View from the Ferris wheel of the World's Columbia Exposition on the Midway

The Walker Museum, first home of Anthropology, with the Ferris wheel from the World's Columbia Exposition in backgraound. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

First home of the Oriental Institute, current home (since 1979) of the Anthropology Department. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

First home of the Oriental Institute, current home (since 1979) of the Anthropology Department. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

Interior of the Museum. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

The library. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

The library. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

The Library. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

First home of Anthropology. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

William Rainey Harper (1st University President) and John D. Rockefeller (patron)

William Rainey Harper (1st University President) and John D. Rockefeller (patron)

Egyptian Expedition of 1905-1907

A postcard view of the University of Chicago campus in 1907 with horse-drawn buggy and early motor car.

Haskell Hall in upper left-center.

First home of the Oriental Institute, current home of the Anthropology Department

Cornerstone laying ceremony for the Classics building, archaeologist Frank Bigelow Tarbell doing the honors. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

The new Classics building nearing completion, 1915. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

Library of the Classics building in 1915. Designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

James Henry Breasted, expedition to Ur 1919, with British Army soldiers

James Henry Breasted (in helmet) and his assistants on an early field expedition in 1919. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

Library of the Classics building, perhaps during the 1920s. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

The Archaeology truck in front of Walker Museum in 1926. Left to right: John Blackburne, Paul Martin, Edward Sapir, and Fay-Cooper Cole. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

Fay-Cooper Cole and Edward Sapir wishing bon voyage to Paul Martin and John Blackburne. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

Fay-Cooper Cole and Rufus Dawes at a Hopewell site on the Illinois River, 1926. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

Haskell Hall, original home of the Oriental Institute and current home (since 1979) of the Department of Anthropology

Breasted copying inscriptions of Thutmose III.

The original Chicago House was designed by James Henry Breasted and was home to the Oriental Institute's Epigraphic Survey. It was located on the west bank of the Nile near Medinet Habu. This was replaced with a new Chicago house in 1931.

Epigraphic Survey Team of Chicago House, Egypt

James Henry Breasted observes the raising of the sarcophagus of Harsiese

Illinois Mounds excavation of 1926, with UChicago graduate student Charlotte Gower Chapman. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

UChicago Anthropology excavation of Hopwell mounds site, Illinois, in 1926. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

James Henry Breasted in his office at the Oriental Institute

Oriental Institute tour of Megiddo, with James Henry Breasted and the Rockefeller family

Groundbreaking for the new Oriental Institute building. James Henry Breasted wields the shovel while University President Robert Maynard Hutchins observes. The Art Deco building was finished in 1930 and occupied in 1931.

Construction of the new Art Deco home of the Oriental Institute

The newly finished Oriental Institute building. (University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).

In 1931, the same year as the new Oriental Institute building was opened in Chicago, a new Chicago House was built on the east bank of the Nile at Luxor to replace Breasted's original complex. It was funded by John D. Rockefeller and has greatly expanded research facilities.