A reminder of the nature of archaeology at the beginning of the twentieth century. The present American School for Oriental Research in Palestine was then a dozen students touring the Eastern Mediterranean each winter; this report covers a single year of their finances and their activities. In 1908-9, the school actually reached a dozen students, and travelled as a group to Petra. Their troubles with housing, and the efforts to encourage more diverse sources of funding, may seem familiar to the twenty-first century.