Archival windows into life at the BSR. The case of Eugénie Sellers Strong and Alexandrina Makin. (Part 2)

Eugénie Strong at centre, surrounded by BSR scholars, artists and staff.
Back row: Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Eugénie Strong, Colin Gill (Rome Scholar in Painting), Mrs Hardiman, Alfred Hardiman (Rome Scholar in Sculpture), Unknown.
Middle row: Miss Jamison, Miss Makin, Winifred Knights (Rome Scholar in Painting).
Front row: F.O. Lawrence (Rome Scholar in Architecture), Job Nixon (Rome Scholar in Engraving), Unknown.

During the later months of 1919 and early 1920, Eugénie Sellers Strong was tirelessly pushing to reorganise the structure and expand the services of the BSR Library. We learn from several letters in our miscellaneous box that there was a shared incentive to incorporate the BSR’s students into this restructure. New collections were acquired and catalogued while new rules were drafted, including such policies as strict silence and no writing of letters or private correspondence (one wonders what Strong would have made of our handheld, instantaneous portals to the digital world!). Correspondence between Strong, Ashby and the BSR administrators in the UK during these months revolved around alleviating the directors’ workloads via the appointment of an assistant librarian. Eventually, Miss Enole M. Hake was appointed – who we might find in the circle around Strong, above Makin to the left. Following this, Strong wrote to Edgar John Forsdyke, the BSR FAHL secretary:

• 

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13^th August 1919. Eugénie Strong writes to Edgar John Forsdyke, FAHL Secretary of the British School at Rome. The discussion of Miss Makin is at point 3. Strong often structured her correspondence around such numbered points. Image courtesy of the Author.

Strong was eager to “help [Makin] to eke out her rather slender scholarship by doing private secretarial work.” We get a sense here of both Strong’s desire to support the lives of students coming to the School as well as the close working relationships she fostered with them. This attention to the lives of the School’s students, during and beyond life at the School, is a consistent trend coming out of these boxes. Makin and Strong worked together in Rome for the next year, alongside Miss Hake, the newly appointed assistant librarian. An idea of how this year was spent is found in Makin’s application to the Gilchrist Studentship for 1920-21, a common path to study at the BSR in the early twentieth century, complete with a referral letter from Strong:

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We learn that Makin developed her knowledge of the ancient city of Rome through peripatetic study with Ashby and began research on the topic of the Roman ‘Triumphus’: that religiously sanctified and politically loaded urban procession whereby a Roman military commander and his forces ritually re-entered civic life and paraded through the city of Rome, displaying the spoils of wars fought near and far to the spectating city. Ultimately, Makin was unsuccessful (and indeed for the second time), the award instead going to on Mr. O. K. Struckmeyer – an English literature scholar. Testament to Strong’s admirable investment into the lives of her students and specifically her desire to keep Makin involved at the School, not least for her intellectual contributions, we find in another letter her supporting Makin’s application to the post of assistant librarian:

9^th September 1920. Strong writes to Forsdyke. This extract includes a wonderful insight into the character of Miss Makin, paragraph 2. Image courtesy of the Author.

As Strong puts it: “I am delighted at this and hope that the committee will ratify the appointment, for Miss Makin has already worked with me in the Library and I come to like her more and more in spite of a Scotch temper which at first seemed cantankerous, but she is really very nice and a hard worker – as Dr. Ashby knows – and you can imagine how glad I should be if she could stay on here as part Librarian and part student, working at her “Triumphus.” We should at least have an Archaeologist who stays some time.”

Makin was appointed and began her work in the Library after Christmas 1920, taking over from Miss Hake. She continued to study the Roman triumph. Her findings were eventually published in the Journal of Roman Studies in 1921. In the first footnote, Makin writes: “To this subject my attention was first directed by Mrs. S. Arthur Strong, to whom, as to the Director of the British School at Rome, Dr. Ashby, I am grateful for constant help and guidance. In questions of topography and in the construction of the map the help of Dr. Ashby was invaluable. I have to acknowledge also my indebtedness to Mr. F. O. Lawrence, Rome Scholar in Architecture for 1920, for his kindness in drawing the map.”

