a new heading appeared — Semitics and Hellenistic Greek and Studies in the English Bible. This is the first appearance of the term Semitics, a pompous and pretentious title, patterned no doubt on physics, but reminding the students of nothing but "athletics," for it was invariably spelled and pronounced "Semetics." Craig was assisted this year by Worrell and French. The following year Craig was alone in the department, and the descriptive matter in course announcements noticeably increased. In the fall of 1912 Craig left the University, for entirely personal and nonacademic reasons, first engaging in business in Canada, but later returning to the teaching of Oriental languages at McGill University and the University of Toronto. The latter part of his life he spent in Paris. He died in Toronto, May 16, 1932. Most of Craig's courses in 1912 were without a teacher, but Dr. French, as Acting Assistant Professor, taught Hebrew and Greek and remained two years with varying titles. Gilbert Hawthorne Taylor (DePauw '09, Ph.D. Michigan '14) was Instructor in Semitics in 1914-15.
Leroy Waterman (Hillsdale '98, B.D. Hillsdale Divinity School '00, Ph.D. Chicago '12) took charge of the department in 1915-16 and remains its Chairman. His title appeared as Professor of Semitics. Hellenistic Greek disappeared from the announcement of the department, being returned to the list of courses offered by the Department of Greek. Under his administration graduate work, with technical requirements, in Assyrian and Hebrew has been carried on and developed. Also the program of nonlinguistic instruction — in history, Oriental civilization, and the Bible and comparative religion — dictated by the age and time in which we live, has been much enlarged and intensified.
In 1925 Worrell returned to the Department of Semitics and assumed the Arabic and Coptic studies, which were stimulated by the papyrus purchases and finds of the late Professor Francis W. Kelsey.
In 1927-28 Waterman was granted a leave of absence to serve as annual professor of the American School of Oriental Research at Baghdad, Iraq. The incumbency involved research rather than teaching, and the year was spent in the Near East, first in the study of and participation in archaeological field work in Egypt, Palestine, and Iraq, and secondly in independent topographical study of the region of the Nahr Malcha (Royal Canal) between the Tigris and Euphrates, at their nearest approach to each other. This investigation resulted in the identification of the site of the city of Seleucia on the Tigris, and led to two months of preliminary excavation and soundings made on the site under the auspices of the Baghdad School, supported by funds contributed by the Museum of Art of Toledo, Ohio. The results gave welcome confirmatory evidence of the city of Seleucia and its late Parthian occupation. (For more complete information regarding the papyri and the University archaeological excavations, see Part VIII: Art and Archaeological Collections .)
The work of the department during the academic year 1927-28 was greatly stimulated and enhanced by the addition to the staff of Caroline Louise Ransom Williams (Mt. Holyoke '96, Ph.D. Chicago '05) as resident lecturer on Egyptian. The courses offered in Egyptian hieroglyphics (Old Egyptian) and in Egyptian art and archaeology met with an enthusiastic response. As a result of the preliminary work done at Seleucia a joint archaeological expedition with a planned five-year program was organized by the University, acting jointly with the Toledo Museum of Art. The Toledo Museum supplied the funds and
