Stephen Langdon Babylonian Section records

Stephen Langdon, noted Sumerian scholar, was an American-born British citizen who briefly curated the Near East section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

The son of George Knowles Langdon and Abigail Hassinger Langdon was born in Monroe County, Michigan near Ann Arbor. His primary and high school education was in the local schools. Langdon was Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Michigan where he received his A.B. in 1898 and A.M. the following year. Langdon briefly served as School Commissioner for the State of Michigan before continuing his education in New York City. He attended Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University attaining a Bachelor of Divinity in 1903 and a Ph.D. in Philosophy in 1904.

Langdon became a Fellow of Columbia University in France from 1904 to 1906. With the additional support of John D. Rockefeller, Langdon studied at the Sorbonne, the College de France and in Leipzig to tutor under the outstanding Semitic scholars of Europe. While in Paris, he was ordained a deacon in the American Church of England.

Langdon's career at Oxford began in 1908 as the Shillito reader in Assyriology. In 1911, he arrived at the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania where he spent the months of September and October cataloguing and collating the tablet collection.

Langdon was given leave to become the Curator of the Babylonian section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum with the stipulation that he be permitted to teach one course of lectures each year at Jesus College, Oxford. His formal appointment was approved by the board of directors on October 20, 1916. Langdon's tenure included frequent trips back to Oxford and many delays and unsureness about his military status during World War I.

Langdon formally resigned from the Museum in April 1918 when his military service prevented his return. He was appointed Professor of Assyriology at Oxford upon the retirement of Archibald Sayce in 1919.

Stephen Langdon, noted Sumerian scholar, was an American-born British citizen who briefly curated the Near East section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

The Stephen Langdon Near East section records consist of three folders of material. The correspondence series reflects letters mainly to George B. Gordon and less so others associated with the museum.

One folder of curatorial business contains two reports of the Babylonian section committee from 1911.

Publication Information: University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives, 12/21/2016

Finding Aid Author:

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Personal Name(s)

• Clay, A.T. (Andrew Tobias), 1866-1925
• Farabee, William Curtis, b. 1865-d. 1925
• Gordon, G. B. (George Byron), 1870-1927
• Harrison, Charles C., 1844-1929
• Langdon, Stephen, 1876-1937
• Legrain, Leon, 1878-1962
• McHugh, Jane
• Montgomery, James A., 1866-1949

Subject(s)

• Antiquities
• Archaeology--History