David M. Robinson

Biography

Professor Robinson was born at Auburn, N.Y. on September 21, 1880. He received his A.B. degree in 1898 and his Ph.D. in 1904, both at the University of Chicago. He studied at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens from 1901 to 1903, at Halle in 1902, at Berlin in 1903-4 and at Bonn in 1909. He taught at Illinois College in 1904-5 after which he moved to Johns Hopkins University where he was Associate in Archaeology from 1905 to 1908, Associate Professor from 1908 to 1912, Professor of Greek Archaeology and Epigraphy from 1912 to 1913, Professor of Classical Archaeology and Epigraphy from 1913 to 1920, W. H. Collins Vickers Professor of Archaeology and Epigraphy from 1920 to 1947 and was Chairman of the Department of Art and Archaeology from 1913 to 1947. He also served as Chairman of the Department of Latin from 1944 to 1945. Robinson often held concurrent or visiting appointments at other colleges or universities. From 1921 to 1935 he was Professor of Greek at Notre Dame College in Baltimore. During the 1909-10 academic year, he was acting director and Professor of Greek at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens where he was Professor of Greek and Archaeology for a second time in 1946-47. He was lecturer at Bryn Mawr College in 1911-12, Professor of Classical Philology in the summer sessions at Columbia University (1919) and the University of California at Berkeley (1927). He taught Sociology and Anthropology at the University of California at Los Angeles in the summer of 1941. He was visiting Professor of Art at the University of Chicago in 1930, Professor of Latin at Syracuse University in the summers of 1929, 1931-33, and at the College of William and Mary in the summer of 1941. He was the C. L. Moore lecturer at Trinity College in 1935, the McBride lecturer at Western Reserve University in 1930, Lecturer in Fine Arts at New York University in 1926- 1931 and Larwill lecturer at Kenyon College in 1932. He was a very frequent lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America and was its Charles Eliot Norton Lecturer in 1924, 1925, 1928 and 1929.

Archaeological excavations played an important role in his career. He began as a member of the staff at Corinth in 1902 and 1903 and at Sardis in 1910. In 1924 he directed the excavation of Antioch in Pisidia and Sizma (Turkey) for the University of Michigan. His greatest achievement was the discovery, excavation and publication of Olynthus on the Chalcidic peninsula in northern Greece. This important city which was destroyed by Philip of Macedon in 348 B.C. was explored during four campaigns between 1928 and 1938. He authored scores of books and articles which take 22 pages to list at the beginning of the monumental Studies Presented to David Moore Robinson edited by his student George Mylonas of Washington University in St. Louis (1951) vol. I, pp. xxii-xliii. His most important publications are the 14 volumes of Excavations at Olynthus published by Johns Hopkins University Press from 1930 to 1952 under Robinson's editorship. Other important works by Robinson include Ancient Sinope (1906), Sappho and her Influence (1924), The Deeds of Augustus as recorded on the Monumentum Antiochenum (1926), A Catalogue of Greek Vases in the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology in Toronto (1930), the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, The Robinson Collection, vols. 1-3, (1934-1938) and Baalbec and Palmyra (1946). He also served as Associate Editor of the Classical Weekly from 1913 to 1936, and of the American Journal of Philology from 1920 to 1952. He was founder and first Editor-in-Chief of Art Bulletin from 1919 to 1921 and was Editor of News, Discussions and Bibliography of the American Journal of Archaeology from 1932 to 1938.

He was Editor of the Johns Hopkins Studies in Archaeology, a series of 38 volumes and was co-editor of Our Debt to Greece and Rome, a 45-volume series. He was a member of the Publications Committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens from 1931 to 1938. Robinson's service to scholarly societies was also prodigious. He was General Secretary of the Archaeological Institute of America from 1921 to 1923, Vice-President from 1921 to 1930 and First VicePresident from 1930 to 1935. He was twice a member of the Executive Committee of the American Council of Learned Societies and of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. He was President of the College Art Association from 1919 to 1923 and a Director from 1923 to 1943. He was also President of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States (1920-21), Chairman of the Advisory Council of the American Academy in Rome (1920-1921) and Vice-President of the American Classical League (1945- 1950).

On August 31, 1910, Professor Robinson married Helen Haskell who assisted him in his excavations and served as a gracious hostess to Professor Robinson's many students, friends and colleagues. Professor Mylonas, the author of the biographical sketch in the Robinson Festscrift, says "His many students will cherish forever the picture of Mrs. Robinson as the graceful hostess who brightened so many of their days, and those who were privileged to participate in the excavations of Olynthus will never forget her kindness, her efficiency and cheerfulness in the midst of adverse conditions, and her understanding of the failings of human nature. To this faithful companion of his life Professor Robinson owes much of his success." (pp. ix-x).

Teaching was a passion for Professor Robinson who assisted some 75 young scholars in attaining a Ph.D. and supervised 41 M.A. students. Many of his students went on to distinguished careers in academia. Notable among them were Allan Chester Johnson who became the Musgrave Professor of Latin and the Andrew Fleming West Professor of Classics at Princeton University; George E. Mylonas, Professor and Head of Art and Archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis; Paul A. Clement, Jr., Professor of Classics and Archaeology at the University of California at Los Angeles; James Walter Graham, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Toronto and Keeper of the Classical Collection at the Royal Ontario Museum; Dorothy Kent Hill, Curator of Ancient Art at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore; George M.A. Hanfmann, Professor of Fine Arts and Curator of Classical Art at Harvard University; Gladys R. Davidson Weinberg, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Missouri; Saul S. Weinberg, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Missouri; John A. Alexander, Professor of History, University of Georgia; George R. Edwards, Professor of Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania; Frank A. Albright, Professor of Greek and Latin and Chair of Art, Union College; William A. McDonald, Professor of Classics and Archaeology, University of Minnesota; John H. Young, Professor of Archaeology, Johns Hopkins University; and Richard H. Howland of the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1947 Professor Robinson retired from Johns Hopkins University as Professor Emeritus of Art and Archaeology and accepted an invitation from the University of Mississippi to be Professor of Classical Archaeology in the Department of Classics. He brought with him his vast collection of classical antiquities and continued to teach and publish there until his death in January, 1958. While at the University of Mississippi, Robinson founded the Mississippi-Memphis Society of the Archaeological Institute of America and saw to it that the University became a contributing institution of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the American Academy in Rome. In recognition of his distinguished scholarly achievements and his service to Greece, David Moore Robinson was awarded the Cross of the Royal Order of the Phoenix by King Paul of Greece in 1957.