Lucy Taxis Shoe Meritt (August 7, 1906, in

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 20 ...

–

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

, April 13, 2003) was a

classical archaeologist Classical archaeology is the archaeological investigation of the Mediterranean civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Nineteenth-century archaeologists such as Heinrich Schliemann were drawn to study the societies they had read about i ...

and a scholar of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece 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 ...

architectural ornamentation and mouldings.

Biography

Born in

, Lucy Shoe Meritt was the daughter of William Napoleon Shoe and Mary Esther Dunning Shoe. She studied at

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United Sta ...

(A.B. 1927, M.A. 1928, Ph.D. 1935). She continued her studies at the

American School of Classical Studies , native_name_lang = Greek , image = American School of Classical Studies at Athens.jpg , image_size = , image_alt = , caption = The ASCSA main building as seen from Mount Lykavittos , latin_name = , other_name = , former_name = , m ...

in Athens from 1929 to 1934. From 1937 to 1950 Meritt taught at

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United State ...

. She was twice a fellow of the

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History In 1893, a group of American architects ...

(1937 and 1950). She married

Benjamin Dean Meritt Benjamin Dean Meritt (March 31, 1899 in Durham, North Carolina – July 7, 1989 in Austin, Texas) was a classical scholar, professor and epigraphist of ancient Greece. His father was a professor of Greek and Latin at Trinity College (later Duke U ...

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

, on November 2, 1964. She worked at the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

site of

Cosa Cosa was a Latin colony founded in southwestern Tuscany in 273 BC, on land confiscated from the Etruscans, to solidify the control of the Romans and offer the Republic a protected port. The Etruscan site (called ''Cusi'' or ''Cosia'') may have ...

and at Serra Orlando (

Morgantina Morgantina (Μοργάντιον / Μοργαντίνη in ancient greek) is an archaeological site in east central Sicily, southern Italy. It is sixty kilometres from the coast of the Ionian Sea, in the province of Enna. The closest modern ...

) in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. She served as editor of publications for the

American School of Classical Studies in Athens , native_name_lang = Greek , image = American School of Classical Studies at Athens.jpg , image_size = , image_alt = , caption = The ASCSA main building as seen from Mount Lykavittos , latin_name = , other_name = , former_name = , mo ...

from 1950 until 1972. In 1972, with her husband, Benjamin Dean Meritt's appointment to a professorship at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, she moved to Austin, Texas, and was a visiting scholar at the University of Texas at Austin from 1973 until her death. Meritt received the

Gold Medal Award Gold is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a Brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, s ...

for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement in 1977 from the

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

. The papers and scholarly archive of Lucy Shoe Meritt are preserved as a collection curated by the Alexander Architectural Archives, University of Texas Libraries,

. Lucy Taxis Shoe Meritt died in Austin, Texas, and was buried at Austin Memorial Park Cemetery.https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/statesman/obituary.aspx?n=lucy-taxis-shoe-meritt&pid=1590446 Lucy Taxis Shoe Meritt

Publications

* ''Profiles of Greek Mouldings'' (1936). * ''Profiles of Western Greek Mouldings'' (1952). * ''Etruscan and Roman Republican Mouldings'' (1965).
of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1939-1980''
(1984) * ''Etruscan and Republican Roman Mouldings'' (expanded ed., 2000) with Ingrid Edlund-Berry.

References

External links

Finding Aid to the Lucy Shoe Meritt collection at the Alexander Architectural Archives, University of Texas at Austin

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meritt, Lucy Shoe 1906 births 2003 deaths Classical archaeologists Mount Holyoke College faculty Bryn Mawr College alumni People from Camden, New Jersey American women archaeologists 20th-century American archaeologists 20th-century American women American women academics Historians from New Jersey 21st-century American women