George L. Kelm Archaeology Library

BY GARY D. MYERS

The library of late archaeologist George L. Kelm has a new home at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s Moskau Institute for Archaeology.

Kelm’s extensive collection of archaeological books is now housed in the seminary’s Museum of the Bible and Archaeology Learning Center in the Luter Student Center. The resources are being used to supplement the training experiences for NOBTS archaeology students, especially for teaching ceramic (pottery) analysis.

Kelm, the first archaeology professor at NOBTS, donated the collection before he passed away April 25, 2019. Linda, his wife of 64 years, traveled with Kelm on all his excavations and became a skilled at pottery restoration, expressed her joy that current students are able to utilize her late husband’s books.

Born in Alberta, Canada, in 1931, Kelm, who studied archaeology at New York University (M.A. and Ph.D.), joined the NOBTS faculty in 1968. In addition to his studies at NYU, Kelm studied Hebrew, geography and archaeology at the American Institute of Holy Land Studies in Jerusalem and later served as the Institute’s academic and administrative field director for two years.

Kelm came to NOBTS with an ambitious plan to launch an archaeology program at the school involving students and faculty members in Holy Land excavations. During his first year, Kelm established the Institute of Biblical Archaeology (later called the Moskau Institute for Archaeology) and scheduled a summer trip to Israel for an excavation. The NOBTS group, 47 members strong, participated in the Tel Malhata excavation with Tel Aviv University.

In 1972 Kelm co-directed the excavation of Tel Aphek-Antipatris with Moshe Kochavi of Tel Aviv University. The dig yielded many important finds, including rare clay tablets, 350 ancient coins and intact pottery pieces. During the fourth dig season, Linda unearthed a rare trilingual dictionary.

Kelm solidified his place in archaeology in 1977 when he began excavating ancient Timnah in Israel along with Israeli archaeologist Amihai Mazar of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The home of biblical judge Samson, Timnah was an intriguing location for the seminary. Kelm knew that the site associated with an important biblical figure would be a perfect fit for a school dedicated to understanding the Bible and the context in which it was written. For three seasons, Kelm excavated under the New Orleans Seminary banner filling a small Bible Lands Museum (located in the John T. Christian Library at the time) with exciting finds.

In 1981, Kelm left NOBTS to join the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) faculty and continued excavating at Timnah for nine more seasons. SWBTS invested heavily in archaeology and over the next decade Kelm carved out a stellar archaeology career. Kelm’s most important contribution to SWBTS came when he founded the Charles D. Tandy Archaeological Museum in 1983.

March 1977: President Landrum P. Leavell (third from right) inspects an artifact from the seminary’s collection of archaeological finds. Other professors examining the collection are (from left): Dr. Hardee Kennedy, Vice President of Academic Affairs; Dr. John Olen Strange, Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament; Dr. Ray Frank Robbins, Professor of New Testament and Greek; Dr. George Kelm, Associate Professor of Archaeology, who led the expeditions that uncovered the items; Dr. Paul Gericke, Director of the Library and Dr. Carlton Winbery, Assistant Professor of New Testament and Greek.

Madelynn Duke, photographer and graphic designer, received a photography award in the Feature – Series category in the 58th Annual Wilmer C. Fields Awards Competition, 2022. She was awarded Second Place for her photos depicting the multi-page feature series Servanthood in the Fall 2021 Vision magazine.

Marilyn Stewart, assistant director for news, received the grand prize Leonard Holloway Award for Exceptional Achievement in Feature Writing and 1st place for Single Article, 7501500 words, for the feature, “NOBTS student’s life touched thousands despite exceptional disabilities.” New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College signed an agreement with Louisiana Christian University (LCU) in an historic partnership agreement.

The partnership re-affirms transfer options for LCU graduates who choose to study in the NOBTS Accelerated Master of Divinity program (M.Div.) established in 2019. The new agreement offers NOBTS students the opportunity to transfer credits toward the Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Social Work (MSW) degrees at LCU. The partnership will expand the training options available for Godcalled men and women in Louisiana and help students save time and money.