It is with great pride that the Museum announces a recent gift by the Yadgar family from Park Ridge, Illinois to create an endowment supporting the Assyrian collection at the Museum. The gift is a result of a visit to campus in August 2015, when the family came to explore the museum’s Assyrian collection in order to broaden their knowledge of these ancient reliefs.

Michael is of Assyrian heritage with both parents immigrating to the United States from the Middle East. It has been important to him that his children have an appreciation of their Assyrian heritage and history. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Michael is a Principal at Ernst and Young where he is the Americas SAP leader. Relatively unfamiliar with Bowdoin when the family first visited campus, Michael worked with Museum co-directors Anne and Frank Goodyear, professor and curator James Higginbotham, and leadership gift officer Heidi Peterson to create a new endowment for the Museum.

This endowment will provide funding for a digital resource that will enable virtual access to the Museum’s Assyrian collection, facilitating scholarship and academic collaboration around these artifacts. The fund will also provide critical support for care and conservation of this collection. James Higginbotham, associate curator for the ancient collection at the Museum and a professor of classics, commented, “Mr. Yadgar’s gift will help us shed light on these ancient Assyrian monuments that come from a part of the world that is in peril today.” Museums are collections not only of art, but also of people. Please join us in extending the warmest of welcomes to the Yadgar family.