Last updated: 15 July 2025
The year 2026 will mark the two hundred and fiftieth year of American independence. For nearly sixty of those years, since 1968, the American Center of Research has supported scholars from the United States (and elsewhere) in Jordan and the wider region—archaeologists, historians, political scientists, and many others engaged in a broad swath of disciplines.
Often known simply as “the American Center,” ACOR has one of the foremost English-language libraries in the region, featuring a collection of works about American history, and over the coming year we will continue to expand it to commemorate of this notable anniversary.
ACOR will also honor achievements in Jordan and the region over the past two and a half centuries that Americans can be proud of: archaeology, exploration, cultural heritage, economic growth, and much more.
Our efforts began in late February 2025 with an exhibit and associated book created for the U.S. Department of State to celebrate seventy-five years of U.S. diplomatic relations with Jordan, one of our country’s staunchest allies in the region. The exhibit presents seventy-five panels showcasing archaeological and heritage projects made possible with federal funding. A corresponding book is also now in print, with an introduction from Chargé d’Affaires ad interim Rohit Nepal of the U.S. Embassy in Amman.
Together for Past and Present: Cultural Heritage Collaborations between the United States and Jordan on the 75th Anniversary of Their Bilateral Relations exhibit on display in Amman, February 2025. (Photos by P.P. Creasman.)
Long before, back in 1998, ACOR published 150th Anniversary of the United States’ Expedition to Explore the Dead Sea and River Jordan by Robert E. Rook. This highly informative and well-illustrated slender volume explores the “controversial venture” (p. 9) authorized by President James K. Polk and undertaken in 1848—a “spectacular anomaly, a truly curious and impractical junket” that was one of several expeditions by the U.S. Navy “in support of science and commerce” (p. 11).
A PDF of the book is freely available from our website. Visit our publications website to download it.
The expedition caravan transporting a boat overland.
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