William B. Dinsmoor Jr. Papers

COLLECTION OVERVIEW

Collection Number: GR ASCSA WBD 048c
Name(s) of Creator(s): William B. Dinsmoor Jr. (1923-1988)
Title: William B. Dinsmoor Jr. Papers
Date [bulk]: 1963-1975
Date [inclusive]:
Languages: English
Quantity: 0.50
Summary: The collection comprises professional and personal correspondence, diaries, archaeological reports and notes, and photographs relating to his studies on ancient Greek architecture, as well as material from his work during WW II in the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in Europe.
Immediate Source of Acquisition: William B. Dinsmoor, Jr. 1978.
Information about Access: The collection is available for research.
Cite as: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Archives, William Bell Dinsmoor Papers (Αμερικανική Σχολή Κλασικών Σπουδών στην Αθήνα, Αρχείο William Bell Dinsmoor)
Note: The collection has been processed and catalogued by Eleftheria Daleziou, Leda Costaki (Series VIII: American Commission Files), and Lizabeth Ward Papageorgiou (Series X: Drawings).

For more information, please contact the Archives:
The American School of Classical Studies at Athens
54 Souidias Street, Athens 106 76, Greece
phone: +30 213-000-2400 (ext. 425)
Contact via E-mail

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

William Bell Dinsmoor, Jr., was born in New York in 1923, son of William Bell Dinsmoor and Zillah Dinsmoor. He attended the Phillips Exeter Academy and Columbia University, taking time out for active service in the military during World War II. In 1947 he received a B.A. in modern languages from Columbia. He then attended the Columbia School of Architecture, achieving a Bachelor’s (1947) and Master’s (1951). After the completion of his studies he moved to El Paso, Texas where he worked as an architect and engineer. Dinsmoor returned to Greece to assist Lucy Shoe Meritt in her study of Greek architectural mouldings and Carl W. Blegen in his books about Troy and Pylos. Dnsmoor also worked with Oscar Broneer on his publication of the Temple of Poseidon at Isthmia. For the period 1962-1963 he was the Olivia James Fellow. In 1966 Dinsmoor was appointed Architect for the Agora Excavations, a position he held until his death. In 1971 Dinsmoor began publishing his own research, mostly on Athenian architecture, but also on Corfu and Stobi (Yugoslavia). In 1980 he published The Propylaia to the Athenian Akropolis I: The Predecessors . He had also started working on editing and enriching his father’s unpublished monograph on the Propylaia. He died unexpectedly in July 1988, shortly after his 65th birthday.

[The biographical note is based on the necrology written by JohnMcKesson Camp II and published in the American Journal of Archaeology 93 (1989), pp.233-234]

CONTAINER LIST

Series A: Professional Correspondence

Please note: It contains also correspondence of WBD Sr. with publishing companies on issues which were dealt by WBD Jr., after his father’s death.

BOX 1

Folder 1
Business Correspondence
• Jotham Johnson to WBD 6 Feb. 1963
• George P. Brockway to WBD Jr. 24 Sept. 1974 [attached copy of a letter from George P. Brockway to Panagiota Dinsmoor, WBD Sr.’s second wife 24 Sept. 1974]
• George P. Brockway to WBD Jr. 8 Nov. 1974
• Handwritten draft of a letter from WBD Jr. to George P. Brockway 6 August 1974 [attached a handwritten Addition to Preface for the new edition of Architecture
• George P. Brockway to WBD Jr. 19 Aug. 1974
• WBD Jr. to George P. Brockway 10 Sept. 1974
• WBD Jr. to George P. Brockway 15 Oct. 1974
• WBD to W.W. Norton and Co., Inc. 5 Aug. 1973
• George P. Brockway to WBD Jr. 15 July 1974
• George P. Brockway to WBD Jr. 29 March 1974
• George P. Brockway to WBD Jr. 21 Aug. 1973
• George P. Brockway to WBD Jr. 23 Jan. 1974
• Two memoranda of agreement concerning ‘The Architecture of Ancient Greece’ June 1964 and May 1967
• WBD Jr. to George P. Brockway 11 Oct. 1973
• George P. Brockway to WBD Jr. 25 Oct. 1973
• Mary E. Ryan (for Mr. Brockway) to WBD Jr. 26 Sept. 1973
• Mary E. Ryan (for Mr. Brockway) to WBD Jr. 23 June 1975
Copies of WBD Sr. Correspondence with Publishers
• 1964-1965
• B.T Batsford [WBD Sr.’s publisher Architecture of Ancient Greece] Nove, 1942 with 14 pages of notes and comments from Prof. W. S. Burchon

Folder 2
Business Correspondence
• WBD Jr. to Georgios Christopoulos 9 Jan. 1975
• A handwritten note from WBD Jr. n.d
• Copy of a letter from G. W. Bowrsock to Homer A. Thompson 15 Jan. 1974
• WBD Jr. to Homer A. Thompson 28 Jan. 1975
• Copy of a letter from Homer A. Thompson to John Travlos 9 Dec. 1974
• Homer A. Thompson to WBD Jr. 21 Jan. 1975
• WBD Jr. to George P. Brockway 30 Jan. 1974
• T. Leslie Shear to WBD Jr. 26 Febr. 1971
• Homer A. Thompson to WBD Jr. 5 Feb. 1975
• Homer A. Thompson to WBD Jr. 26 March 1974
• WBD Jr. to Homer A. Thompson 15 May 1974
• WBD Jr. to Marian H. McAllister 14 May 1974
• WBD Jr. to Homer A. Thompson 29 Jan. 1971
• WBD Jr. to Homer A. Thompson 9 May 1974
• WBD Jr. to T. Leslie Shear 21 Jan. 1974
• Homer A. Thompson to WBD Jr. 5 April 1973
• Homer A. Thompson to WBD Jr. 4 April 1974
• WBD Jr. to T. Leslie Shear 13 Jan. 1975
• Homer A. Thompson to WBD Jr. 15 May 1974
• Homer A. Thompson to WBD Jr. 24 April 1974
• WBD Jr. to Homer A. Thompson 14 Jan. 1975
• Raubitschek to WBD Jr. 14 March 1981
• Homer A. Thompson to WBD Jr. 21 Nov. 1972
• Raubitchek to WBD Jr. 28 Dec. 1979

Series B. Manuscripts

BOX 2
Folder 1
The Temple of Athena at Sounion MS [Note on the folder reads: MS taken from Agora July 1997]. For a photocopy of the site plan, see below Series C: Architectural Drawings. For a copy of the manuscript used in Barbara Barletta's The Sancuary of Athena at Sounion (2017), see AdmRec 208/34, folder 1.

Folder 2
Correspondence related to the publication of the Sounion [Anastasia N. Dinsmoor]

Folder 3
Acropolis Article MS

Folder 4
William B. Dinsmoor III [WBD Jr.’s son] - Thesis presented to the Department of History Brigham Young University April 1978

Series C. Architectural Drawings

Box 3
Folder 1
Propylaea II Drawings
[The drawings were sent by the ASCSA Publications Office after the publication of Volume II]
[Kept separately in flat storage; drawer #9]

Folder 2
Propylaea II Drawings
[The drawings were sent by the ASCSA Publications Office after the publication of Volume II]
[Kept separately in flat storage; drawer #9]

Folder 3
Propylaea II Drawings
[The drawings were sent by the ASCSA Publications Office after the publication of Volume II]
[Kept separately in flat storage; drawer #9]

Folder 4
The Temple of Athena at Sounion: site plan 1969 (photocopy)
[Kept separately in flat storage; Red Room, Dexion Shelves]