The Life and Work of Francis Willey Kelsey
Archaeology, Antiquity, and the Arts
Publication Year: 2012
A vigorous traveler around the United States, Europe, and the Mediterranean, Kelsey strongly believed in the value of personally viewing sites ancient and modern and collecting artifacts that could be used by the new museums and universities that were springing up in the United States. This collecting habit put him in touch with major financiers of the day, including Charles Freer, Andrew Carnegie, and J. P. Morgan, as he sought their help for important projects.
Drawing heavily on Kelsey's daily diaries now held at the University of Michigan's Bentley Historical Library, John Griffiths Pedley gives us a biography that records the wide-ranging activities of a gifted and energetic scholar whose achievements mirrored the creative and contributive innovations of his contemporary Americans.
Published by: University of Michigan Press
Introduction
Francis Kelsey was professor of Latin at the University of Michigan from 1889 to 1927 and chair of the Department of Latin from 1890 until his death. He served as president of both the American Philological Association (1906-7) and the Archaeological Institute of America (1907-12). He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the ...
1. Setting the Stage
the freezing winter of 1858 in New York State had given way to early summer by the time Olive Trowbridge Kelsey,wife of Henry Kelsey, gave birth to her fourth child.He joined three other children, two boys and a girl. So the newcomer, who was to become a professor at the University of Michigan, head of the Department of Latin, president of the American Philological Association, and president of the Archaeological Institute of America, was the baby of the family, born when his mother was already ...
2. Apprenticeship: Lake Forest University
At the time of Kelsey's graduation from the University of Rochester, the United States was experiencing a period of unprecedented innovation and growth. Developments in technology, engineering, and science were having profound effects on society, every invention designed to capture time and productivity. Technology saw the appearance of the camera, the typewriter, the telegraph, and the telephone, while other applications of electricity revolutionized the workplace and the home. Railroads and steam engines, already ...
3. Quickening the Pace: The First Decade at Michigan,1889-1900
In 1889 the University of Michigan was in the midst of a period of great growth. Student enrollments had risen from 1,534 in 1880 to 2,153 in 1889, making Michigan the largest university in the nation. It comes as no surprise to find that the success of the university had attracted attention in Washington. President Grover Cleveland had appointed University of Michigan president James Burrill Angell a member ...
4. A Man of Many Parts, 1900-1906
At the turn of the century, the University of Michigan was riding high. Enrollment in the university had soared to 3,303 students, 20 percent of whom were women, and the state legislature was sympathetic. President Angell, everywhere revered, had been chosen by President McKinley in 1897 as minister to Turkey. Michigan men were in such demand that President Cleveland, reelected in 1892, had in fact been heard to remark, "When I was in office and needed help, I usually turned to the University of Michigan." 1 Despite these evident signs of the university's growth and success, things were not quite so rosy in the Latin Department. The central role that Greek and Latin ...
5. A National Profile: Kelsey and the Archaeological Institute of America, 1902-12
On the national scene, Francis was becoming more visible. In 1907 he represented the University of Rochester at the semicentennial of the Agricultural College in Lansing, where he enjoyed the company of the presidents of the University of Oklahoma and of the University of California at Berkeley. 1 In April 1909, at the invitation of Professor W. P. Dickey and President Boatwright, he gave three lectures at Richmond College.He and Isabelle were ...
6. A Regional Presence: Kelsey Close to Home, 1907-12
While the AIA and its programs were taking much of Kelsey's time and executive abilities in these years,much was happening in Ann Arbor, too. Only a person of unusual aptitudes could attend to developments in the university and town, as well as important moments in his and his family's private lives, in addition to the policies of the AIA. In Kelsey, both Michigan and the AIA were fortunate to have a leader of exceptional ...
7. Leading the Way, 1913-18
In January 1913, Francis Kelsey's mind began to turn to the more mundane aspects of professorial life-teaching, research, and publication-and to his family. Yet information about his other activities by no means vanishes from the diaries, nor does he disappear from the national and international stage. Business recedes into the background. Since the Wayne Development Company's board of directors met only once in 1913 and once in 1914, it is evident that business was not exactly booming. In fact, toward ...
8. The First Expedition (1919-21): Battlefields and Manuscripts
Through August of 1919, Kelsey's energies were divided between routine academic business and preparation for the expedition he had long had in mind. Since he was granted leave for two years as of September 1919, 1 replacements were needed to cover his courses. James E. Dunlap was appointed instructor in Latin for 1919-20 and Bruno Meinecke for the following year.2 Kelsey had been mulling over the expedition throughout the war years, and though ...
9. The Second Expedition (1921-27): Kelsey on the Move
For the balance of 1921, Francis resumed his usual academic life. He was teaching three courses (including Cicero on Saturdays at 10:00 a.m.). There was the normal round of staff meetings, which had to cope this year with arrangements for the annual concurrent meetings of the AIA and APA to take place in December in Ann Arbor. He was involved, as ever, in meetings of the campus planning committee, which was wrestling with the placement of new buildings and the proposed route of a freight railroad ...
10. The Final Passage
Francis's stamina was not what it used to be. He uncharacteristically slept too late for church services on Sunday, and the next day, he did not even have his breakfast-café au lait and croissant in his stateroom-until eleven o'clock.He read novels and newspapers and wrote letters, remarking, "This is the most complete rest I've had for years." 1 So mild was the weather that he did not need an overcoat. This elicited from him interesting comparisons with previous November crossings he had taken: whereas each of those occasions (in 1884, 1893, and 1920) had been accompanied by two or three days of heavy seas with squalls and flurries ...
E-ISBN-13: 9780472028054
E-ISBN-10: 0472028057
Print-ISBN-13: 9780472118021
Print-ISBN-10: 0472118021
Page Count: 456
Illustrations: 30 B&W photographs, 7 line art
Publication Year: 2012
OCLC Number: 775861694
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