EMPIRE, THE BRITISH MUSEUM, AND THE MAKING OF THE BIBLICAL SCHOLAR IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY : ... archival criticism

Since the modern period, the field of biblical studies has relied upon libraries, museums, and archives for its evidentiary and credentialing needs. Yet, absent in biblical scholarship is a thorough and critical examination of the instrumentality of the discipline’s master archives for elite power structures. Addressing this gap in biblical scholarship lies central to this book. Interrogated here is a premier repository or master archive of the discipline: the British Museum. Using an assemblage of critical theories from archival discourse to postcolonial studies, space theory to governmentality studies, the focal point of this book is at the intersections of the Museum’s rise to scientific prominence, the British Empire, and the conferring of scientific authority to modern biblical critics in the nineteenth century. Gregory L. Cuéllar initiates a season of historicization of the master archives of biblical studies and archival criticism. Acknowledgments 6 Contents 9 List of Figures 11 Chapter 1: Introduction: Historicizing the Master Archive 12 The Politics of the Master Archive 13 The Indexes of Subjectivity for the Archive 15 Critiquing the Master Archive as a Biblical Scholar 16 Trespassing on the Archive as Method 21 Bibliography 23 Chapter 2: Mastering Biblical History in the British Museum 25 Seeing Is Believing 26 Multivalent Inscriptions of Power 29 Scientific Exploration in the Public Domain 30 Historical Geography and the Bible 37 Layard’s Nimrud in the British Museum 39 The Antiquarian Gaze of the British Museum 47 The British Museum’s Machinery of Affiliations 54 Conclusion 57 Bibliography 58 Chapter 3: Books and Bodies in the British Museum Reading Room 63 Equating Skull Size with Superior Intellect 66 Panoptic Knowledge and Encyclopedic Learning 70 The Reading Room as a Panoptic Machine for Knowledge 74 Gendered Space in the Reading Room 78 Reproducing Empire in the Reading Room 84 The Printed Bible Collection and Clergy Readers 87 Conclusion 95 Bibliography 96 Chapter 4: The Biblical Critic as Collector 104 Biblical Critic as Collector of Manuscripts 107 Westcott’s Private Collecting Habits 112 Collecting Natural Objects with School Boys 116 Feasting Eyes at the British Museum 119 The Confines of Textual Collecting 124 Textual Collecting at a State Museum 126 Shaping the Textual Critic Through Museum Access 129 Conclusion 133 Bibliography 135 Chapter 5: Biblical Scholar as Imperial State Agent 139 Customizing Archaeological Science for the Department of Antiquities 145 Samuel Birch and the Department of Oriental Antiquities 153 Aligning Museum Artifacts with Biblical History 155 Touring Birch’s Department as an Orientalist 158 Racial Seeing of Museum Artifacts 165 Samuel Rolles Driver as Scholar Agent of the British Museum 169 Linking Museum Artifacts to Biblical History 173 Driver’s Racial Seeing of Museum Artifacts 174 Conclusion 178 Bibliography 179 Chapter 6: Epilogue: Contextualizing a Museum of the Bible 184 Bibliography 189 Index 191 Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Introduction: Historicizing the Master Archive (Gregory L. Cuéllar)....Pages 1-13 Mastering Biblical History in the British Museum (Gregory L. Cuéllar)....Pages 15-52 Books and Bodies in the British Museum Reading Room (Gregory L. Cuéllar)....Pages 53-93 The Biblical Critic as Collector (Gregory L. Cuéllar)....Pages 95-129 Biblical Scholar as Imperial State Agent (Gregory L. Cuéllar)....Pages 131-175 Epilogue: Contextualizing a Museum of the Bible (Gregory L. Cuéllar)....Pages 177-183 Back Matter ....Pages 185-188