Nashville Parthenon Subject of Lecture at Columbia
Barbara Tsakirgis, Mary Emerson and Dorothy Dinsmoor at the event
On the evening of September 20, 2012, Barbara Tsakirgis, Associate Professor of Classics and History of Art at Vanderbilt University, and Vice Chair of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens Managing Committee spoke to a capacity crowd at Columbia University on “The Athens of the South: William Bell Dinsmoor and the Design of the Nashville Parthenon.”  A reception followed. Professor Ioannis Mylonopoulos of the Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University and ASCSA Managing Committee Member organized the event and introduced Prof. Tsakirgis. Among the guests were Dorothy Dinsmoor, niece of W. B. Dinsmoor and representing the Greek government, Consul Evangelos Kyriakopoulos.  Friends of the School included Trustee James McCredie, Stathis Andris, School Alumnae Adele Haft, Kim Hartswick, and Mary Emerson, who is also the Executive Director of the School.  Many students and professors from neighboring universities were in attendance. A professor at Columbia University and the American School, architect William Bell Dinsmoor was invited in 1920 to lend his expertise to the design of the Nashville Parthenon, a full-scale replica of the fifth century BC temple dedicated to Athena.  Tsakirgis’s lecture explored the history of the building of the Nashville Parthenon and the evidence for Dinsmoor’s participation in the project.  In particular, the lecture traced the detailed information and measurements, achieved through years of examining the ancient temple that Dinsmoor brought to the creation of the replica in Nashville. Prof. Tsakirgis is a classical archaeologist whose research focuses on Greek houses and material found in them.  Since 1993 she has been associated with the American School's excavations in the Athenian Agora. Prof. Tsakirgis was a two-term member of the governing board of the Archaeological Institute of America and her educational background includes an undergraduate degree from Yale University followed by an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University. Read the article from the National Herald.