Dr. Edgar J. Banks

Dr. Edgar J. Banks. "A Real Indiana Jones". , Born May 23, 1866 in Sunderland, Massachusetts, Dr. Banks was educated at Amherst College and Harvard. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Breslau in Archeology and Semitic Studies and was a prolific author and writer. He was appointed an American Consul to Bagdad and a private secretary to the U.S. Ambassador, John I. Leishman, in Turkey. He organized and led an archaeological expedition of the University of Chicago to Bismya, Southern Mesopotamia, where he discovered thousands of cuneiform tablets and one of the most famous and oldest Sumerian statues of the third millennium B.C. He became the first American to climb the summits of Mount Ararat in search of Noah’s ark and one of a few westerners to cross the Arabian Desert alone on a camel. He married Minja (Marija Amalya Beata) de Miksic, a Croatian “princess” in 1914, and they had two children, Bobby (Edgar de Miksic) and Daphne. A noted lecturer, Dr. Banks was invited by Edgar L. Ferran, in 1913, to present Biblical Archeology talks at the First Presbyterian Church of Eustis. For health reasons, he moved the family to Eustis after working as a movie consultant for Cecil B. Demille in Hollywood. He founded Seminole Films, Inc. and designed and built a Mediterranean-style mansion on a citrus grove overlooking Lake Dalhousie where he wrote and lived until his death May 4, 1945. , Visit the Dr. Edgar J. Banks exhibit at the Eustis Historical Museum.