Dorothy Burr Thompson (August 19, 1900 – May 10, 2001) was an American classical archaeologist and

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

and a leading authority on

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

figurines.

Early life

Thompson was the elder of two daughters of a prominent

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

family. Her father was attorney Charles Henry Burr Jr. and her mother was novelist and biographer

Anna Robeson Brown Anna Robeson Brown Burr (May 26, 1873 – September 10, 1941) was an American writer of novels, poetry, stories, essays, and biographies. Her ''The Autobiography: A Critical and Comparative Study'' (1909), was the first book on the subject. Early ...

. Her grandfather was noted orator and lawyer Henry Armitt Brown. Early in life Thompson studied the Classics, attending Miss Hill's School in Center City, Pa., and The Latin School in

. She began her study of

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

at age 9 and ancient

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

at 12. At age 13, she took a Grand Tour of Europe, visiting museums and monuments of Europe. In 1919 she began her studies at

where she took courses with

Rhys Carpenter Rhys Carpenter (August 5, 1889 – January 2, 1980) was an American classical art historian and professor at Bryn Mawr College. Carpenter was unconventional as a scholar. He analyzed Greek art from the standpoint of artistic production and b ...

and

Mary Hamilton Swindler Mary Hamilton Swindler (January 2, 1884 – January 16, 1967) was an American archaeologist, classical art scholar, author, and professor of classical archaeology, most notably at Bryn Mawr College, the University of Pennsylvania, and the U ...

. She graduated ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' in 1923, the first graduate with a major in Greek and archaeology, and was awarded the college's European Fellowship. She used the fellowship to study at the

American School of Classical Studies at Athens The American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA; ) is one of 19 foreign archaeological institutes in Athens, Greece. It is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC). CAORC is a private not-for-profit federat ...

, works on excavations with

Carl Blegen Carl William Blegen (January 27, 1887 – August 24, 1971) was an American archaeologist who worked at the site of Pylos in Greece and Troy in modern-day Turkey. He directed the University of Cincinnati excavations of the mound of Hisarlik, th ...

Phlius Phlius (; ) or Phleius () was an independent polis (city-state) in the northeastern part of Peloponnesus. Phlius' territory, called Phliasia (), was bounded on the north by Sicyonia, on the west by Arcadia, on the east by Cleonae, and on the ...

Career

In 1925 Thompson discovered a

beehive tomb A beehive tomb, also known as a tholos tomb (plural tholoi; from , ''tholotoi táphoi'', "domed tomb(s)"), is a burial structure characterized by its false dome created by corbelling, the superposition of successively smaller rings of mudb ...

that proved to be the burial place of the king and queen of

Midea Midea may refer to: * Midea Group (美的集团), a Chinese electrical appliance manufacturer * Midea, Greece, a Greek town * Midea (Argolid), a citadel in the town of the same name * Midea or Mideia, name of four figures in Greek mythology * ''Mi ...

. She completed her Ph.D. at

in 1931; it entailed a study of the 117 Hellenistic terracotta figures from Myrina in the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

In 1932 Thompson was appointed the first female Fellow of the

Athenian Agora The ancient Agora of Athens (also called the Classical Agora) is an ancient Greek agora. It is located to the northwest of the Acropolis of Athens, Acropolis, and bounded on the south by the hill of the Areopagus and on the west by the hill k ...

excavations.Dorothy Burr Thompson papers
ASCSA.edu; retrieved October 2, 2016. The dig's assistant director of field work was the Canadian archaeologist

Homer Thompson Homer Armstrong Thompson (September 7, 1906 – May 7, 2000) was a Canadian classical archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological reco ...

; the two married in 1934. Homer Thompson accepted positions as curator of the classical collection at the

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

of Archaeology and assistant professor in fine arts at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. Burr Thompson had three daughters between 1935 and 1938, but found time to remain involved during the same period in the

excavations, where she discovered the garden of the Temple of

Hephaistos Hephaestus ( , ; eight spellings; ) is the Greek god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture and volcanoes.Walter Burkert, ''Greek Religion'' 1985: III.2.ii; see coverage of Lemnos-based ...

in 1936. In 1946 her husband accepted a chair at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

, and Burr Thompson served as acting director of the Royal Ontario Museum until she moved to Princeton, New Jersey in 1947. At Princeton she continued to publish and carry out her research. She published the book ''An Ancient Shopping Center: The Athenian Agora'' in 1971. In 1987 she was awarded the

Gold Medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

for distinguished achievement by the

Archaeological Institute of America The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is North America, North America's oldest learned society and largest organization devoted to the world of archaeology. AIA professionals have carried out archaeological fieldwork around the world and ...

. She died in

Hightstown, New Jersey Hightstown is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Nestled within the Raritan River, Raritan Valley region, Hightstown is an historic, commercial, and cultural hub of Cent ...

ncorrect: she was in fact 100 years old/ref> and is buried in

West Laurel Hill Cemetery West Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1869, is in size, and contains the burials of many notable people. It is affiliated with Laurel Hill Cemetery in nearby Philadelphia. ...

Publications

* Dissertation: ''Terra-cottas from Myrina in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston'', Bryn Mawr College, 1931; ssued as book of same titleVienna: A. Holzhausens Nachfolger, 1934. * with Davidson, Gladys R. and Talcott, Lucy: ''Small Objects from the Pnyx'', 2 vols, Baltimore: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1943–56. * with Frantz, Allison: ''Miniature Sculpture from the Athenian Agora'', Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1959. * ''Three Centuries of Hellenistic Terracottas'', in: "Hesperia" 31, 1962, 244–262. * with Griswold, Ralph: ''Garden Lore of Ancient Athens'', Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1963. * ''Troy: the Terra-Cotta Figurines of the Hellenistic Period'', 1963. * ''An Ancient Shopping Center: the Athenian Agora'', Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1971. * ''Ptolemaic Oinochoai and Portraits in Faience: Aspects of the Ruler-Cult'', Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973. * with

and Susan Rotroff: ''Hellenistic Pottery and Terracottas'', Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1987.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Dorothy Burr 1900 births 2001 deaths American archaeologists Bryn Mawr College alumni American School of Classical Studies at Athens Women art historians American art historians American women archaeologists 20th-century American women writers American women historians American women centenarians Oberlin College faculty

Early life

Career

Publications

See also

References

Further reading

External links