Frederick A. Cooper Papers

COLLECTION OVERVIEW

Collection Number: GR ASCSA FAC 078
Name(s) of Creator(s): Frederick A. Cooper (1936-2011)
Title: Frederick A. Cooper Papers
Date(s): 1960-2000
Language(s): English, Greek
Quantity: 6 linear meters
Summary: The collection includes records from F. Cooper’s projects in the Peloponnese, namely at Bassae, Perivolia, and Pylos (MARWP): official correspondence concerning permits and funding, field recording sheets, notes, photographs, lantern slides, drawings and plans. A considerable part of the architectural drawings concerns his study and final publication of the temple of Apollo at Bassae (4 volumes), which started as the subject of his Ph.D. dissertation in 1969. While working at Bassae, he made the drawings of the newly discovered Doric temple at nearby Perivolia (1972). He returned to the site in 1978-1979 with J. Wilson Myers to obtain aerial photographs and for a survey of Phigaleia. Throughout the 1990s, Cooper directed the University of Minnesota’s program of archaeological research and exploration in the Peloponnese, MARWP (Minnesota Archaeological Researches in the Western Peloponnese).
Immediate Source of Acquisition: Frederick A. Cooper, Michael Nelson.
Information about Access: The collection has been catalogued and is available for research.
Cite as: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Archives, Frederick A. Cooper Papers (Αμερικανική Σχολή Κλασικών Σπουδών στην Αθήνα, Αρχείο Frederick A. Cooper)
Notes: The catalog was prepared by Leda Costaki (2013, 2020), while the Bassae Catalogue of Architectural Drawings and Photos by Peter Schultz (2000). Drawings and oversize plans are kept separately in Flat Storage, drawer #24 and Dexion Shelves in 2nd Basement.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Frederick A. Cooper (1936-2011)

Professor and archaeologist Frederick A. Cooper (1936-2011) was involved with the ASCSA for many years. First as a Regular Member (1968-69), then as a Student Associate Member (Strock Fellow, 1969-70) and a two-time Gertrude Smith Professor, directing Summer Sessions in 1978 and 2008. He was the Andrew F. Mellon Professor of Classical Studies from 1982 to 1985 and an NEH Fellow in 2001-02. He served on the Managing Committee from 1974 until his death representing the University of Minnesota, where he was Morse Alumni Distinguished Professor of Art History.

Cooper graduated from Yale University with an A.B. in 1959 and received an M.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1962. In 1970 he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where the focus of his study was Greek and Roman art, modern art, and Early Italian art. Prior to embarking on his career as an educator, he was president of a civil engineering/surveying firm, a background that informed his subsequent archaeological pursuits. He taught briefly at the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University, and Northwestern University before joining the faculty of the University of Minnesota in 1971. He had received numerous awards for excellence in teaching, including the University of Minnesota’s Distinguished Teacher Award in 1972-73 and 1989-90 and the AIA’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1996.

His study of the temple of Apollo at Bassai, begun in 1969, became the subject of his Ph.D. dissertation and remained his lifelong passion. His four-volume series on The Temple of Apollo Bassitas, published by the School in 1992 and 1996, is recognized as the definitive publication on the temple’s architecture and sculpture. In the early 1980s Cooper worked on the reconstruction project of the Temple of Zeus at Nemea. Throughout the 1990s, Cooper headed MARWP (Minnesota Archaeological Researches in the Western Peloponnese), directing three field projects operating under the aegis of the ASCSA. At Pylos, his team applied modern survey methods to resume, after years of architectural dormancy, excavation of the Bronze Age Palace of Nestor. MAWRP’s Morea project, a survey of vernacular architecture dating from the Frankish period to the mid-twentieth century, conducted field seasons from 1991 to 2000 (see, Houses of the Morea: Vernacular Architecture of the Northwest Peloponnesos, 2002). During the summers of 1991 and 1992, Cooper oversaw MARWP’s efforts on the Heroon at Messene, a concentrated program of recovery, study and publication with the aim of eventual physical reconstruction. Cooper’s work on these field projects delved into history that spanned three millennia, introduced undergraduate and graduate students to innovative and thought-provoking archaeological applications, and added immeasurably to the body of scholarly work on the region.

[From his necrology by Mary Sturgeon (https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/news/newsDetails/frederick-a.-cooper-19362011)]

CONTENT LIST

Series I: Bassae [former ExcRec #004]

Subseries I.1: Bassae Architectural Drawings

BOX 1

[Flat Storage, drawer #24]

Bassae architectural drawings (A1-112 no oversize): A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, A9, A10, A11, A12, A13, A14, A15, A16, A17, A18, A19, A20, A21, A22, A23, A24, A25, A26, A27, A28, A29, A30, A31, A32, A33, A34, A35, A36, A37, A38, A39, A40, A41, A51, A55, A56, A57, A58, A59, A60, A61, A62, A64, A65, A66, A67, A68, A69, A70, A71, A72, A73 A74, A75, A76, A77, A78, A79, A80, A81, A82, A83, A84, A85, A86, A87, A88, A89, A90, A91, A92, A93, A94, A95, A96, A97, A98, A99, A100, A101, A102, A105, A106, A107, A110, A112.

BOX 2