James Henry Breasted was a leading American scholar, historian, and archeologist around the turn of the nineteenth century. He focused in ancient Egyptian studies, as well as what became known as the Near East. He was a professor at the University of Chicago and director of the Haskell Oriental Museum in Chicago. He led several archeological expeditions throughout his career to Egypt and the Far East. Breasted was also among those who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.