Clash of the Titans: The Controversy Behind Loring Hall
Posted: April 1, 2016 Filed under: Archaeology, Archival Research, Biography, History of Archaeology, Women's Studies | Tags: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, British School of Athens, Edward Capps, Loring Hall, Lucy Shoe Meritt, M. Carey Thomas, Ruth Emerson Fletcher, Thomas H. Mawson, William Caleb Loring 8 Comments
Loring Hall at 61 Speusippou (Souidias today), 1929. Source: ASCSA Archives
Reading Louis Lord’s History of the early years of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (hereafter ASCSA or School), one gets a sanitized and condensed account of the building’s history (Lord 1947, 203-204). From his description, which largely concentrates on the final phase of the project, one could hardly imagine that 16 years of complicated negotiations preceded its official opening in February of 1930; in fact, a women’s hostel had been the dream of several important women, including the exceptional but controversial M. Carey Thomas, President of Bryn Mawr College (1894-1922), before various forces finally named it after a man, Judge William Caleb Loring, and made it co-ed. Read the rest of this entry »
