Blanche Emily Wheeler

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Blanche Emile Wheeler (also Blanche Emile Wheeler-Williams , born January 9, 1870 in Concord , Massachusetts , † December 9, 1936 in Cambridge , Massachusetts) was an American archaeologist . She assisted Harriet Ann Boyd , the first woman to lead archaeological digs, in the discovery of Gournia .

Life

Blanche Emile Wheeler was the daughter of George Francis Wheeler and Alice Rattray. The Wheeler family is long-established in Massachusetts and goes back to the first pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony . As a child she was in close contact with her grandmother, Harriet Lincoln Wheeler, who was a transcendentalist and close friends with thought leaders Ralph Waldo Emerson , Henry David Thoreau , Amos Bronson Alcott , Louisa May Alcott and Abigail May Alcott.

Blanche Wheeler studied Classical Studies at Smith College in Northampton . Here she met Harriet Ann Boyd, who became a good friend. Although she was a good student, she dropped out with a bachelor's degree , which was not uncommon for a woman at the time.

From 1892 to 1904 she worked at the high school Mary C. Wheeler School of her aunt Mary Colman Wheeler and taught Latin , Greek and English . From 1898 to 1899, Blanche Wheeler took a sabbatical year to study at the American School of Classical Studies in Rome . Together with Harriet Ann Boyd and Mary K. Waring she traveled to Greece and visited Aegina , Phokis , Phthiotis , the Peloponnese and Attica .

In 1901 Jane Boit Patten , who a year earlier had supported Harriet Ann Boyd in her excavations on the island of Crete , was indispensable and so Blanche Wheeler stepped in for her. On May 7, 1901, excavations began in the Avgo Valley and then at Aloni near Kavousi , but the findings were meager. So Harriet Boyd was looking for a better Bronze Age site . A local farmer suggested Gournia . After trial excavations it turned out that the place promised rich finds. After obtaining the excavation permit, a Bronze Age city emerged.

In the next excavation in Gournia in 1903 Blanche Wheeler could not participate and so Richard Berry Seager took her place. But she participated in the publication of the excavation results. In 1904 she married Emile Francis Williams, an oriental carpet importer, with whom she later wrote a book Undiscovered France . One final book by Mary C. Wheeler. Leader in Art and Education. wrote Blanche Wheeler-Williams in honor of her aunt.

Works

  • Stone Vases in Gournia, Vasiliki and other prehistoric cities on the Isthmus of Hierapetra, Crete; excavations of the Wells-Houston-Cramp expeditions 1901, 1903, 1904 , the American exploration Society, Free Museum of science and art, 1908
  • Cult Objects in Gournia, Vasiliki and other prehistoric cities on the Isthmus of Hierapetra, Crete; excavations of the Wells-Houston-Cramp expeditions 1901, 1903, 1904 , the American exploration Society, Free Museum of science and art, 1908
  • Religion of the Minoans in Gournia, Vasiliki and other prehistoric cities on the Isthmus of Hierapetra, Crete; excavations of the Wells-Houston-Cramp expeditions 1901, 1903, 1904 , the American exploration Society, Free Museum of science and art, 1908
  • Stones from Gournia in Gournia, Vasiliki and other prehistoric cities on the Isthmus of Hierapetra, Crete; excavations of the Wells-Houston-Cramp expeditions 1901, 1903, 1904 , the American exploration Society, Free Museum of science and art, 1908
  • Minoan Writing and Dress in Gournia, Vasiliki and other prehistoric cities on the Isthmus of Hierapetra, Crete; excavations of the Wells-Houston-Cramp expeditions 1901, 1903, 1904 , the American exploration Society, Free Museum of science and art, 1908
  • together with Emile Francis Williams. Undiscovered France; an eight-weeks automobile trip in the provinces with special reference to the architecture, archeology, history, and scenery. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1927.
  • Mary C. Wheeler. Leader in Art and Education. Providence, Wheeler School.

literature

  • Mary Allsebrook, Annie Allsebrook: Born to rebel. The life of Harriet Boyd Hawes . Oxbow, Oxford 2002, ISBN 1-84217-041-4 .
  • Vasso Fotou, Ann Brown: Harriet Boyd Hawes. 1871-1945 . In: Getzel M. Cohen, Martha Sharp Joukowsky: Breaking Ground. Pioneering Women Archaeologists . University of Michigan Press, 2006. ISBN 0-472-03174-0 , pp. 198-273
  • Excavations at Kavousi, Crete, 1900 , 1901

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Transactions of the Department of archeology, Free museum of science and art, University of Pennsylvania, pp. 15, 16, 26, 29. ( online )
  2. ^ Catalog of officers, graduates and non graduates of Smith college , Northampton, Mass. 1875–1910, p. 56 ( online )
  3. ↑ American journal of archeology , Second Series, Volume III, 1899, Appendix p. 53 ( online )
personal data
SURNAME Wheeler, Blanche Emily
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wheeler-Williams, Blanche Emily (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Concord (Massachusetts) , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1936
Place of death Cambridge , Massachusetts, Massachusetts