Map of the Roman triumph, from Makin, E. (1921) ‘The Triumphal route, with special reference to the Flavian triumph’, Journal of Roman Studies 11, 25-36. Image courtesy of the Author

Interpersonal, collegial working environments are one of the most rewarding elements of professional life. Here we notice how that very same principle was a feature of Makin’s experience at the School: working closely with the architect F. O. Lawrence, also found in our opening photograph, who helped to produce an illustration of her arguments. With the recent revival of the Scholar’s Prize in Architecture, it is exciting that we may yet see similar collaborations again in the coming years. While much of our topographical understanding of the ancient city has changed in the past century, and not least in the now more fluid approach to the triumphal route,[1] Makin’s study remains, even a century on, a key reference point on the topic and certainly does justice to herself, the tutelage of Ashby and Strong, and also to the community at the BSR in which she worked.

This miscellaneous box, then, has helped to enliven the photo with which we began. Strong surrounds herself with a wonderful cohort of artists and scholars: Winifred Knights, Colin Gill, Alfred Hardiman, and more besides. With the help of our box, we are also able to remember Enole Hake and Alexandrina Makin, that Library support team so critical to the daily running of the School which Strong nurtured and, in the case of Makin, cultivated a passion for the ancient world and provided a platform for research.

This is but one of many stories contained in the miscellaneous box, a box that is hidden away in the basement of the School. It is tantalising to consider who else we might discover by delving into the rich, multihued collections housed in the BSR Archives.

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Ben White

[1] See, for instance: M. Beard (2007) The Roman Triumph (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press); D. Favro, (2018) ‘Urban Commemoration: the pompa triumphalis in Rome’, in C. Holleran and A. Claridge (eds.) A Companion to the City of Rome (London: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd), 599-618.

Archival windows into life at the BSR. The case of Eugénie Sellers Strong and Alexandrina Makin. (Part 1)

An Archive is not a careful selection of materials, like a Library. A few days ago I heard this observation from Charlotte Roueché, Honorary Archivist at the Society for Libyan Studies, and it immediately caught my interest. Indeed, an Archive happens serendipitously, and the majority of its content is unpredictable, especially in the early phases of its gestation. The most fascinating boxes you may find in an archive, on a shelf, neatly arranged with other apparently similar boxes, are perhaps those labelled as miscellanea. The name itself may conjure all sorts of content ranging from the ‘quite’ trivial to the ‘absolutely’ inspiring and, more often, you do not know what to expect. Whether this box is completely irrelevant to your research or a door opening up a new unexpected path in your field of study, the surprise is around the corner.

In the following blog on the riches of the BSR Archives, our attempt is to turn the spotlight onto this particular set of materials and show the potential of its content by guiding you through multiple research strands. After all, everything depends on the way you look at these records and the perspective from which you are interrogating them. Research into archives might be compared to an archaeological excavation and sometimes, during the digging process, you do not know what you are going to find, to quote Charlotte Roueché again.

Ben White, a PhD student currently writing up his thesis on colonnades in ancient Rome, has been working as part of the archive team for several months on four such miscellaneous boxes. Now in this series of two posts, he will recount one of the stories emerging from these boxes.

Alessandra Giovenco, Archivist

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Ben working in the archive. Photo by Alessandra Giovenco.

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This archival box comprises c. 290 individual letters, telegrams and reports, as well as c. 50 postcards. Taken together, the materials constitute a veritable window into the British School as an institution during the years of 1919 and 1920. The primary content pertains to administration. While miscellaneous, and indeed regarding matters that are sometimes tedious and not immediately interesting, delving into this corpus of handwritten notes, laboriously typed-out reports, and plain financial receipts, affords a delicate proximity to life among an interconnected, vibrant community during the challenging post-war period.

