Banks was an antiquities enthusiast and entrepreneurial roving archaeologist in the closing days of the Ottoman Empire, who has been held up as an original for the fictional composite figure of Indiana Jones. Starting from his position as American consul in Baghdad in 1898, Banks bought hundreds of cuneiform tablets on the market in the closing days of the Ottoman Empire and re-sold them in small batches to museums, libraries, universities, and theological seminaries, several in Utah and the American Southwest and across the United States. These tablets had been dug up by locals at sites like Telloh and the many other tells of central Mesopotamia. Banks purchased many more cuneiform inscriptions from a dealer in Istanbul. The Ottoman government did not regulate the trade in such minor antiquities.
Though he had been funded for an expedition to the site of Ur, Banks was foiled by the Ottoman administration, who would not permit digs at Babylon or Tell Ibrahim, or other prominent sites. In 1903 it was decided that his excavations were to be at Bismya, the site of ancient Adab, in Iraq. His 1912 publication about his excavations at Bismya/Bismaya (Adab), the Sumerian city now in Iraq, contains some lively accounts of his struggles with the Ottoman bureaucracy (see link below).
In 1909 Banks became a professor of Oriental languages and archaeology at the University of Toledo. After World War I, Banks travelled and lectured extensively, scattering his cuneiform tablets among purchasers wherever he went. Tablets Banks sold to Charles W. Ames are now in the Science Museum at the University of Minnesota and many other private and public sites in the U.S.
Banks is credited with the sale of an ancient cuneiform tablet of great mathematical importance to the New York publisher George Arthur Plimpton. The artifact, reportedly purchased for $10, was housed in Plimpton's private collection before being donated to Columbia University upon Plimpton's death. The artifact, now famously known as Plimpton 322 (denoting that it is the 322nd item in the catalog), has provided great insight into the Babylonian era math. Although debate over how to interpret this artifact continues, the artifact is usually taken to display knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem, long before the birth of Pythagoras himself.
Edgar Banks also started two movie companies, and climbed Mount Ararat in a search for Noah's Ark. Cecil B. DeMille apparently invited Banks to become a consultant on bible epics in 1921.
Banks was an active lecturer and author. It was during such a lecturing trip in 1921 that he discovered Eustis, Florida, and decided to retire there.
He died in Eustis in 1945 at the age of 79.
The Eustis Historical Museum features one room with exhibits about Banks.
Allen Barnes was born June 12, 1926 in Newport, Nebraska. He attended Hastings College in Nebraska, graduating in 1948, went on to the University of Idaho, and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Madrid in 1952. After serving for several years at Chadron State College in Nebraska, Barnes accepted a position as the Executive Director of the Bi-national Institute in Tehran, Iran. He followed this position with work in a similar position in Concepcion, Chile. In 1961, he and his family moved to Brookings, South Dakota, where he was head of the Department of Foreign Languages at South Dakota State University [SDSU]. In 1967, he became Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, a position he held until 1985. He was preceded as Dean by Frank G. Schultz, and was followed by Rex Myers.
While Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, Barnes worked tirelessly to promote the college on the campus. He realized early on the problems inherent in being a non-practical arts and non-agricultural college in the university. He also worked hard to improve the facilities delegated to the various departments of the college. His strong push for a performing arts center is only one example of this. He also worked hard to advertise the credits of his faculty, both through his biannual reports on the college and through his "state of the college" speeches delivered annually.
Another long time crusade of Barnes was to improve the state of international relations/education on campus. He long promoted the study of foreign languages, and he felt strongly that foreign study was an essential part of education. In addition, he took an active role in helping foreign students on campus acclimatize and realize the full potential and extent of their education at SDSU and in Brookings. In 1985, Barnes left his position as Dean and returned to the Department of Foreign Language, where he taught until his full retirement in 1989. This collection was donated to the archives upon his retirement.
Madge A. Kerlin was born February 9, 1901 in Iowa to Marvin P. and Anna R (Kisling) Kerlin. They moved to Chamberlain, South Dakota in 1903 and to Murdo, South Dakota in 1906. She attended South Dakota State College from 1920 to 1921.
Sometime between 1921 and 1923, Madge married World War I veteran Lloyd S. Bastian, who was born in Redfield, South Dakota on December 8, 1898. The 1930 United States Census shows Lloyd and Madge living in Beverly Hills, California with a one-year old son. Lloyd was listed as a dentist and Madge a homemaker. The 1940 US Census shows them living in Oxnard, California, with their two sons. Madge Kerlin Bastian died in Ventura, California on March 6, 1989. Lloyd Bastian died on September 20, 1989.
Bates, Ward B. (Ward Bradley) 1895-1946
Lt. Bates was born in Yankton, South Dakota February 17, 1895. His father was U.S. Deputy Surveyor, Charles Homer Bates, who surveyed the border between South Dakota and North Dakota from 1891-1892.Ward Bates attended the State University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. He was enlisted in the Army National Guard from December 1, 1912 to December 1. 1915, when he was honorably discharged. Prior the United States entrance in the First World War, Bates re-enlisted and eventually sought out an officer’s commission, which he was granted on August 15, 1917. Bates served as part of the large U.S. force descending on Europe known as the American Expeditionary Force. (A.E.F.) Bates served as a second lieutenant of field artillery and traveled the United States with other newly commissioned officers. Bates was honorably discharged August 1, 1919. After the war, Bates moved to California and met his wife Eunice Morey Wolcott. They had one child, Nancy Farley. Bates died October 21, 1946.