. Included is its first-ever presentation of the earliest known fragment from “A Thousand and One Nights” (prior to A.D. 879), a celebrated collection of folk tales, and one of the oldest surviving Arabic paper manuscripts of any kind. 

“I think people today are much more interested in where this material came from,” said Jean M. Evans, chief curator and deputy director of the Oriental Institute Museum. “What we tried to do in the reinstallation is talk a lot about the field work that the OI conducted, not only from the viewpoint that it resulted in the collection that we have but also how it really created the field of ancient Middle Eastern archeology.”

Curators were careful during the reinstallation to respect the original, art-deco-inflected look of the institute’s 1931 building, which was designed by Mayers, Murray and Phillip, a continuation of a New York firm begun by famed architect Bertram Goodhue, who died in 1924.

OI archaeologists excavating Persepolis, Iraq in 1938.

OI archaeologists excavating Persepolis, Iraq in 1938.

Image courtesy of the Oriental Institute

“So, it was a balance,” Evans said. “We have everything that’s up to date in terms of museum design but we’re also acknowledging that we’re existing in this special 1931 space.”

What the Oriental Institute does not have to change is the quality of its collections, which are on par with such peer institutions as the Louvre in Paris and the British Museum in London. It owns about 350,000 objects, with about 5,000 on view at any one time.  

Instead of Greek and Roman antiquities, it puts the emphasis on the Middle East, showing objects from such ancient regions as Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the Levant. Many were excavated by institute archeologists during assignments dating back to the 1920s.

Highlights include a 7-foot-tall limestone bull’s head (486-424 B.C.) from the ancient city of Persepolis in present-day Iran; a quartzite statue of King Tutankhamun (1355-1346 B.C.) that that stands more than 16 feet tall and weighs about six tons and a colossal sculpture of a human-headed winged bull (721-705 B.C.) from Dur-Sharrukin in present-day Iraq.

Statues from the famous Tell Asmar Hoard, excavated by the OI in Iraq in the 1930s, are among the thousands of Middle Eastern artifacts on display at the Oriental Institute.

Statues from the famous Tell Asmar Hoard, excavated by the OI in Iraq in the 1930s, are among the thousands of Middle Eastern artifacts on display at the Oriental Institute.

Courtesy of the Oriental Institute

As part of its 100th anniversary, the Institute has recently restarted excavations in Nippur, an important religious center in what today is southern Iraq. By revisiting a site where it worked in 1948-90, it is paying tribute to its past and embracing the present through 21st-century scientific methods.

In another bid to attract new audiences and broaden its scope, the Institute has collaborated with two artists — Ann Hamilton and Michael Rakowitz — to create installations related to its collection. A third, Mohamad Hafez, has a small group of works on view and is serving as the institute’s first-ever interpreter-in-residence in 2019-20.

This 2,500-year-old Persian stone relief, once part of a monumental staircase of a royal palace at Persepolis, can be viewed at the OI.

This 2,500-year-old Persian stone relief, once part of a monumental staircase of a royal palace at Persepolis, can be viewed at the OI.

Michael Tropea

“We’re primarily a B.C. endeavor, but we want to have engagement with the contemporary Middle East as well,” Woods said.

Hafez is a practicing architect who resides in New Haven, Conn. and his architecturally tinged sculptures deal with feelings of nostalgia and homesickness for his homeland of Syria. “I’m hoping to get to a point where we can educate through art,” he said, “where we can learn about our roots and our heritage and what has been lost and why it’s so important to protect it.”

Kyle MacMillan is a local freelance writer.

Christopher Woods, director of Chicago’s Oriental Institute.

Christopher Woods, director of Chicago’s Oriental Institute.

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