Call Number:

0072

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives

Extent:

1.8 linear foot

Language:

English

Date:

1912-1943 (inclusive)

Creator:

Dohan, Edith Hall, 1877-1943

Abstract:

Edith Hayward Hall Dohan (1877-1943) curated the Mediterranean collection from 1912 to 1915 and from 1920 to 1943. A classical archaeologist, she received her A.B. from Smith College in 1899 and her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr in 1908. A classical archaeologist, she received her A.B. from Smith College in 1899 and her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr in 1908. In 1904, she joined Harriet Boyd Hawes and Richard Seager in excavating Gournia in Crete, from which experience she developed her doctoral thesis, The Decorative Art of Crete in the Bronze Age, completed in 1907. Dohan returned to two other archaeological sites in Crete in 1910 and 1912, working under the auspices of the Penn Museum before becoming assistant curator of the Mediterranean Section in 1912. The records in the Edith Hall Dohan curatorial subgroup consist of four series: (1) correspondence; (2) collections; (3) administration; and (4) research. Records within each folder are arranged chronologically.

Edith Hayward Hall Dohan (1877-1943) curated the Mediterranean collection from 1912 to 1915 and from 1920 to 1943. A classical archaeologist, she received her A.B. from Smith College in 1899 and her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr in 1908. She taught at Woodstock Academy and the Shipley School before becoming an instructor in classical archaeology at Mount Holyoke College, where she taught from 1908 until 1912, when she joined the Penn Museum.

As a graduate student, Dohan received a fellowship to study archaeology at the American School in Athens from 1903 to 1905. In 1904, she joined Harriet Boyd Hawes and Richard Seager in excavating Gournia in Crete, from which experience she developed her doctoral thesis, The Decorative Art of Crete in the Bronze Age, completed in 1907. Dohan returned to two other archaeological sites in Crete in 1910 and 1912, working under the auspices of the Penn Museum before becoming assistant curator of the Mediterranean Section in 1912. Married to Joseph M. Dohan in 1915, Hall Dohan interrupted her work at the museum to become a mother of two children. She resumed her work in 1920 as a consultant, increased her work to full time in 1930 as associate curator, and eventually became curator in 1942. During her career, she published numerous archaeological articles, lectured at Bryn Mawr, and became review editor for the American Journal of Archaeology. She also began a study of the museum’s Etruscan materials, which had never been catalogued. Her thorough and painstaking research resulted in a well-received exhibition of reconstructed tomb groups and a book, Italic Tomb-Groups in the University Museum, published in 1942. Dohan died suddenly at her desk in 1943.

The records in the Edith Hall Dohan curatorial subgroup consist of four series: (1) correspondence; (2) collections; (3) administration; and (4) research. Records within each folder are arranged chronologically.

The correspondence in Series 1 deals primarily with Dohan’s research interests. Correspondents include George Byron Gordon, Jane McHugh, Carl W. Blegen, Lacey D. Caskey, George M. Hanfmann, Paul Jacobsthal, and Gisela Richter. Series 2 includes correspondence primarily related to building the Mediterranean collection with antiquities experts such as Paul Arndt and Edward Perry Warren. Series 3 includes curator’s reports and lists of gifts and loans. Series 4 includes research notes on Crete and on the Italic tomb groups as well as drafts of articles.