[Alumni-chat] More about the ancient city of Antioch in Syria and remains now in Baltimore MD USA!

Fri Nov 9 09:32:51 EST 2007

Nov. 9, 07

  Hi from Yazz (David) Allen '66 (YazzAllen at Yahoo.Com)!

  Thanks for the interesting reply re: the ancient city of Antioch in the middle east, and contact with archeologists there.

  The incredible permanent display of floor and wall mosaics at the Baltimore (MD USA) Museum of Art was gotten from the original (Syrian) city of Antioch and transported to the USA in the 1920's with the help of Baltimore And Ohio ("B&O") Railroad inheritance money.   John Work Garrett was an inheritor in the early 20's of the enormous 19th century railroad money fortune, and one of the biggest money people in Baltimore back then.

  The permanent Antioch (Syria) display of floor and wall mosaics placed in the then new Baltimore Museum Of Art had much to do with the competition during those times (early 1920's) between the traditional and "no-newcomers allowed" (re: benefactors) Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, then and now the oldest and most prestigeous museum in Baltimore MD USA.   The then newly created Baltimore Museum of Art was located on the edge of the Johns Hopkins University Homewood (then suburban) undergrad campus (not the downtown medical center campus), and needed displays of prestige to attract traffic.

  There was great controversy about the 'stealing' of the Antioch (Syria) city mosaics from ancient Antioch, and the Walters Museum in Baltimore MD USA refused to accept the Antioch (Syria) mosaic display for that and other reason (the display is enormous, and lack of room at the Walters Museum was also a big issue......the newer and more spacious Baltimore Museum Of Arts located the Antioch mosaic display at the center of the museum in a beautiful area next to floor to ceiling walls next to courtyard type formal gardens...the then newer Baltimore Museum of Art was far more spacious than the Walters Museum......all of this reflected sort of a battle between two groups of socialite museum supporters in the Baltimore MD USA of the 1920's).

  Anyway, the Antioch mosaics were incredible, and still are.   

  Five years ago a travelling exhibit titled ANCIENT ANTIOCH was mounted with the cooperation of the Wooster, Massachusetts Art Museum (which also has a lot of ancient Antioch city archeological items) and the Baltimore Museum Of Art.   The resulting display went to museums around the USA, and included production of a 20 minute film about ancient and modern Antioch city (located in Syria for thousands of years, then re-located by the British and placed in Turkey by the device of gerrymandering the borders around the city ....located where Syria and Turkey meet near the Mediterranean Sea....removing "Antioch city" from Syria and putting it in Turkey, probably for political control reason...Antioch was a big symbol of ancient Syrian power the British likely didn't like).

  A few words about why the founders of Antioch College named the school after the city in Syria.

  The real reason (almost never seen in "official" information given out by Antioch College) the school was named for ancient Antioch had to do with the enormous culture and openmindedness which characterized ancient Antioch in Syria.

  The city attracted great thinkers and doers from everywhere in its greatest days, and allowed anybody to say anything about anything.  It was openminded, and THAT was thought the source of its power and incredible culture.   Anybody with any ideas, regardless of background or controversy, was allowed to "speak up" in the ancient city of Antioch, Syria.

  The founders of Antioch College thought the ancient city was a good role model.  Narrowminded thinking and prohibitions in traditional east coast USA schools (especially Harvard U.) troubled the founders of Antioch College.  The founders wanted to do different and better things, and located the new school in the then wilderness of 1852 America so the new experiment in education would be permitted.

  THAT was why then famous and reverred Horace Mann was persuaded to become the first president of Antioch College, and to leave the comfort of his east coast USA life (he had been a two time USA Congressman from Massachusetts selected to take John Quincy Adams Congressional seat when Adams died in 1848, and owned cotton mills in Massachusetts....Mann was doing just fine socially and materially and didn't need the problems of living in the wilderness sure to be part of re-locating to Yellow Springs, Ohio!).

  Mann wanted to get in on a NEW kind of education based on open-minded thinking, people, and ways of doing things.

  The model for this new way was the ancient city of Antioch, which had a rich history of accomplishment based on open minded ways.

  The founders of Antioch College, Ohio, KNEW all this.

  THAT is why the ancient city of Antioch (Syria) was chosen as the "model" (and inspiration) for the new college in Ohio.   The choice had nothing to do with religion or commemoration of religious ideals or history.   It was all about a place in ancient city where open-minded, tolerant ways of governance worked and resulted in high culture found no-where else in the world the ancient city of Antioch dominated when it was important in ancient history.

  (Civil War) General Lew Wallace located his famous BEN HUR story and thrilling charriot race at the end of the story in the ancient city of Antioch, and the start of the book describes the importance of ancient Antioch city in Syria in detail....the culture of ancient Antioch was well known to educated people in the USA of the 19th century.

  Best,
  Yazz (David) Allen '66
  YazzAllen at Yahoo.Com

  ----
    Contact "Yazz" (David) Allen directly via email at YazzAllen at Yahoo.Com, mail to 644 Shrewsbury Commons Ave., #239, Shrewsbury PA USA 17361...phone (717) 235 - 1982!

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