Eugénie Sellers Strong, the Librarian and then Assistant Director (1909-1925), features in c. 45 letters, many of which composed in her typically cryptic script. What emanates from Strong’s writings is a remarkable attention to detail coupled with a resounding work ethic (herself often lecturing and networking whilst ‘on holiday’ touring the UK), a distinct appetite for the expansion of the Library’s resources and accessibility, and the cultivation of a compassionate network of diligent Library staff formed from the BSR’s alumni.

Strong was pivotal. A real focal point of the School who was responsible for so much of what endures today. A feeling of her personality can be testified in the mass of little postcards she penned (https://britishschoolatrome.wordpress.com/2018/06/19/postcards-photographs-1/). Such documents reveal the laborious processes of communication in the 1920s, especially, for instance, in the means of editing a publication such as the PBSR, for we often find scrawled annotations, corrections and illustration sources being discussed throughout these personal communications. One does wonder how they ever understood each other, even despite their training in traditions of palaeography! We can nevertheless picture Strong fervently answering messages day-by-day, finding the time when she could to write replies all over these small surfaces, suddenly finding that in her enthusiasm there was not enough space to finish the message.

• 

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Strong writes to Forsdyke, October 31^st 1919.

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In integrating the box’s miscellaneous materials with the BSR’s extensive multimedia archives, it is possible to animate photos such as this one, populating these monochrome snapshots with the conversations and interactions taking place in the School’s research community.

Eugénie Strong at centre, surrounded by BSR scholars, artists and staff.
Back row: Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Eugénie Strong, Colin Gill (Rome Scholar in Painting), Mrs Hardiman, Alfred Hardiman (Rome Scholar in Sculpture), Unknown.
Middle row: Miss Jamison, Miss Makin, Winifred Knights (Rome Scholar in Painting).
Front row: F.O. Lawrence (Rome Scholar in Architecture), Job Nixon (Rome Scholar in Engraving), Unknown.

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Seated at Strong’s right is Miss Alexandrina Makin, fondly known as Ena. We can come to know Makin through a series of references in applications and letters found in our box. In 1914, at the age of 22, Makin graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Masters of Second-Class Honours in Classics, in which Makin tuned her grasp of ancient Latin and Greek alongside her knowledge of archaeology. After the war, in 1919, Makin was awarded a George Scott Travelling Scholarship from Edinburgh which helped fund part of the journey to Rome and to begin research at the BSR. To supplement her modest studentship, Makin corresponded with the BSR’s administrators in London who suggested assisting Strong, following the advocacy of Thomas Ashby, the Director, who was sensitive to the need “for help in the Library, where there is plenty of work to be done.”[1]

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8^th June, 1919. Miss Makin writes to Arthur Hamilton Smith, Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, later president of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies (1924-29) and Director of the BSR (1928-30).

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In our next post, we will follow the experiences of Makin as she first entered life at the School, including her appointment to a position in the Library and her close working relationship with Strong as she fostered a collegial network of women in the early 1920s: a core interpersonal pillar of the School which this series attempts to remember. Our box allows us to give life to an otherwise hidden character and reconstruct the personality of a dedicated, tenacious member of the BSR’s academic and professional community.

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Ben White

[1] Letter to Edgar John Forsdyke, 19^th June, 1919.

‘Monuments Men’ at the BSR: Pompeii, Naples and Benevento in the BSR’s Ward-Perkins War Damage Collection’

Nigel Pollard is an associate professor in the College of Arts and Humanities at Swansea University. An archaeologist and historian of the Roman world by training, he was a research fellow at the BSR in 1996-7. Today his research focuses on cultural property protection in conflict zones, both historical and contemporary. He is a founding board member of UK Blue Shield (the ‘Red Cross for heritage’) and has contributed to the development and training of the new UK military Cultural Property Protection Unit.

