From the Mundane to the Intellectual: A reconstruction of the life and times of a hybrid Levantine Consul through his inventory. On October 5, 1849, John Barker, famous British consul and horticulturalist, died in Souedia in Ottoman Turkey. The authorities took an exhaustive inventory of Barker’s effects, noting everything from his cutlery to his wide-ranging personal library of works. While the inventory certainly details the life of the man, it also allows scholars to assess the specific dual identity--and the significant dual roles--of European Levantines in the Ottoman Empire The Levantines formed a uniquely hybrid community that straddled the divide between the Ottoman Empire and Europe during the early modern period. To do so, they retained a fairly fluid, even opportunistic, identity, integrating into their adopted land through varied ways, including mastery of its languages, diplomacy, and trade. Thus the merchant consuls were the linchpin of that community, useful and favored not just as commercial go-betweens enabling Imperial-European trade, but as diplomatic connectors linking the Porte and the West and as importers and exporters of each sphere’s technology, science, and culture. John Barker, a merchant consul and second-generation Levantine, exemplifies the evolving, increasingly essential network of native-born foreigners who lived and worked in the Empire yet held on to their origins. Born in Smyrna, Barker spent most of his life in various Ottoman cities as a merchant, pro-consul and consul serving the British Levant Company and the British government, while simultaneously serving as a commercial, diplomatic, and cultural bridge between the locals and the Europeans. Even his private life bespeaks the flexible, hybrid Levantine identity: He married a local Levantine; his children were all born in the Empire but sent to school in England; and they all became important members in both Levantine and British circles. Using his sizable and comprehensive inventory of books, this paper reconstructs the life and influence of John Barker in his role of consul and hybrid member of the Levantine community. It also highlights his considerable influence on diplomacy, commerce, culture as well as his important legacy as a horticulturalist, all of which bridged the divide between the two empires.