Curtis Runnels Collection
COLLECTION OVERVIEW
Collection Number: GR ASCSA CR 113
Name(s) of Creator(s): Curtis Runnels (1950 - )
Title: Curtis Runnels Collection
Date [bulk]: 1825-1930s
Date [inclusive]:
Language(s): English
Summary: This is a growing collection containing items of interest to its creator, Curtis Runnels, whose main interests lie in Modern Greek History, as well as the History of American Archaeology in Greece.
Quantity:
Immediate Source of Acquisition: Gift of Curtis Runnels, 2006, 2008, 2019, 2020, 2022.
Information about Access: The collection is available for research after consultation with the Archivist.
For more information, please contact the Archives:
The American School of Classical Studies at Athens
54 Souidias Street, Athens 106 76, Greece
phone: 213-000-2400 (ext. 425)
Contact via E-mail
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Curtis Runnels is Professor of Archaeology, Anthropology, and Classical Studies at Boston University. He has conducted research in Greece and neighboring regions in the eastern Mediterranean (e.g., Albania and Turkey) since 1973 on a wide range of subjects ranging from the early Palaeolithic occupation of the region, to the origins of agriculture, and the emergence of warfare in the Neolithic. In addition, Runnels has been an editor of the Journal of Field Archaeology, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and Senior Associate Member at the American School of Classical Studies. In 2019, he was awarded the Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement by the Archaeological Institute of America.
CONTENT LIST
SERIES I: HISTORY OF MODERN GREECE
Box 1
Folder 1 [flat storage]
Archive of New England newspapers (10 items) relating to the Greek War of Independence and other news from Greece (in chronological order).
--The Salem Gazette, Friday Morning, Juy 27, 1821. Vol. XXXV, no. 60.
--Connecticut Courant, Hartford, Tuesday, August 20, 1822. Vol. LVIII, no. 3004 (article about the Chios Massacre)
--Boston Recorder, Congress Street, Boston, Saturday, September 21, 1822. Vol. VII, no. 38 (article titled "Egypt. Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Pliny Fisk, on his return from Egypt to Malta"
--New Hampshire Gazette, Portsmouth, Tuesday, October 22, 1822. Vol. LXVII, no. 48 (article titled "The Greek Victory.")
--Salem Observer, Court Street, Salem, Mass[achussets], Saturday Morning, April 10, 1824. Vol. II, no. 15 (Article titled "Description of a Grecian Temple: Recently Discovered Under-ground near the Ciy of Corfu, in the Ionian Islands."
--Boston Recorder and Telegraph, Congress Street, Boston, Massachussets, Friday, March 31, 1826. Vol. XI, no. 21 (Article titled "Good News from Greece.")
--Boston Recorder and Telegraph, Congress Street, Boston, Massachussets, Friday, June 23, 1826. Vol. XI, no. 25. (Article titled "Missolonghi Fallen!")
--Boston Recorder and Telegraph, Congress Street, Boston, Massachussets, Friday, June 30, 1826. Vol. XI, no. 26. (Article titled "More Greek Youth.")
--New_Hampshire Patriot & State Gazette, Concord, New-Hampshire, Monday, December 31, 1827. Vo. XIX, no. 978. (Article titled "The Turkish ad Egyptian Fleet Destroyed.")
--United States' Telegraph, Washington City, Tuesday, January 12, 1830. Vol. V, no.4
Folder 2
Letter from the Swedish Ambassador in Constantinople to Sir Stratford Canning (1786-1880), written on December 8, 1827, in relation to the repercussions of the Battle of Navarino (1827).
Folder 3
Packet of letters by and from Michael Iatros, Nauplion, 23 items, ca. 1851-1858. Iatros was city counselor of Nauplion in the time of Ioannis Kapodistrias and King Otto. He played a part in the 1862 rising of the Nauplion garrison that led to King Otto's abdication.
Folder 4
Panorama of Athens, ca. 1836, titled "ATHENS. Published under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. From the Authorities of Colonel Leake and C.R. Cockerell Esq[i]re." Scale 1/4 of a Mile.
Folder 5
Ten cabinet photographs of Athens, ca. 1875-1878.
