John Henry Haynes: The work and life of John Henry Haynes: An American archeologist, photographer, and scholar.

John Henry Haynes was born in 1849 in Rowe, Massachusetts. He came from humble beginnings, having taken on a parental role to his younger siblings after their father’s death. At 21 years old he began his education at Drury Academy in North Adams, and two years later began his studies at Williams College, in Williamstown. He is noted to have actually “dragged his personal effects (in a sled) over the hills to reach his destination (Williams College).” It was here that he received his A.B. (today’s bachelors), A.M. (master’s) and an honorary Sc.D. (Doctor of Science) degrees. He also received an honorary Sc.D. from University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD from Robert College in Constantinople, where he worked as a tutor and English teacher. Haynes was married to Cassandria Artella Smith later in life, and she accompanied him on his last expedition to Nippur, Iraq in 1899. After his final expedition he returned to the United States “broken in body and spirit” and ended his life in an asylum in Massachusetts on June 29, 1910. He is buried in North Adams, at the Hillside Cemetery. His gravestone is a duplicate of the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (Nimrud, Iraq, 827 B.C.E.) in size and shape, and depicts a relief of the Temple of Bel. He is known as the father of archeological photography, and his photography and work as an archeologist is still prized today. He was known by most as an exceptional man, “remembered by the scientific world as one who did much to bring to light many important facts bearing on the remote ages of the world.” Haynes began his career as a photographer as assistant to William Stillman in Athens, which led to his going to photograph the American School of Classical Studies at Athens excavations from 1881 to 1883. He traveled through Anatolia, Syria, and Mesopotamia, documenting his journey, all while depending on pack animals to carry photographic plates, likely damaging or losing many in the process. Haynes is most well-known for his archeological expeditions to Nippur, Iraq, throughout the late 1800’s. On his final expedition he was directly in charge of the excavation and discovery of the Temple Library and Temple of Bel at Nippur in Babylonia, the first of which uncovered roughly 23,000 inscribed tablets. The discovery held so much esteem that Professor H. V. Hilprecht “claimed the honor of finding them”, and this honor stayed with him for quite some time. This robbing of credit was part of what led to Haynes being institutionalized upon his return to the states. Some of the original artifacts, as well as plaster molds of others, from Haynes’s expeditions can be found at the North Adams Public Library, including casts of inscriptions from Nippur, Terra Cotta figurines, and clay tablets, some dating back almost 5,000 years.