William Bell Dinsmoor - Scope and Content

William Bell Dinsmoor Papers (1886-1973)

Scope and Content

SERIES I. PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL CORRESPONDENCE [in chronological order].
[Please note correspondence folders related to the writing and publication of manuscripts as well as to Dinsmoor’s American Commission work can also be found in Series II and VIII respectively]

SERIES II. MANUSCRIPTS [published and unpublished].
Subseries IIa. Bassae [published]
Subeseries IIb. The Mayan Calendar [unpublished]
Subseries IIc. Athenian Architecture in the Age of Pericles [unpublished]
Subseries IId. The Parthenon and its Predecessors or Athenian Architecture II [unpublished]
Subseries IIe. The Panathenaic Frieze [unpublished]
Subseries IIf. The Propylaia: The entrance to the Athenian Akropolis [published as The Propylaia to the Athenian Akropolis: The Predecessors - The Propylaia to the Athenian Akropolis II: The Classical Building]
Subseries IIg. The Architecture of Anceint Greece, Second Edition [draft].
Subseries IIi. Greek Architecture in Ancient Italy [based on Jerome Lectures of 1956]

SERIES III. ARTICLES

SERIES IV: NOTES ON TOPOGRAPHY
a. Athens Topography
b. Peloponnese Topography
c. Islands and Asia Minor Topography
d. Delphi Topography
e. Restoration of the North Colonnade of the Parthenon [proposal]
f. Varia - Miscellaneous studies – Notes - Bibliography


SERIES V: RESTORATION OF NORTH COLONNADE OF PARTHENON

SERIES VI: NOTEBOOKS

SERIES VII: LECTURES

SERIES VIII. AMERICAN COMMISSION FILES

The American Commission files were created during and immediately after the Second World War, when William Bell Dinsmoor was president of the Archaeological Institute of America, chairman of the American Council of Learned Societies’ Committee on the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Cultural Treasures in Europe, and a member of the government’s American Commission on the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Cultural Treasures in Europe.

The American Committee and Commission were both founded as a response to widespread looting and destruction of monuments, archival and art collections, and other cultural treasures carried out by the Nazis through official and unofficial channels.  The Committee was established in August 1943 with several aims.  First, they meant to collect information on the people involved in looting, what had been looted and where it had been taken.  The intention was both to facilitate post-war restitution and counter Axis claims of Allied looting and destruction.  The Committee also created a series of maps for the armed forces, which showed the location of cultural treasures on the theory that, if the air force knew, for example, that the Louvre was a cultural treasure, they might not bomb it.

The Commission was created in response to concerns in the museum and academic communities that cultural treasures be protected.  Different agencies and individuals were interested in questions of protection, damage, looting, restitution and reparation of works of art. In theory, the Commission would act as a liaison between non-governmental organizations like the Committee and government bodies like the Departments of War and State so that ‘works of cultural value may be protected in countries occupied by armies of the United Nations’. Cooperation of experts on cultural material of all kinds with the military authorities on the protection and restitution of such material was fundamental for the success of such a project. A project that not only required a lot of coordination, but that was also multifaceted: it involved collection of information (namely information about the location of monuments and buildings housing cultural treasures and plotting these onto maps), circulating information (to be included in instructions issued to army forces) and educating civilians and military officers (public lectures, seminars). It was also a project that required different actions to be taken during the different phases of the war (pre-invasion phase, invasion phase and post-invasion phase).

The Dinsmoor American Commission Papers contain correspondence, manuscripts, drafts, lecture notes, notes, maps, photographs, newspaper clippings and publications concerning the work of the Commission. The papers also include file of reports on the status of the American School during the war (Box 59, folder 6) and the excavation and management of antiquities. There are also handbooks created for the armed forces and the war-time government that list cultural treasures in the countries under control of the Third Reich and for archives in Germany itself.