As many readers with BSR connections will know already, John Ward-Perkins, director of the School from 1945 to 1974, was one of the pioneers of British military cultural property protection in 1943 to 1945. In 1943, Ward-Perkins was serving as a major in a territorial army anti-aircraft regiment commanded by his pre-war archaeological mentor Mortimer Wheeler. As British forces occupied Cyrenaica and Tripolitania after the battle of El-Alamein in late 1942, Wheeler and Ward-Perkins on their own initiative took measures to protect archaeological sites such as Lepcis Magna from damage caused by occupying troops. Eventually, in late 1943, Ward-Perkins was seconded to the newly-established Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFAA) Sub-Commission in Italy, the branch of Allied military government established with the aim of limiting damage to art, monuments and cultural institutions, and the real historical prototype of the ‘Monuments Men’ of the George Clooney film. Ward-Perkins remained an officer in the MFAA in Italy until the end of the war, when he took up the directorship. The BSR archives retain a wealth of photographs and documents that Ward-Perkins brought with him, providing valuable evidence for the origins of military cultural property protection.

UK armed forces are currently in the process of re-establishing their cultural property protection (CPP) capability for the first time since 1945 with the establishment of a small Cultural Property Protection Unit of reserve officers with relevant peacetime skills — just like Ward-Perkins — under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Tim Purbrick. The unit’s first training course was held in October 2019 at Southwick House near Portsmouth, in wartime the headquarters from which Eisenhower and other Allied commanders oversaw the D-Day landings in Normandy. Besides UK officers, the course was attended by personnel from other nations, including the Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale, that provides, in many respects, fine examples of best practice in many of the new UK unit’s intended activities.

I also attended that training course, and contributed a briefing on the new unit’s wartime roots as well as historical case studies of CPP issues. I undertake historical research into wartime CPP with the aim of extracting from that historical experience lessons of value to contemporary protection of cultural heritage. The BSR War Damage Collection has proved a very valuable source of images and documents for my work, along with materials from the UK and US national archives and elsewhere. Some of those images and documents have found their way into my current monograph, Bombing Pompeii: World Heritage and Military Necessity, to be published by the University of Michigan Press in late 2020.

One of the central themes of my book is the extent to which the damage to cultural sites in Campania in 1943 served as a catalyst for improvements in Allied cultural property protection policy and practice in 1944. One of the major deficiencies of the MFAA organisation in 1943 was that its activities were focused on the protection of cultural sites in areas occupied by Allied ground forces. CPP concerns were not integrated into the planning of operations, and certainly not into the planning of air force operations, even though aerial bombardment caused about 90% of wartime damage to cultural sites. Some vivid illustrations of this damage are provided by the BSR War Damage Collection.

Some of the damage, along with civilian casualties, was inflicted by RAF strategic night bombing before the Allied landings in mainland Italy. Pompeii, for example, was hit in error on the night of 24/25 August 1943 by some bombs intended for the steelworks and railway marshalling yards at nearby Torre Annunziata. The damage included the destruction of the on-site Antiquarium near the Porta Marina. An even more serious loss was the near-destruction of the (originally 14th century) church of Santa Chiara in Naples on 4 August 1943. [Image 1]

Image 1. Naples, S. Chiara, tomb of Robert of Anjou (Courtesy of BSR Photographic Archive, War Damage Collection, wpwar-0033)

A second major phase of damage to cultural heritage in Campania took place in the aftermath of the Salerno landings. On 13 September 1943, German forces began a counter-attack against the beachhead that threatened to drive Allied forces back into the sea. One response to this counter-attack was an intense campaign by Allied air forces to attack routes and infrastructure that were being used to transport German reinforcements and supplies to the battlefront.

One of the most intensively bombed target areas was the cluster of roads, railways and bridges between Torre Annunziata and the town of Pompei that connected Naples and Salerno, struck by both US and British air forces by day and night. It was in this context that most of the damage to the ancient site of Pompeii was done, as the intersection of the autostrada from Naples and the SS18 highway (at that time the main road to Salerno) was an important aiming point for Allied bombers. Given the limitations of bombing at this time, and given that no consideration had been made for the target’s proximity to the archaeological site, it was almost inevitable that some bombs (Italian authorities estimated a total of over 160) would hit the latter. While some civilian accounts at the time (including the memoirs of Amedeo Maiuri, the archaeological superintendent of Campania) suggested that the archaeological site was targeted deliberately because there were German forces stationed on it (or at least that the Allies thought there were German forces there), contemporary Allied air forces documentation shows the site was never targeted deliberately and the damage was accidental.

