Louise Adams Holland (3 July 1893–21 June 1990) was a

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

, university teacher, academic and archaeologist.

Early life and education

Born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in New York State (it would not become part of New York City until five years later) in 1893 as Louise Elizabeth Whetenhall Adams, she was the third child but first daughter of six children of Henrietta (née Rozier) and Charles Frederick Adams, a lawyer. Her younger sister was the

United States Poet Laureate The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—commonly referred to as the United States Poet Laureate—serves as the official poet of the United States. During their term, the poet laureate seeks to raise the national cons ...

Léonie Adams Léonie Fuller Adams (December 9, 1899 – June 27, 1988) was an American poet. She was appointed the seventh Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1948. Biography Adams was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in ...

. Louise Holland graduated from

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

in 1914 having specialised in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, and was awarded her M. A. from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and her Ph.D. from

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

in 1920, where she studied Latin. She studied at the

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History In 1893, a group of American architects, ...

from 1916 to 1917 as a Bryn Mawr Special Travelling Fellow and it was here that she developed an interest in

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

. In 1918 she became Instructor in Latin at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

and in 1921 she became assistant professor of Latin there.

Academic career

She married the archaeologist Leicester Bodine Holland (1882-1952) in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 1923 and their daughter Barbara Adams Holland was born in 1925. Her book ''The Faliscans in Prehistoric Times'' was published in Rome in 1925. The couple both taught at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

— she lecturing in Latin and he in

Art History Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

. A second daughter, Marian Rupert Holland, was born in 1927 and Leicester Holland was appointed as Chief of the Division of Fine Arts at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

while Louise taught at Bryn Mawr. Their son Lawrence Rozier Holland was born in 1930. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Holland did war work for

Midvale Steel Midvale Steel was a succession of steel-making corporations whose flagship plant was the Midvale Steel Works in Nicetown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The mill operated from 1867 until 1976. In the 1880s, Frederick Winslow Taylor rose through the ...

, returning to teach at

after the war. From 1948 to 1949 she was the recipient of a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

and from then on taught at

Haverford College Haverford College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), began accepting non-Quakers in 1849, and became coeducational ...

before moving to teach at

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the 10 ...

in 1952. Her husband died in 1952 and in 1957 she returned to

remaining there until her retirement in 1964 apart from a period from 1959 to 1960 when she was a resident scholar at the

Later life

After leaving Smith College Holland was awarded numerous honors including an honorary doctorate from Smith College in 1965, the Distinguished Alumna Award from

in 1978 and Doctor of Letters from

in 1979. During this period she published: ''Janus and the Bridge'' (1961) and ''Lucretius and the Transpadanes'' (1979). In her later years Holland suffered from macular degeneration and became blind. Louise Holland suffered a stroke in 1985 and while recovered physically, her memory began to fail. She remained as a resident in a convalescent home in

until her death in 1990, just short of her 97th birthday.

References

External links

Biographical Sketches of Past Bryn Mawr College Faculty in Greek and Latin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holland, Louise 1893 births 1990 deaths Writers from Brooklyn Barnard College alumni Columbia University alumni Bryn Mawr College alumni Smith College faculty Vassar College faculty Bryn Mawr College faculty Haverford College faculty Miami University faculty American topographers American philologists Women philologists 20th-century American archaeologists 20th-century philologists Historians from New York (state) 20th-century cartographers