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THE ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON
COLLECTION (Manuscripts and Archives)
In 1909, Ellsworth
Huntington (1876-1947), Yale instructor in geography, led The Yale Expedition
to Palestine. It was his mission to determine "step by step the process
by which geologic structure, topographic form, and the present and past
nature of the climate have shaped man's progress, moulded his history;
and thus played an incalculable part in the development of a system of
thought which could scarcely have arisen under any other physical circumstances."
He explained the results of his research in Palestine and Its Transformation
published by Houghton Mifflin in 1911 and in a series of articles which
appeared in Harper's Magazine in 1910, titled A Canvas Boat on the
Dead Sea, Beyond the Dead Sea, The Fallen Queen of the Desert,and
Across the Ghor to the Land of Og.Huntington's expeditions to
remote areas of Asia and the Americas, trips throughout the world, and
other research interests led to the publication of 28 books, parts of
29 others, and over 240 articles. After his death, Time magazine stated
that Huntington, "an authority on practically everything concerning the
human species ... may be best remembered for his theories about the influence
of climate on civilization." Supplementing his published works, the Ellsworth
Huntington Papers in Manuscripts
and Archives provide extensive primary research material in a variety
of forms including his field notes, photographic negative files, prints,
and logs, lectures, teaching materials, maps, and related correspondence.
The main focus of
Huntington's expedition was the Dead Sea. As he reported in the Yale
Alumni Weekly (October 15, 1909): "Operations on the Dead Sea began
with soundings to ascertain whether old strands occur under water. The
chief work, however consisted in a study of the numerous old strands which
lie above the present water level. These furnish abundant evidence that
the Sea stood higher than now some two or three thousand years ago. This
fact confirms the theory that in Biblical times the climatic conditions
of Palestine must have been more favorable and the fertility of the land
much greater than is now the case."
After studying the
Dead Sea for a month, Huntington spent three months traveling through
the Holy Land and its immediate environment, including the Philistine
coastal plain, Edom, Moab, Gilead, Bashan, Damascus, Palmyra, the Syrian
Desert, the Lebanon Mountains, and the coast of Syria. He then returned
through Samaria and Galilee to Jerusalem "in order to see Judea in its
dry summer garb of dead vegetation as well as in its spring dress of green."
Postcards collected
by Ellsworth Huntington during the expedition. A sampling of the hundreds
of photographs taken by Huntington on the expedition. All are catalogued
by number and described in his field notebooks. (Note: Huntington's usage
and spelling of place names is followed in the labels.)
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