Both the collections and the building of the Rockefeller Museum in east Jerusalem are impressive. Anyone who has visited can testify that the space harkens to an earlier era—the time of the British Mandate—when administration and collection methods were different. While the signage is somewhat confusing for the nonspecialist, anyone can appreciate the museum’s white limestone walls and tranquil courtyard.
Thanks to the Israel Antiquities Authority’s (IAA) initiative, the Rockefeller Museum Online project, all of the artifacts in the Rockefeller Museum’s collection are being digitized. Photographs of the artifacts, along with detailed descriptions, will be available online, granting public access to the museum’s entire collection; 1,253 entries have already been uploaded. This project is a hallmark in Israel, as it is the first time that a museum’s entire collection will be digitized and made available online—thanks to a generous gift from David Rockefeller, who at age 99 is continuing his family’s legacy of philanthropy. His father, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., donated the funds to the British Mandatory Government to establish the museum—the official name of which was the Palestine Archaeological Museum—in 1938. After the 1967 war, the name was changed to the Rockefeller Museum.
Moreover, the Rockefeller Museum Online project is just a sliver of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s digitization efforts. In addition to digitizing the Dead Sea Scrolls,a Israel’s Survey Maps and the National Archives from 1919 to 1948, the IAA has also recently launched the National Treasures Online project, which documents thousands of artifacts from prehistoric times through the Ottoman period. These artifacts come from the IAA’s collections of the National Treasures Department, which documents all of the antiquities in Israel. Go to antiquities.org.il/t/default_en.aspx to see these treasures for yourself!
Both the collections and the building of the Rockefeller Museum in east Jerusalem are impressive. Anyone who has visited can testify that the space harkens to an earlier era—the time of the British Mandate—when administration and collection methods were different. While the signage is somewhat confusing for the nonspecialist, anyone can appreciate the museum’s white limestone walls and tranquil courtyard. Thanks to the Israel Antiquities Authority’s (IAA) initiative, the Rockefeller Museum Online project, all of the artifacts in the Rockefeller Museum’s collection are being digitized. Photographs of the artifacts, along with detailed descriptions, will be available online, granting public […]
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