-01. Πανόραμα Αθηνών - Panorama d' Athènes [from Mount Lycabettus]
-02. Πανόραμα Αθηνών - Panorama d' Athènes [from the Acropolis)
-03. Ακρόπολις - Acropole [from the southeast]
-04. Καρυάτιδες - Caryatides
-05. Ναός Αιόλου και Αγορά - Temple d' Éole avec l' Agora
-06. Θησείον - Temple de Thesée
-07. Θέατρον Ηρώδου του Αττικού - Théatre d' Herode Atticus
-08. Ναός Ολυμπίου Διός - Temple de Jupiter
-09. Ακαδημία - Academie
-10. Έλληνες στρατιώται - Soldats grecs
Folder 6
Map of Greece, ca. 1870s, titled "ΧΑΡΤΗΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ΕΚ ΤΟΥ ΑΤΛΑΝΤΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΗΡ. ΛΑΖΑΡΙΔΟΥ ΕΝ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΣ"
Folder 7
Four manuscripts which once belonged to William Jenks (1778-1866), a minister, and a professor at Bowdoin College, and the author of the Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Biblie (1835-1838). Three of the manuscripts dated in 1818 are related to Nikolaos Tziklitiras, a native of Navarino (modern Pylos) in the Peloponnese and originally a merchant who moved to Boston where he taught Greek. The fourth manuscript is a letter to Ioanni Zygomala (Chiote) from his mother (1830).
Folder 8
Three colored postcards from the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and the Greek-Turkish War of 1919-1922
-01. "Ο Ελληνοτουρκικός Πόλεμος 1912-1913. Ο λόχος των Κοζανιτών φυλάσσων τα λάφυρα". Photo Copyright by "Atlantis", Inc., Station E., New York. Printed in Germany.
-02. "Η Κατάληψις της Σμύρνης". "Atlas," 25 Madison St. - New York. Printed in England.
-03. "Η Ελλάς εν Σμύρνη". "Atlas," 25 Madison St. - New York. Printed in England.
Folder 9
Postcard, black and white, depicting Heinrich Schliemann's house in Athens. On the front: ΑΘΗΝΑΙ. ΙΛΙΟΥ ΜΕΛΑΘΡΟΝ. ATHENES. PALAIS D' ILION. 54. Handwritten: Madame Schliemann. On the back: ΕΛΛΑΣ - GRECE. ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΙΚΟΝ ΔΕΛΤΑΡΙΟΝ. ΠΑΓΚΟΣΜΙΟΣ ΤΑΧΥΔΡΟΜΙΚΟΣ ΣΥΝΔΕΣΜΟΣ. CARTE POSTALE. Union universelle des Postes.
Autograph of Heinrich Schliemann dated in 1869, found in a Greek Lexicon (now at the Gennadius Library) belonging perhaps to one of the guests at Schliemann's wedding. Read also: Who Went to Schliemann's Wedding?
Note
For a gift of a letter by John Gennadius to Lady Katherine Monkswell (?), see Joannes Gennadius Papers, Box 6, folder 1
SERIES II: HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CLASSICAL STUDIES AT ATHENS
Folder 10
Three items relating to the Director and Members of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
--Herbert Wing's identity card for use in the Greek Railways (20 September 1913) - Φύλλον ταυτότητας του Χ. Ουιγγ. Εταιρία των Σιδηροδρόμων Περιαώς-Αθηνών-Πελοποννήσου, 20 Σεπτεμβρίου 1913. [Herbert Wing was Regular Member in 1913-1914]
--Postcard depicting the American School of Classical Studies, from Director Bert Hodge Hill to Katherine Greene (εις το ατμόπλοιο Ισμήνη), 16 January 1913
--Postcard from Arthur S[toddard] Cooley to Amos R. Wells, Athens April 2, 1933. Cooley (1869-1956) was a member of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in 1897-1899.
Folder 11
Art sketchbook (82 pages) with watercolors depicting scenes in Crete and other places of Greece (Mykonos, Ios) in 1905; some later sketches date in 1915. It has been argued that it might have belonged to Charles Henry Hawes, husband of archaeologist Harriet Boyd. See The Cretan Idyl of Harriet Boyd and Charles Henry Hawes and The Cretan Enigma.
Folder 12
About 68 black and white snapshots from Greece (Athens,Corinth, Delphi, Samos, Rhodes) depicting antiquities but also refugees (1922-1923).
Note
For material relating to Harold N. Fowler, member of the ASCSA in 1882-1883, (a notebook entitled "Trip in the Peloponnesos. April 14th-30th 1883"; a preprint of an article by Fowler entitled "The Temple on the Acropolis Burnt by the Persians," AJA 1893; and one typescript page "Memories of the Founding of the Archaeological Institute of America" by Harold North Fowler), see the Harold N. Fowler Papers.