Palatine Hill (Italy)

Scope and Contents From the Collection:

The goal was to provide high quality images of Rome, as few were available at the time. Of the thousands of photographs that Aronson and Millon took during the two flights, only 300 of the clearest images were selected for the publication of the Portfolio. Aronson published the Portfolio in 1979 through his company, Aerpicfoto, which at the time was located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Scope and Contents From the Collection: Marion E. Blake collected miscellaneous materials during her research on Roman buildings (Republic and early Empire) and Roman mosaics (second century, Republic, early and late Empire). Both she and Esther Van Deman took many notes during their archaeological surveys and study trips in Italy, Europe and North Africa. The Blake material, always included in the Van Deman Collection, has recently been discovered and re-evaluated as a unique nucleus. The collection is now an accurate survey,...

Scope and Contents From the Collection:

The collection is composed of notes taken by Esther Van Deman during all her archaeological surveys and travel excavations in the Roman Forum between 1907 and 1929. It is a rare example of both a personal and a professional archive.

Abstract Esther Van Deman's work focuses on building materials, working to establish a chronology of construction for the ancient sites. In 1907, while attending a lecture in the Atrium Vestae in Rome, Van Deman noticed that the bricks blocking up a doorway differed from those of the structure itself. Such differences in building materials provided a key to discovering the chronology of ancient structures. Van Deman's basic methodology, with few modifications, became the standard procedure in Roman...