William Linn Westermann

William Linn Westermann

William Linn Westermann (born September 15, 1873 in Belleville, Illinois , † October 4, 1954 in White Plains, New York ) was an American ancient historian and papyrologist who studied at the University of Missouri (1902-1920), at Cornell University (1920–1923) and Columbia University (1923–1948). He was one of the leading papyrologists of his time who made the extensive papyrus collection of Columbia University accessible to the public through basic editions and used the material for extensive economic and social history studies. He was an expert on ancient slavery .

Life

William Linn Westermann studied at the University of Nebraska , where he received his bachelor's degree in 1894 and his master's degree in 1896 . During his graduate studies , he already worked as an Assistant Professor of Latin at the University of Wisconsin . After completing his studies, he taught Latin at the high school in Decatur, Illinois . From 1899 to 1902 he went on a long educational trip to Europe. He deepened his studies at the Berlin University , where he received his doctorate in 1902 with Hermann Diels with a dissertation in medical history .

After returning to the USA, Westermann worked as an Instructor of Latin and Greek at the University of Missouri , where he was appointed Assistant Professor of History in 1906 . He also got involved outside the academic field. Because of his knowledge of the situation in Greece and the Ottoman Empire, he was a member of several American delegations that mediated in the armed conflict between the two states from 1918 to 1923. For example, in 1918/19 he took part in the Paris Peace Conference, at which the territorial disputes between Greece and the Ottoman Empire were formally settled (in the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine ).

Meanwhile, Westermann's academic career picked up speed. In 1920 he was given a full chair at Cornell University as Professor of Ancient History. He stayed there for three years before moving to Columbia University in 1923 , where he stayed until his retirement in 1948. From 1922 to 1933 he was also a trustee of the American Academy in Rome , where he held lectures as a visiting professor in 1926/27. In 1944 he was president of the American Historical Association . In retirement, Westermann taught as a visiting professor at the University of Cairo (1949) and in Alexandria (1953/1954). Since 1944 he was a member of the American Philosophical Society . His students include Moses I. Finley , Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold .

Scientific work

Westermann was one of the first representatives of papyrology in the United States and at the same time one of the leading papyrologists of his time. His interest in this area arose during his studies in Berlin. After his appointment at Columbia University, Westermann edited its extensive collection of non-literary papyri and demonstrated in numerous publications how ancient history could benefit from papyrology. His focus was on researching the Hellenistic and Imperial documents of Egypt. He dealt intensively with the economic and social history of Roman Egypt, the knowledge of which was decisively enriched by papyrus finds. In his book Upon Slavery in Ptolemaic Egypt (1929) he turned against the view held by Michael Rostovtzeff and Ulrich Wilcken that in Egypt slaves were only used as domestic servants and not in agriculture and the manufacturing industry. As an internationally recognized expert in this field, he wrote the article “slavery” for Pauly's real encyclopedia of classical antiquity (RE) in the 1930s .

Westermann was widely recognized for his services. He received honorary degrees from the University of Nebraska (LL. D. 1938), the University of Chicago (L.D. 1941) and the University of Missouri (LL. D. 1943).

Fonts (selection)

• De Hippocratis in Galeno memoria quaestiones . Berlin 1902 (dissertation)
• with Caspar J. Kraemer: Greek Papyri in the Library of Cornell University . New York 1926 ( Columbia University Series. Greek Papyri 1)
• Upon Slavery in Ptolemaic Egypt . New York 1929
• with Clinton W. Keyes: Greek Papyri. Columbia University Series II . New York 1931 ( Columbia University Series. Greek Papyri 2)
• with Clinton W. Keyes: Tax Lists and Transportation Receipts from Theadelphia . New York 1932
• with Elisabeth Sayre Hasenoehrl: Zenon Papyri. Business Papers of the Third Century BC Dealing with Palestine . 2 volumes, New York 1934–1940 ( Columbia University Series. Greek Papyri 3–4)
• Slavery. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Supplement VI, Stuttgart 1935, Sp. 894-1068 (translated by Elisabeth Jülicher and Walter Abel ).
• with A. Arthur Schiller : Apokrimata. Decisions of Septimius Severus on Legal Matters . New York 1954
• The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity . Philadelphia 1955 ( Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society 40)

literature

• Meyer Reinhold : Westermann, William Linn . In: Ward W. Briggs (Ed.): Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists. Greenwood Press, Westport CT et al. 1994, ISBN 0-313-24560-6 , pp. 684f.

Web links

• Entry on William Linn Westermann in the Database of Classical Scholars (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Member History: William L. Westermann. American Philosophical Society, accessed January 31, 2019 .