As an example, this photograph from the US National Archives (with my annotations) shows an attack by US bombers against that transportation infrastructure on 20 September 1943. Bombs have largely missed the stated target and overshot onto the archaeological site. As on other days, most of the damage was concentrated in the Porta Marina — Forum area of the site, but some damage was more scattered. In this case there is at least one bomb-strike in the immediate vicinity of the House of the Faun (VI.12.2), probably the strike that caused the substantial damage to that house that was characterised in immediately post-war Allied reports as ‘the most unfortunate individual loss’ at Pompeii.

Image courtesy of US National Archives with Author’s annotations

Another structure at Pompeii that was severely damaged by bombing was the House of M. Epidius Rufus (IX.1.20), and the damage caused by a bomb strike in the atrium is here documented in one of the photographs from the Ward-Perkins War Damage Collection (image 2):

Image 2. Pompei, House of Epidius Rufus (Courtesy of BSR Photographic Archive, War Damage Collection, wpwar-0056)

The damage, like that to the House of the Faun, was repaired quite quickly, as shown in these 2018 photographs. The tile course in the second photograph marks the delineation between the pre–1943 structure and (above the tiles) the post–1943 reconstruction.

Image 3. Photograph by Nigel Pollard

Image 4. Photograph by Nigel Pollard

The places worst hit by the bombing directed against the German Salerno counter-attack were the towns of Battipaglia and Eboli, close to the Allied beachhead, where the targets were German troop concentrations. However Benevento, a crucial node on the alternative inland road and rail route from Naples to Salerno, whose position was in many respects analogous to Torre-Annunziata Pompei, also suffered severely. The cathedral was almost completely destroyed and, in the words of a contemporary Allied report ‘the lower town between the DUOMO and the PONTE VANVITELLI has been obliterated’, and is ‘a mass of ruins’. This image from the Ward-Perkins War Damage Collection (Image 5) records the damage to the cathedral at Benevento:

 Image 5. Benevento, Cathedral (Courtesy of BSR Photographic Archive, War Damage Collection, wpwar-0058)

At the time of all this destruction, the MFAA organisation already existed, and American academics of the Roberts Commission had drawn up lists of cultural property throughout Italy that were intended for military use in efforts to mitigate damage. Those lists included the archaeological site of Pompeii (a three-star monument, the highest category in a ranking system from three stars to zero stars but still important enough to be listed), Santa Chiara (two-star), and the cathedral at Benevento (two-star). However, the lack of liaison between the MFAA and Allied air forces meant that this ‘cultural intelligence’ went unregarded.

The destruction of cultural heritage in Campania caused great concern in London and elsewhere. The specific examples of Pompeii, Santa Chiara and Benevento were cited in lobbying efforts by, among others, Mortimer Wheeler, who had commanded a brigade at Salerno and seen the damage at Pompeii and in Naples at first-hand before returning to London, while Ward-Perkins stayed in Italy after his transfer to MFAA. This lobbying bore some fruit from spring 1944, in that cultural property protection became a factor in the planning of Allied air operations. For example, Mediterranean Allied Air Forces produced an atlas of ‘cultural intelligence’ — aerial photographs of Italian cities with heritage sites marked on them for use in planning operations. But even as Allied air forces advertised success in avoiding damage to cultural sites in attacks against rail targets in Florence in 1944 and against shipping in Venice harbour in 1945, bombing continued to damage other cultural sites. A key part of the problem was the inherent inaccuracy of bombing using 1940s technology and tactics.

