This thesis examines the history of nineteenth-century Sicilian archaeology through the archival documentation for the excavations - official and casual - at Tindari, Lipari and nearby minor sites (Messina, Sicily) during Italy's post-Unification period (1861-1918). The evidence comprises substantial sets of unpublished records and images from Italian and UK archives (Palermo, Patti, Rome and Glasgow). Specific themes of study are cultural heritage protection, historical and social contexts, excavation histories, sales of archaeological collections abroad, finds recognition and judicial activities. The study compares archaeological research during the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the post-Unification period in northern Sicily and aims to clarify relationships between the Ministry of Public Education, the Museum of Palermo and local government authorities; to pinpoint contacts with the contemporary social context; and to contextualise this work in terms of the evolution of archaeology and social change in the wider Italian and European contexts. A pivotal figure in the study is Antonino Salinas, director of the Palermo Museum across the period 1875-1914. Key results include: the identification of 'hidden' networks between politicians, national, regional and local authorities, who operated within protection of Sicilian antiquities, organised on a 'three-level' scale; insights into Antonino Salinas as a person and as director, and his role in the province of Messina; the reconstruction of the discovery and the exportation of finds from Lipari to Britain (1878); and the analysis of the unique documentation related to the Tindari excavations (1896), which reveal much about local characters involved in archaeology. This study thus contributes to a fuller understanding of the development of Sicilian archaeology before the First World War.