Abstract
The American archaeologist Edgar James Banks (1866–1945) left behind a multi-faceted image as an academic, a public scholar, a film producer, and an antiquities dealer. Reading about Banks in the words of others and in his own gives the impression of someone who carefully crafted his image and sought to connect himself to high-profile actors and institutions to promote himself in the eyes of the public. Due to his dealings on the antiquities market, Banks was never fully welcomed into the fold of academic archaeologists, but he sought public recognition through selling cuneiform objects to some of the United States’ most prominent people and giving public lectures, the advertisements for which provide insight into how Banks wanted to be seen. In both of these endeavors, Banks reiterated professional appointments that were no longer active and sought out institutions that were recognizable and well-known. Banks later turned to the film industry, attempting to forge a connection with the glamor of Hollywood and its stars, where, as he did in his justification of importing antiquities, he claimed he was protecting the study of the Bible and of the ancient world from those who would rather see it disappear. Always self-promoting, Banks was a master manipulator of his image, leaving us today with a fractured image of the man and more investigation to do to better understand the depths of the man who is responsible for so many of the cuneiform tablets Americans interact with today.