Our newest display open Sept. 2nd at the entrance of the Burke Library will draw attention to Union Theological Seminary’s first librarian, biblical scholar Edward Robinson, whose travels in Palestine in the 1830s led to the development of the field that came to be called “Biblical Geography.” Both an academic and an experienced outdoorsman and navigator, Robinson along with the missionary Eli Smith sought to describe with scientific precision the exact locations of scriptural sites.

 

Several obstacles to map-making lay in their way: the limitations of technology, the toponymy of a region inhabited by multiple cultures with differing languages and place-names, and of course the sheer unknowability of the Bible itself (how does one measure the exact latitude of, say, Sodom and Gomorrah, canonically destroyed millennia ago…?) With compasses, sextants, camels, horses, extensive knowledge of Hebrew, Arabic, and Greek literature, along with several local guides, Robinson’s research led to the engraving and publication of the maps on display in this exhibition. These feature place-names both in English and in local languages, meridians and parallel lines, and such fine topographic detail as would set a new bar for Biblical map-making.

 

Looking back at Robinson’s impact, his biography forms a picture of a complicated character, particularly relevant to the recent history of the region. He published his journals from the trip as Biblical Researches in Palestine in three volumes containing geographic measurements as well as expressive ruminations on the scriptural narratives that take place in those lands and the people he encountered there in the mid-19th century. It is sometimes compared to Mark Twain’s popular travelogue The Innocents Abroad. These authors’ characterizations of what they termed the “the Holy Land” — and the legacies of visitors’ literary impressions of those they met there during the Ottoman period — inform critical inquiry into our connections to the region in the present. Viewers are invited to engage with such questions as they encounter Robinson’s life, his depictions of sacred sites spotlighted in large relief alongside large-scale reproductions of his maps on the walls of the Burke Library, and to read selections from Biblical Researches in Palestine in this exhibit.

 

The display was designed by Public Services Librarian Caro Bratnober and Hailey Paetzel, a student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences earning her MA in Museum Anthropology. The display features reproductions of maps and original manuscripts of Biblical Researches in Palestine and other of Robinson’s papers housed here at the Burke Library (others are housed at the library of Hamilton College upstate), all of which are open to the public for research. Non-Columbia ID card holders must email burke@library.columbia.edu in advance to visit.

 

 

On view 9/2/2025 through Spring 2026

 

Further Reading on Edward Robinson and Mapping Palestine:

Bewer, Julius A. “Edward Robinson as a Biblical Scholar.” Journal of Biblical Literature 58, no. 4 (1939): 355–63.  Via JSTOR

Goren, Haim. The Loss of a Minute Is Just So Much Loss of Life: Edward Robinson and Eli Smith in the Holy Land. Brepols Pub, 2020.

Goren, Haim, and Bruno Schelhaas. Mapping the Holy Land: The Origins of Cartography in Palestine. I. B. Tauris & Company, Limited Bookmasters Distribution, 2017. Ebook via CLIO

Grafton, David D. An American Biblical Orientalism: The Construction of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Nineteenth Century American Evangelical Piety. Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019. CLIO record

Robinson, Edward, and Hermine Weigel Williams (editor). Robinson’s Letter-Journal, 1826-1829: Written from Europe by Edward Robinson to His Sister, Elisabeth. Gwenfreni Santes Press, 2003. CLIO record

Stinespring, W. F. “The Critical Faculty of Edward Robinson.” Journal of Biblical Literature 58, no. 4 (1939): 379–87. Via JSTOR

Williams, Jay G. The Times and Life of Edward Robinson: Connecticut Yankee in King Solomon’s Court. Biblical Scholarship in North America, no. 19. Society of Biblical Literature, 1999. CLIO record

 

Special Collections at the Burke Library and Online:

Edward Robinson Papers, 1826 – 1838 | These archival papers are housed at the Burke Library and consist of the manuscript copy of Biblical Researches in Palestine, accompanying maps, and some correspondence. These are accessible in person by appointment (contact the Burke Library staff for details). Via CLIO | the Burke Library Archives

Robinson, Edward, and Eli Smith. Biblical Researches in Palestine. Crocker & Brewster, 1841 | The original 1841 published edition of Biblical Researches in three volumes is available online via HathiTrust in vivid high-resolution detail. Digitized in HathiTrust etc