Francis W. Kelsey

Francis W. Kelsey

Francis W. Kelsey (full name Francis Willey Kelsey , born May 23, 1858 in Ogden , New York , † May 14, 1927 in Ann Arbor , Michigan ) was an American classical philologist and archaeologist who worked as a professor of Latin and Literature at the University of Michigan worked (1889–1927). In addition to his numerous publications on Latin and Greek literature as well as on the archeology of the Mediterranean region, he was particularly prominent as the excavation director in Carthage .

Life

Francis W. Kelsey studied at the University of Rochester and taught after the bachelor's degree in 1880 Latin and Greek at the Lake Forest University . In 1882 he was appointed Professor of Classics there. In 1883 he completed his master's degree at the University of Rochester and in the same year went on a study trip to Europe, which he repeated in 1884/85. His alma mater awarded him an honorary doctorate Ph. D.

In 1889 Kelsey moved from Lake Forest University to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he worked as a professor of Latin language and literature until his death. He continued to develop his relations with Europe, especially with the Mediterranean countries. In 1900/01 he went to the American School of Classical Studies in Rome as a visiting professor . He was a board member of the American Philological Association (President 1906/07) and the Archaeological Institute of America (President 1907–1912), and also a full member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and the German Archaeological Institute .

After Kelsey had emerged in the 1880s and 1890s mainly through Latin and Greek text editions, he turned more and more to archeology . In 1889 he translated August Maus standard work on the ancient city of Pompeii and, together with Percy Gardner, edited the handbook series Handbooks of Archeology and Antiquities . In the 1890s, Kelsey acquired several archaeological finds in the Mediterranean for the university's collections, including over 1000 objects in 1893 from dealers in Tunis , Rome , Capri and Sicily . With the help of sponsors, he tirelessly built up this considerable collection until his death. It forms the basis of the Kelsey Museum of Archeology, founded in 1927 .

From 1919 to 1926 Kelsey made several trips to the Mediterranean region in search of not only suitable objects for his collection, but also promising archaeological sites. In 1924 he carried out excavations in Antioch in Pisidia and Carthage . The carthage excavations became a long-term project that continued until 1935 after Kelsey's death.

Fonts (selection)

• with James Smith Reid : Cicero's Cato Major De senectute and Laelius De Amicitia . Boston 1883
• T. Lucreti Cari De Rerum Natura Libri Sex . Boston 1884. 6th edition 1906
• C. Iulii Caesaris Commentarii rerum gestarum . Boston 1886. Reprinted 1917
• with Andreas C. Zenos : Xenophon's Anabasis Books I – IV . Boston 1889. Reprinted 1898
• P. Ovidii Nasonis Carmina Selecta . Boston / New York 1891. Reprints 1906, 1925
• Topical Outline of Latin Literature . Boston 1891. Revised 1899 edition
• Fifty Topics in Roman Antiquities . Boston 1891
• Select Orations and Letters of Cicero . Boston 1892. Reprinted 1911
• Latin and Greek in American Education . New York 1911
• Excavations at Carthage, 1925. A Preliminary Report . New York / London 1926

Translations

• August Mau : Pompeii - Its Life and Art . New York / London 1889. Reprinted in 1904

literature

• Ward W. Briggs : Kelsey, Francis Willey . In: Ward W. Briggs (Ed.): Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists . Westport, CT / London: Greenwood Press 1994, ISBN 978-0-313-24560-2 , pp. 320f.
• John G. Pedley : The Life and Work of Francis Willey Kelsey: Archeology, Antiquity, and the Arts . University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2012, ISBN 978-0-472-11802-1 .

Web links

• Entry on Francis W. Kelsey in the Database of Classical Scholars, written by Ward W. Briggs (English)
• Kelsey in Egypt
• Francis W. Kelsey in the database of Find a Grave (English)