For further reading on the work of the Commission, the Report of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas 1946 (Box 63-Folder 5), summarizes the work of the Commission, its history, and provides an index of people involved with the work of the Commission.  For context, The Rape of Europa (1994), by Lynn H. Nicholas, covers the art scene in Europe from the rise of the Nazis until the present.  The Spoils of War. World War II and its Aftermath: The Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property (1997), edited by Elizabeth Simpson, covers the history of looting in World War II, the reappearance of some of the works previously considered lost, and the conventions governing art during wartime.

Subseries VIIIa. The American Commission – History Files
The American Commission - History Files. These folders preserve their original headings and contain correspondence concerning the organization and running of the Commission. Through the correspondence in these files one can examine the ideology behind the proposal for the protection of cultural treasures in war areas, the problem of restitution and reparation of works of art (a major issue being works of art that were destroyed or lost during the war) and cooperation ( or sometimes overlapping of interests) with other committees and agencies, such as the American Defense-Harvard Group. One can also follow the practical concerns of the commission, such as issues of communication, contacting individuals who could serve the goals of the Commission, making decisions on individuals and professional groups to be included in the Committee and the Commission, creating lists of cultural material to be protected in each country, and of course the problem of funding the work of the Commission. Duplicates of many documents can be found in other series of the collection.

Subseries VIIIb. The American Commission – Organization Files
The American Commission - Organization Files contain material pertaining to the creation, organization and work of the Commission. They include: a) Initial proposals associated with the creation of the American Commission, including the Memorandum to the President of the United States (1942) and outlines of the function and organization of the Commission (most of this material overlaps with material in the History Files in Series I); b) Minutes and Reports from the organization’s meetings (1943-1945), reports by various members and advisers of the Commission returning from trips abroad, most notably Dinsmoor’s reports from London (1944), Taylor’s report on looted property (1944) and Crosby’s report on his mission to Europe (1944, 1945); c) The American Commission Work with documents primarily concerning both the principles and goals of the Commission, and practical issues such as the filing system to be used; d) Correspondence with organizations and agencies, such as the Army Map Service of the War Department and various boards and societies (requests for maps and slides, order forms, collecting information). Special notice should be made of the ACLS Photographic Archive folder which represents an important part of the work of the Commission. The purpose of this project was, on one hand, to record visually the activities of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives program in war areas, and on the other to record the damage or survival of historic monuments and collections; e) Correspondence-Thematic. Some thematic categories, such as ‘Finances’ and ‘Transportation Requests’ have to do with the practical issues of running the Commission, while others have to do with research on individual countries. Of special interest is Box 59-Folder 6 on Greece, which also includes reports on the ASCSA; f) Correspondence-Alphabetical. Correspondence with individuals who were actively involved in the work of the Commission and maintained regular correspondence with either Dinsmoor himself, or other members of the Committee and/or Commission; and g) Correspondence-Chronological. Correspondence that has to do with the work of the Commission and could not be classified under the previous categories.


Subseries VIIIc. Material Collected from Other Organizations
The interests and aims of the Commission overlapped with those of other agencies, such as the American Council of Learned Societies’ Committee on the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Cultural Treasures in Europe. The Commission collaborated with various agencies and collected information and documents useful for the work it carried out. Much of the material filed in this series has to do with damage and looting of monuments (see Box 62-Folder 4).


Subseries VIIId. Lectures – Publications
This series includes correspondence concerning public lectures given by members of the Commission and the Committee, especially on First Aid and Protection for Art Treasures and Monuments. Much of it pertains to lectures delivered at schools where officers were trained for military government service.  The series also contains publications by the Commission, such as the Report of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas 1946 (Box 63-Folder 5), publications based on information provided by the Commission, such as the Civil Affairs Handbooks (Army Service Forces Manuals), (Box 64-Folders 1 and 2), and publications collected by the Commission.

Subseries VIIIe. MiscellaneousThis series contains most of the loose material that could not be classified under the other series, namely drafts and notes, articles, newspaper clippings and a folder labeled ‘Crosby-personal’, which contains documents and correspondence regarding Sumner McK. Crosby. A great deal of the material in this folder is not related to the work of the Commission and it is unclear why it was originally included in the Commission files.

SERIES IX. PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIAL AND DRAWINGS

SERIES X. NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS AND MISCELLANEOUS