The Legacies
Architectural heritage | Literature | Fine arts | Sports | Intellectual
life
The Levantines were not just merchants out to make as much money ‘while the going was good’ but had their own clubs and societies such as their branch of the ‘Society of Dilettanti’, making important contribution to the then infant field of archaeology, headed by the British consul for Smyrna (more probably a consular official) John Cleland, who later became a scandalous writer with ‘Fanny Hill’. Information on these intellectual associations is hard to come by and one that is mysterious is ‘Institut Scientifique Européen’. This grouping was obviously worthy enough to be reformed later in Paris as told by this bronze medal.
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The British ambassador
to Constantinople (1877-80), Sir
Austen Henry Layard, 1817-94, was an archaeologist as well as a diplomat.
Between 1842 and 1851 he explored and excavated in Mesopotamia, especially
at Nineveh. In the period from 1852 to 1869 he held various government
positions, including those of under secretary of foreign affairs and chief
commissioner of works. His fine collections are in the Assyrian section
of the British Museum. Among his books are Discoveries in the Ruins of
Nineveh and Babylon (1853) and his autobiography (1903).
A Levantine buried in Boudjah cemetery is Henry Perigal Borell (1795-1851), who did his own archaeological studies, and his note book has been examined recently by a scholar, David Whitehead of Queen’s University in Belfast, illuminating his life and works, and the paper titled ‘From Smyrna to Stewartstown, Ireland: A numistatist’s epigraphic notebook’, is viewable here:
The British Consul for Smyrna of the time (1703-1716), was a William Sherard, who had a botanic garden for his studies in one of the outlying villages, Seydiköy, and later became an eminent botanist. The story of this lost garden is penned by the late researcher Evelyn L. Kalças, viewable here:
A Levantine buried in Boudjah cemetery is Henry Perigal Borell (1795-1851), who did his own archaeological studies, and his note book has been examined recently by a scholar, David Whitehead of Queen’s University in Belfast, illuminating his life and works, and the paper titled ‘From Smyrna to Stewartstown, Ireland: A numistatist’s epigraphic notebook’, is viewable here:
The British Consul for Smyrna of the time (1703-1716), was a William Sherard, who had a botanic garden for his studies in one of the outlying villages, Seydiköy, and later became an eminent botanist. The story of this lost garden is penned by the late researcher Evelyn L. Kalças, viewable here:
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A token from another little known club.