January–April 1954

Curium Excavations Episkopi, Limassol Cyprus 15 Feb 54

Dear Rodney:

Glad to have yours of the 8th, to which I haste to reply. You had written about Sinclair's sending the films here, but thanks again, anyhow. Better twice than not at all, I always say.

As to kodachromes of George's of the dig: yes, there are some here, 34 in fact. [handwritten: Almost] all seem to be of Apollo, but there are in addition one of the achilles mosaic and one of the Ktisis mosaic. It would seem as if there ought to be a great many more, but these are all I've found. There are, of course, two reels of kodachrome movie film; I have no way of projecting them, so I can't say what's on them. I had intended bringing both stills and movies to Philadelphia in the fall. I will, however, send on the stills now, as soon as I have a chance to identify some of the more obscure shots. I shall be taking more myself in the course of time, and, if you like, I will route them from Rochester to the Museum, where they can stay and be incorporated in our kodachrome collections. I know I have more kodachrome than I can use for our excavations here, so can well afford to make kodachromes of other sites here as well.

Curium thanks you for the television $100. We are always happy to keep funds out of the clutches of the fiscal year. In the end we may be able to regard the presents from the Gordion fund as a loan and pay them back in again when the time comes for the next campaign. That is, I should think the Curium fund would remain a permanent fund as long as it lasts, and not be affected by the fiscal year, so that we could arrange to do so at any time.

We are extremely grateful for your efforts and Hiram's in getting the Bamboula material to Mr. Hill. Jack is pining and chewing his nails for it. Christophis arrived back from Athens yesterday reporting that Mr. Hill had not yet arrived, but was thought to be coming sometime this week. I had hoped that he and Mr. Hill might overlap (Just the least little bit, preferably!) so that he could bring the material straight on down to us; but it was not to be. So now I guess we await Mr. Hill's own good pleasure to receive it.

Speaking of Medsec travel money and Cynthia I think now would be a good time to send you a copy of the list of archaeological books here. Perhaps you and Cynthia can go over it to see what you would like to have me send from here at the end. True, we are not, as far as I know, confirmed yet in our possession of these items. But I assume that this is just a formality, and that Pro and Mr. Ewing will get together one of these days and settle the matter. I will send the list under separate cover.

I breathe a sigh of relief (I hope one which I shall not have to retract) at your news of Dick. I have been feeling very discouraged on that score. I think I can now get going on John Seltman, making at least a provisional proposal. Also with other matters which I foresee will have to be dealt with ahead of time if he is to get the most out of the summer.