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Some historical notes on scholarly Fellowships (especially post­classical) at the American Academy in Rome (compiled by C. Huemer 4­01) The American Academy in Rome was founded as the American School of Architecture in Rome in 1894, changed its name to the American Academy in Rome in 1897, and merged with the American School of Classical Studies in Rome on December 31, 1912. At that time, the “School of Classical Studies” was allowed to retain its distinctive name as a division of the enlarged Academy, while the name “School of Fine Arts” was applied to the architects, painters and sculptors.

Fellowships for landscape architects, for composers (the “School of Music”), and for writers were added later.

Thus, although there was a strong historical component to architectural education in the Beaux­Arts tradition, the origins of historical and humanistic scholarship at the American Academy must be sought under the rubric of “Classical Studies.” The American School of Classical Studies in Rome, founded in 1895, was modeled on its sister institution in Athens, founded in 1881. Both were administered by the Archaeological Institute of America. The early regulations of the American School for Classical Studies in Rome provided not only for the teaching of Latin literature, inscriptions and paleography but also “the topography and antiquities of Rome itself; and ... the archaeology of ancient Italy (Italic, Etruscan, Roman) and of the early Christian, Medieval, and Renaissance periods.” In addition to the lessons given by their own professors, the students took courses in ancient art and topography at the German Archaeological Institute and studied paleography and numismatics at the Vatican Library.

The first annual report, as well as correspondence in the archives of the Archaeological Institute of America, indicates that there was some disagreement over the name of the School and the definition of its program. Some of the Managing Committee needed to be reassured that “classical studies” included archaeology.1 The first director of the new School, William Gardner Hale of the University of Chicago, a Latinist, wrote on May 28, 1895: “The plan of the School at Rome is essentially that of the School at Athens. Both are now styled ‘Schools of Classical Studies,’ although, in the first of the regulations of the Roman School, we have expressly left the ground open for studies of the Early Christian, the Medieval and the Renaissance periods…”2 Hale thought that the latter studies could wait until after a firm foundation had been established in Classical studies. Arthur L. Frothingham, Jr., of Princeton University, initially appointed co­director with Hale and subsequently named assistant director instead, wanted to move quickly into “post­classical” instruction. Hale’s opposition was clear: “I dissent entirely from your sense of the word ‘post­classical’, which is not according to the best or common usage, and which lies at the bottom of a great 1

“First annual report of the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies in Rome,” American Journal of Archaeology, second series, c.1, no. 1 (1897), p. 9­10.

2 Archives of the Archaeological Institute of America, folder 8.9, letter of William Gardner Hale to Seth Low, May 28, 1895.

deal of misunderstandings on the question of the name of the school…”3 Hale also disapproved of Frothingham’s appeal to major theological schools to fund a Fellowship in Christian Archaeology in the first year of the School’s operation.

Frothingham was successful, however, and the first Fellow in Christian Archaeology, Walter Lowrie, was appointed for the 1895/96 year along with two more traditional classicists, William K. Denison and Walter Dennison. In this first year, the students benefited from their association with the architects and artists of the American School of Architecture, with whom they shared their quarters in the Villa Aurora.4 The strength of the instruction in archaeology and the history of art in the curriculum of the new School was the result of the efforts not only of Frothingham but also of his colleague and mentor Allan Marquand, who served as professor of archaeology in 1896/97 and continued to play an influential role as chairman of the AIA’s Committee on the Fellowship in Christian Archaeology and later of the Committee on the Fellowship in Medieval and Renaissance Archaeology,5 serving until his death in 1924. These two Committees (merged into one in 1921) were responsible for the selection of post­classical art historians (long before the Fellowship in the History of Art was officially established in 1947) and thus were influential, indirectly, in the development of American scholarship in the history of Italian art.6 It is important to remember that while the classicists studied social and economic history, topography, paleography, epigraphy, and Greek and Latin literature as well as ancient art and archaeology, post­classical scholarship at the Academy before World War II was almost exclusively art­historical.

Richard Norton, son of the famous Harvard scholar (and AIA founder) Charles Eliot Norton, was appointed professor of archaeology in 1897/98 and served as director of the School from 1899 to 1907. Norton willingly expanded the chronological coverage to include Medieval and Renaissance Studies and was instrumental in building up the Library in these fields, most notably by securing the deposit of the Brandegee collection in 1904/05. This year marked the first Fellowship award in Renaissance art.

When the two Schools merged, the classicist Jesse Benedict Carter became the first director of the combined Academy.7 The Archaeological Institute of America continued its active role in the affairs of the School of Classical Studies, and the Mediaeval and Renaissance Fellowship continued until at least 1932.8

3

AIA archives, 8.10, letter of William Gardner Hale to Arthur Frothingham, Jr., June 10, 1895. The alternate suggestions for the name for the School are not preserved there, although there may be more information in the Frothingham papers at Princeton, which I have not yet examined.

4 This arrangement lasted only one year, after which the classicists moved to the Villa Cheremeteff on Via Gaeta. In 1901 the School moved again to the Villa Bonghi on Via Vicenza.

5 Also called the Committee on Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies.

6 Among the winners of these Fellowships were Walter Lowrie, Charles Rufus Morey, Richard Offner, A.M.Friend, Walter W.S.Cook., Marion Lawrence, and Myrtilla Avery. Charles Rufus Morey took over the chairmanship of the Mediaeval and Renaissance Committee after Marquand’s death and served as Professor of the School of Classical Studies in 1925/26.

7 Replacing the painter Francis D. Millet, who went down with the Titanic.

8 Research to be continued at AIA archives.

When the Academy reopened after World War II, a Fellowship in the History of Art was established with the advent of director Laurence Roberts, an art historian himself.

In the late 1950s, Roberts, Rensselaer Lee and Richard Krautheimer formed the selection committee for the Art History Fellowships, bringing in many distinguished scholars. Post­Classical Humanistic Fellowships in other fields were not awarded until 1958. In 1961 the Bollingen Foundation funded two fellowships in post­classical humanistic studies for three years (later extended two more years).9 The first Bollingen Foundation Fellows were Medievalists, Emil J. Polak and Kenneth J. Pratt.

A Fulbright Fellowship brought the first musicologist, Frank D’Accone, to the ranks in 1963/64. From the mid­1970s on, the National Endowment for the Humanities also aided humanistic scholarship at the Academy.

9

American Academy in Rome, Report 1959­1964, p. 71.