Abstract
Largely forgotten today, Baghdad-born Gabriel Oussani (1875-1934), who moved to the United States after he had lived in Mosul for several years, sparked great interest in the ancient material remains discovered in cities such as Assur, Babylon, Mosul around 1900. Today, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. holds a collection assembled and donated by Oussani, including seals, cuneiform tablets, and sculptural fragments. Several of these materials were acquired in Hillah on the ruins of ancient Babylon in the late 19th century. In the fall of 2017, the author and students from New York University, Washington, D.C., curated an exhibition, supported by the Iraqi Embassy, highlighting some of these materials and Oussani’s intellectual contributions to the increase of knowledge in Washington, D.C., and New York City, where he resettled in the early twentieth century. This paper highlights what we currently know about Oussani’s archives, correspondences, and legacies and why his story needs to be included in traditional narratives on West Asian materials in the United States. While traditional scholarship focused on legacy collections assembled by American collectors from cities by the Euphrates and Tigris, which was only possible through the collaboration with residents in Mesopotamia, this presentation looks closer into the context, networks, and entanglements of Baghdad residents resettling to the United States East Coast. Oussani was not an exception. Ultimately, this study is about including the legacies of West Asian scholars on ancient Mesopotamia and the presence of modern Iraq in Washington, D.C.
Presenters
Alexander NagelChair, Art History and Museum Professions, History of Art, State University of New York (SUNY), Fashion Institute of Technology, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Inclusivity, Museums, Mesopotamia, Iraq, Washington, DC
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