Archaeology Collection
Open Hours: Mon-Thurs 10-4
Visitors must present
current ID to enter the collection.
Appointments to see Fine Art are required in writing
Brief history of the College's Collections
From the earliest years of the College, M. Carey Thomas, as Dean and President, and Mary Garrett, a Director and Benefactress of the College, began assembling a myriad of objects as educational and decorative resources for the College. They collected fine furniture, paintings, prints, and objects of diverse world cultures for the Deanery. Thomas and Garrett also provided documentary photographs, prints and plaster casts, which were displayed in the old Chapel, the hallways of Taylor Hall, the Thomas Library, and used in the art curriculum.
These items were supplemented by an assemblage of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian antiquities collected by the first faculty in Art and Archaeology in the early 20th century. By the 1940's, major gifts of prints, drawings, and paintings had been received from Prof. Emeritus Howard L. Gray, Roy R. Neuberger and various faculty and alumnae. The Ella Riegel Memorial Collection for Mediterranean archaeology was established circa 1940, and the ethnographic collections were established by Frederica de Laguna in the 1950's. Over the last five decades, faculty, alumnae, students, and friends of the College have continued to give generously. Today the College's Collections number over 50,000 objects that support programs in a number of departments.