Sunlight and Stone: Early Photographers and Travelers in Athens and Rome

    College of Liberal Arts
    image of Andrew standing wearing a blue shirt and black pants with his hands crossed

    FIRST ANNUAL DANIEL P. TOMPKINS MEMORIAL LECTURE ON DIVERSITY IN THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN

    Speaker: Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, Wesleyan University

    Almost as soon as photography was invented, in 1839, photographers were making pictures of renowned Classical monuments like the Parthenon and the Colosseum. At the same time there was a great increase in the number of travelers, from northern Europe and the USA, many of whom wrote about their experiences in the “antique lands.” This talk will discuss how photographers and travelers constructed their visions of Classical antiquity.

    Andrew Szegedy-Maszak earned his B.A. in Classics at the University of Michigan and his Ph.D. at Princeton University.  Since 1973 he has been on the faculty at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, where he is now Professor of Classical Studies and Jane A. Seney Professor of Greek. He has published widely on Greek history and historiography and on the history of photography.  His ongoing project is the study of the representation of classical sites by 19th-century photographers and travel writers.