One important change between 1943 and the present day is that bombing has become (potentially, at least) more accurate, with the use of precision-guided weapons by many air forces. One thing that has not changed, however, is the need for ‘cultural intelligence’ to advertise the locations of cultural sites that need to be considered in the targeting process. The Ward-Perkins collections at the BSR provide excellent evidence for the early days of such ‘cultural intelligence’.

Nigel Pollard (Research Fellow at the BSR in 1996-7)

Learning from images of the past: how the study of archives can contribute to the preservation and protection of our cultural heritage in conflict areas

What really came to the fore at this month’s international congress on the protection of cultural heritage in conflict is the importance and obligation of sharing and building networks of knowledge.

The Prado Museum (photo by Alessandra Ciangherotti)

While the focus was on World War II, participants from prestigious European and American Museums learned that they weren’t the first to experience the necessity of protecting their collections before, during and after a conflict ­- Spanish public and private institutions had been forced to address this issue during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).

The event marked the 80^th anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War and, at the same time, celebrated two centuries since the foundation of the Prado Museum. Professor Arturo Colorado Castellary, and the research team at the Prado, have collated pieces of history from different sources, mostly Spanish – but they were keen to discuss this topic from various perspectives, and were eager to invite external contributors to participate in the debate.

Carlotta Coccoli (Università di Brescia), Alessandra Giovenco (BSR Archivist), Alessandra Ciangherotti (Library Consultant) (photo courtesy of Alessandra Ciangherotti)

Our paper was part of the session panel centred on the experiences of foreign institutions such as the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and the National Gallery, London. Within this context we told the story of the BSR collections to a wider audience.

US troops setting up artillery in the Valle Giulia with the British School at Rome in the background. 5 June 1944. Courtesy National Archives (NARA), photo no. SC 190223-S.

Between the summer of 1943 and the end of 1945 a special Anglo-American army division was operating in Italy with the aim to protect and salvage the Italian cultural heritage threatened by the war. The Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Sub-Commission (MFA&A S/C), which included prominent  Anglo-American museum directors, art historians, archaeologists and scholars wearing the army uniforms of their countries, was established not only to indicate the damage, loss, or survival of historic monuments and collections but also to create a complete photographic record of its activities in the field.

Major Paul Gardner photographing the Tomb of Robert of Anjou, in the church of Santa Chiara, Naples (1943) (attributed to A. S. Pennoyer)

Palestrina: J. B. Ward-Perkins and civilian personnel among the ruins of the Temple of the Fortuna Primigenia (photographer unknown)

 

Ancona: Basil Marriott in storehouse for books (photo by J. B. Ward-Perkins)

A large set of photographs as well as the reports and documentation produced by the MFA&A S/C were deposited in the British School at Rome Archives thanks to the dual role played by John-Bryan Ward-Perkins as BSR Director (1945) and Director of the MFA&A S/C in Italy (July 1945). They therefore represent an outstanding source of data to inform and build current best practices with regard to cultural heritage.

Set of publications from the BSR War Damage records (photo by Alessandra Ciangherotti)

Letter from Forlati (Superintendent for Fine Arts, Veneto region) to J.B. Ward-Perkins, 1947 (photo by Alessandra Ciangherotti)

Frick map from the BSR War Damage records (photo by Alessandra Ciangherotti)

These images, linked to field reports by MFA&A officers during their surveys, help to visually restore the destruction scenario and the scale of the efforts that were made to recover the cultural patrimony affected by World War II.

Naples: Santa Chiara, immediately after the fire caused by the bombings of 4 August
1943 (photo by Istituto Luce)

Many photographs from the War Damage Collection in the BSR Archives were taken by other officers such as Frederick Hartt, Perry Blythe Cott, Paul Gardner and Albert Sheldon Pennoyer. Through a detailed comparison of the Ward-Perkins Collection with the Albert Sheldon Pennoyer Collection from Princeton University, we were able to discover additional information, such as places or dates of significant circumstances.

In this example, we see a photograph taken in Poppiano, on 11 August 1944, showing military and civilian personnel loading a truck with crates containing artworks. The date and the description were taken from an identical photograph in the Pennoyer Collection in Princeton.

