Gladys Davidson Weinberg (December 27, 1909-January 14, 2002) was an American archaeologist known for her work on ancient and medieval glass and its manufacture in the Mediterranean.
She was the editor of ''Archaeology'' magazine from 1952 to 1967.
Early life and education
She was born Gladys Davidson in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to Hebrew literary scholar
Israel Davidson and Carrie (Dreyfuss) Davidson, one of two daughters. She received a B.A. from
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
in 1930 and her Ph.D. from
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
in 1935. Her dissertation was about the excavations at Corinth.
Career
Her archaeological career began with a
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
expedition to Olynthus in 1931. She was appointed a Special Fellow of the School and kept working in Greece until 1938.
She studied at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens from 1932 to 1938. After that, she became assistant curator of ancient art at the
Princeton Art Museum for four years. During much of the 1940s, she did library work, serving as a translator and librarian in the Foreign Service Auxiliary of the U.S. State Department in Istanbul and Athens from 1943 to 1945. She then worked as a librarian from 1946 to 1948 at the American School for Classical Studies in Athens. In the 1950s and early 1960s while she was editing Archaeology magazine, she conducted several excavations searching for ancient glass factories, focusing on the early centuries when glass vessels first became household products. The
Corning Museum of Glass
The Corning Museum of Glass is a museum in Corning, New York in the United States, dedicated to the art, history, and science of glass. It was founded in 1951 by Corning Glass Works and currently has a collection of more than 50,000 glass obje ...
sponsored one of her excavations in Crete in 1959.
in 1965 she was the editor of a collection of analyses published in the
Transactions of the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
called ''The Antikythera Shipwreck Reconsidered'' in which they considered the issue of dating the
Antikythera wreck
The Antikythera wreck ( gr, Ναυάγιο των Αντικυθήρων) is a Roman-era shipwreck dating from the second quarter of the first century BC."''The Antikythera Shipwreck. The Ship, The Treasures, The Mechanism. National Archaeologi ...
based on what was on board the ship.
She relocated to the
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...
in 1948 where her husband later became co-founder and chairman of the department of art history and archaeology. She worked as curator of ancient art through 1973, assistant director from 1973 to 1977 and a research fellow from 1977 to 2002. She was co-founder of the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri with her husband, where she promoted the study and appreciation of ancient objects.
She also founded and became the first editor of ''Muse, Annual of the Museum of Art and Archaeology'' in 1966.
Weinberg and her husband received the Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement from the
Archaeological Institute of America
The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is North America's oldest society and largest organization devoted to the world of archaeology. AIA professionals have carried out archaeological fieldwork around the world and AIA has established re ...
in 1985. In 1986, she received the Percia Schimmel Award for Archaeological Exploration in Biblical Lands from the
Israel Museum
The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...
.
Weinberg's papers are held at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and at the Corning Museum of Glass.
Personal life
She married Saul Weinberg in 1942, and they had one daughter, Susanna Miriam. She died in Columbia Missouri in 2002 at the age of 92.
She is buried in Columbia Cemetery in Columbia Missouri.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weinberg, Gladys Davidson
1909 births
2002 deaths
American archaeologists
American librarians
American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
American women curators
American curators