While it is true that both Nellie E. Goldthwaite and Alice Van Ess Brewer were members of the Mount Holyoke community, their most notable and interesting connection is through the objects they donated to the college.
In 1948, two years after her death, Nellie Goldthwaite’s Cuneiform cone was donated to Mount Holyoke College according to her wishes. Along with this artifact was a small handwritten note, which provides information about the provenance of the cone. The note states the following:
“This clay cone is inscribed with a Cuneiform inscription in the Sumerian Language. It was excavated in Erech and dates about 2010 B.C. Kings would place inscribed tablets or cones in the foundations buildings. Such inscriptions gave the builders name and function. The inscription on this cone reads as follows: ‘Singashid the mighty man, King of Erech, King of Amnanum, nourisher of the temple Eanna, built this royal palace.'”
From this note, we can gather its original site and purpose, as well as the excavation from which it was uncovered. We can also gather that Nellie E. Goldthwaite most likely acquired this artifact during her year traveling around the world.
Years later, around 1984, Alice Van Ess Brewer and her husband also donated a Cuneiform object, this time a tablet. While there is evidence in several letters that the couple did not acquire this object themselves, it was actually passed down from Alice’s father, we can still gather evidence from the object about its provenance. A letter held in the Mount Holyoke Archives states that Alice’s father, John Van Ess, may have received the tablet as a gift from Sir Leonard Woolley, an archaeologist who worked on the ancient Mesopotamian site of Ur from 1922- 1934. It is likely that he obtained this tablet while they were circulating after the dig at Erech, or Urek. The tablet’s inscription states, as translated by Elizabeth Payne, “Sin-kashid, the mighty man, the king of Uruk, king of Amnanum, the provider of Eanna, when he built the Eanna, built his royal palace.” These two inscriptions provide a solid example for the relationship between the two objects, proving that they are from the very same site and excavation dig.
That these two objects unintentionally ended up in the same place creates an intimate and interesting connection between Nellie Goldthwaite and Alice Van Ess Brewer, showing how connections between the past and present can always be made through collections and the secrets they reveal.