1948

THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY MUSEUM 33RD & SPRUCE STREETS, PHILADELPHIA 4

January 20, 1948Mr. George McFadden Curium Excavations Episkopi, Limassol Cyprus

Dear George:

Your letter of December 27th with the enclosed expense account for November was extremely helpful to us not only in forming some idea of the costs of the Curium excavation but in estimating costs of proposed excavations at other sites in the Mediterranean and the Near East. You probably have Pete's letter of January 15th by this time which lays out a rather complicated proposal for an exchange of funds between the Curium and proposed Sardis dig. As you undoubtedly gathered from that letter the amount allocated to Curium in my over-all plan for excavations during the next five year period, i.e., $45,000 includes $15,000 from Museum funds and $30,000 presumably to be contributed by you. You will see that I necessarily had to present figures in this manner in order to maintain in confidence the relative amounts to be put up by you and the Museum. Pete's analysis and proposal is, of course, based upon the round figures without any consideration of who puts up what.

In presenting my program to the Board I computed the amount of accrued funds for research plus the income during the next five years. Of this amount I allocated $125,000 to the Mediterranean Section. Therefore, you will see that I cannot increase our own Museum contribution to Curium without, in a sense, robbing Peter to pay Paul

I gather that both you and Pete would prefer to spend the $45,000 allocated to Curium during 1947, -48 and -49 rather than to spend it over five years and interrupt excavations for one or two seasons as would be the case with the other expeditions. This idea of spending the whole amount during the first three years is, I think, clearly expressed in Pete's letter to you and it is the basis for his suggestion of borrowing from the Sardis fund.

Turning now to the question of the relative contributions of yourself and the Museum, which is an administrative matter to be decided by you and me, I should like to repeat that I have allocated all of the Museum's accumulated funds, as well as its projected income for the next five years and therefore cannot increase the Museum's share in Curium without reducing funds allocated to one of the other digs. Therefore, if we are to increase expenditures at Curium by $2,700 per year during the next three years it is clear that we will have to look elsewhere for the funds. Pete's idea of borrowing from the Sardis fund could settle the matter for the moment but in the end somebody has to pay the Piper.

Our budget allows for the expenditure at Curium this year of $5,000. We cannot, as I see it, make any further advances to cover a deficit for this year. Therefore, it looks to me as if the expenditure at Curium must be cut back so that you can stay within the $15,000 allocated for 1947-48. However, after discussing Pete's proposal we have decided to approach the American Philosophical Society for a grant of approximately $9,000 to cover an expenditure at Curium during the years 1948-49,

Stamp: illegible

Handwritten: marginal figures, e.g. $3,000.00 to Williamson, illegible