Blake, Marion Elizabeth
Papers
ca. 1913-1964
Manuscript Collection: MS 0721
1
box
Agency History/Biographical note:
Marion Elizabeth Blake was born on March 23, 1892 in New Britain,
Connecticut to Arthur C. and Elizabeth Snow Blake. She attended New
Haven High School and arrived at Mount Holyoke College in 1909,
earning her B.A. in 1913 with majors in Greek and Latin. She earned
her M.A.(1917) and her Ph.D.(1921) from Cornell University. Blake
was a teacher at Wethersfield (Connecticut) High School, 1913-1917;
an instructor of Latin and Greek at Illinois College, Jacksonville,
Illinois, 1921-1922; an assistant and associate professor of Greek
and Latin at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina,
1922-1928; an associate professor of Greek at Mount Holyoke College,
1929-1936; an associate professor of Art and Archaeology at Sweet
Briar College in Sweet Briar, Virginia, 1936; a Latin professor at
Winthrop College in Rock Hill, South Carolina, 1937-1938; and a
research associate on Roman Archaeology at the Carnegie Institute in
Washington, D.C., 1938-1947. She then worked and lived in Rome,
Italy as a researcher at the American Academy Library, where she
studied Roman construction from 1947 to 1961. Blake died in Rome on
September 11, 1961 at the age of seventy-three.
Scope and Content:
The Marion Elizabeth Blake Papers consist of correspondence; a travel
diary; writings, including academic papers for her masters and Ph.D.
degrees (Cornell University) and two published archaeological
articles; biographical information; archaeological photographs and
sketches; photographs of Blake, and photographs taken on a visit to
Scandinavia in 1930. Of particular note are the letters she wrote to
Cora L. Eastman, 1937-1961, discussing her life in Rome at the start
of World War II and her research conducted in Roman construction at
the American Academy in Rome, and her writings, all of which deal
with Roman construction and archaeology, a topic which occupied a
significant part of her life. The letters discuss people and events
at the American Academy in Rome, social conditions, visits to the
opera, events in the deDaehn family, with whom Blake boarded, travels
in Italy, air raids in Sicily, bombings, wartime shortages and
restrictions, Mussolini's power, and the Marshall Plan. Also of
particular note is the travel diary from Blake's trip to Scandinavia
in 1930, in which she documents the itinerary of her stops in Oslo,
Norway, Stockholm, Sweden, Danzig, Poland, and Visby, Gotland,
Sweden, and her thoughts on each destination along the trip.
Cite as: Marion Elizabeth Blake Papers, Mount Holyoke
College Archives and Special Collections, South
Hadley, Mass.
Access Restrictions: Unrestricted
Series List:
- Correspondence
, 1937-1961
, 2 folders
- Diary
, 1930
, 1 folder
- Writings
, 1918-1948
, 5 folders
- Biographical Information
, 1918-1961, 1963, 1964
, 2 folders
- Archaeological Material
, 1920
, 1 folder
- Photographs
, ca 1913-ca 1962
, 2 folders
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