Egyptologist, born in Rockford, Illinois, USA. The first teacher of Egyptology in America, he was assistant in Egyptology (1895), assistant director of the Haskell Oriental Museum (1895), instructor in Egyptology (1896), and professor of Egyptology and Oriental history, all at the University of Chicago (190535), where he founded the Oriental Institute (1919). He is best known for his monumental Ancient Records of Egypt (19067), previously unpublished inscriptions with translations, and his translation and editing of the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus (1930), often referred to as the earliest known scientific document.
James Henry Breasted (August 27, 1865–December 2, 1935) was born in Rockford, Illinois and was an archaeologist and historian. He was educated at North Central College (then North-Western College) (1888), the Chicago Theological Seminary, Yale University (MA 1891) and the University of Berlin (PhD 1894).
He became an instructor at the University of Chicago in 1894 and was appointed Professor of Egyptology and Oriental History at in 1905 (the first such chair in the United States). In 1901, he was appointed director of the Haskell Oriental Museum, forerunner of the Oriental Institute, which had opened at the University of Chicago in 1896. Though the Haskell Oriental Museum contained works of art from both the Near East and the Far East, his principal interest was in Egypt; Rockefeller for the Oriental Institute of Chicago, under whose auspices Breasted headed the University’s first archaeological survey of Egypt. He died in 1935 from pneumonia, while returning from a trip to Egypt. His grave site is marked with a large marble obelisk, which was a gift from the Egyptian government.
Breasted is now perhaps most widely known for his coinage of the term "the Fertile Crescent" to describe the area from Egypt to Mesopotamia.
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