Women and Ruins: Archaeology, Photography, and Landscape

The American Academy in Rome presents the first exhibition dedicated to the influence of a group of trailblazing women who helped record archaeology and landscapes from new vantage points.

Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the urban transformations that swept through Rome, with the resulting demolition campaigns, led to important archaeological discoveries that inevitably attracted experts from all over the world. Although contemporary social mores constrained women’s participation in cultural and scientific activities, the city was also a meeting point for a cohort of American, British, and Italian women, pioneers of photography and archaeology. These included the American Esther Boise Van Deman, one of the first women to devote her life to the study of archaeology; the British sisters Agnes and Dora Bulwer, involved in archaeological research and documentation in the Mediterranean; the historian and educator Maria Pasolini Ponti, a leading figure in the movement for the improvement of women’s conditions, the British archaeologist, explorer and diplomat Gertrude Bell, and Marion Elizabeth Blake, a fellow of the American Academy in Rome, who continued Van Deman’s research on Roman construction techniques.

Taken in Rome and the Roman countryside (as well as in Algeria, Tunisia, Croatia and other parts of the Mediterranean), the photographs on display are all small in size but of enormous historical significance. With a distinctly feminine focus, they document excavations that led to new discoveries about the ancient past, but also the social and political transformations of their times.

The exhibition is open on Fridays and Saturdays from 4 pm to 7 pm (closed from 6 July to 8 September).