Alumnae Bulletin
November 2010
In Memoriam
Mabel Louise Lang, Ph.D. ’42,
Katharine E. McBride Professor Emeritus
and
Paul Shorey Professor Emeritus of Greek
Legendary teacher and scholar Mabel Louise Lang, Katharine
E. McBride Professor Emeritus and Paul Shorey Professor
Emeritus of Greek, died at home on July 21 at the age of 92.
Miss Lang, as she was known to her students, was raised in
Hamilton, New York. She received her A.B. from Cornell
(1939) and her M.A. (1940) and Ph.D. (1943) from Bryn
Mawr. She began teaching in the Greek
department at the College in 1943.
She was warden of Rockefeller Hall from
1942 to 1945, and also served as acting
undergraduate dean, sophomore dean, and
secretary of the faculty (1970–1975). In 1961,
she became chair of the Greek department
and held the position, without sabbatical,
until her retirement 27 years later in 1988.
A revered and formidable presence on
campus, although always wearing sneakers
or Wellington boots, she was an inspiring,
caring and demanding teacher. She taught
her signature undergraduate course—“Baby” Greek—almost
every year, introducing nearly 1,000 students to the language.
Her graduate seminars on Homer and Thucydides set a
standard across her academic field.
A prolific and celebrated scholar, she wrote 12 books and
more than 50 articles, spanning the fields of history,
epigraphy, and archaeology. As a Fellow of the American
School of Classical Studies at Athens, she excavated at the
Acropolis and the Agora; this led to the publication of the
first guide to the Agora, four Agora picture books, and three
scholarly volumes in the Agora series. In the 1950s and 1960s,
she participated in excavations at Gordion (Turkey) and the
Palace of Nestor at Pylos (Greece) that led to numerous
publications. Her reconstruction of the
frescoes at Pylos and her interpretation
of tablet fragments in Linear B (the script
of the Mycenaeans) were particularly
influential, and her later scholarship on
Herodotus, Homer, and Thucydides equally
well-received.
Lang’s honors included a Guggenheim
Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship to
Greece, three honorary degrees, and
membership in the American Philosophical
Society, the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, the German Archeological
Institute, Phi Beta Kappa, and Phi Kappa Phi.
Memorial gifts may be sent to Bryn Mawr College for the
Mabel L. Lang Fund in the Humanities (make a gift online at
www.brynmawr.edu/makeagift). More tributes can be read at
http://mabellangmemorial.blogs.brynmawr.edu.
A memorial service will be held at the College on April 3,
2011, at 3 p.m. in Thomas Great Hall.
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