This chapter offers an in-depth analysis of a formal welcome speech at a mid-nineteenth century congress of the British Archaeological Association. By examining the contexts of speech, speaker, and audience, as well as the institutional history of the congress itself, it provides insights into the world of British archaeology at that time. The address, delivered by surgeon and antiquarian Thomas Pettigrew, can be interpreted as an exercise in individual, institutional, and disciplinary self-fashioning. This provides context for the claims of Baconian scientific rigor, and the arguments for greater investment in British archaeology by museums and learned societies. Behind the rhetoric, the archaeological community was divided and weakened by institutional schisms, in which both Pettigrew and the British Archaeological Association found themselves on the smaller and weaker of the two sides. The speech provides a snapshot of a moment in the history of British archaeology and the ambitions, achievements, and struggles contained within it.