 

Fondi, people dining under the doorway of Chiesa di Santa Maria. On the left, a photo by J. B.
Ward-Perkins from the War Damage Collection; on the right, a photo from the A. Sheldon
Pennoyer Collection.

Furthermore, some photographs from both collections confirm that Ward-Perkins and Pennoyer were often together during their surveys, as we can see in the shots taken in Fondi on the same day. We also managed to identify other photographs that were probably taken by Pennoyer amongst those that were still of uncertain authorship in the Ward-Perkins War Damage Collection, thirty-eight in total.

The Prado event prompted us to rethink and reconsider this incredible archival resource by opening up new pathways of research and seeking collaboration with other institutions which hold similar records.

New means of interpretation for research-based practice and practice-based research can be envisaged as will be demonstrated in the forthcoming November event organized at the BSR in collaboration with Joanne Anderson (Warburg), Mick Finch (Central Saint Martins, UAL) and Johannes von Mueller (Bilderfahrzeuge) .

 

Alessandra Giovenco (BSR Archivist)

Alessandra Ciangherotti (Library consultant)

Carlotta Coccoli (Università di Brescia)

Summer #ObjectOfTheWeek

Every Thursday over the summer we highlighted an #ObjectOfTheWeek from our archives and special collections on Twitter and Instagram.

We asked some of our staff to choose an object and tell us why it is important to them, and here is what they picked out.

What’s your favourite object from the BSR collections?

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Peter Campbell, Assistant Director for Archaeology and Archaeological Science

@peterbcampbell

‘This map (c.1762, dedicated to British architect Robert Adam) from our special collections shows the Campus Martius in the Roman period as imagined by Piranesi. As a maritime archaeologist I particularly enjoyed the detail of Tiber Island’

 

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Harriet O’Neill, Assistant Director for the Humanities and Social Sciences

@HarrietONeill01

‘This catalogue gives real insight into the British contribution to the 1911 International Fine Arts Exhibition. I find it amazing that paintings by Constable, Reynolds & Gainsborough once hung here in Rome and the efforts that were made to transport them. I am curious about how audiences moved around the exhibition, and what the paintings, prints and drawings on display were intended to communicate about contemporary British art’

 

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Alessandra Giovenco, Archivist

@ale_jeee

‘This stereoscope was recently acquired by our Photo Archive thanks to Tony Richards of The John Rylands Library. A common means of entertainment in the Victorian age, it was the first successful attempt to render an image in 3D form through a particular photographic layout’

 

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Martina Caruso, Assistant Director for Art, Architecture and the Creative Industries

@LcarusoMartina

‘This is not an aerial landscape but a photo by Agnes Bulwer of a C13 embroidery at Anagni near Rome, taken to help historian ‘Miss RF Pulley (Mrs HH Jewell)’ on her mission to study English embroideries that had travelled to Italy. The photo was taken in 1910. Pulley coloured two of the series of photographs which were then exhibited in the British Historical Section of the Rome Exhibition in 1911. Little is known of the Bulwer sisters. We know the younger sister Dora was born in Naples, and after the death of their mother, they moved to Rome. The BSR holds five albums of their views of Italy, France, Greece and personal travel photos http://bsrdigitalcollections.it/dab.aspx ‘

 

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Valerie Scott, Librarian

‘A snapshot of the Roman Campagna in 1704 by cartographer Giovanni Battista Cingolani della Pergola, engraving by Pietro Paolo Girelli, from our Libray’s Special Collections. The detail is remarkable. For example, number 184 corresponds to the information that the land was owned by Cardinal Decano. Visit www.bsrdigitalcollections.it to find out more’

 

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Stephen Kay, Archaeology Officer

@stephenjohnkay

‘This series of aerial photographs of Portus was taken by the RAF on the 30 March 1944. The photographs, now curated by the ICCD, were saved by John Ward-Perkins following World War Two. They are a major resource for archaeologists to understand the changing landscape of Italy’

 

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Stephen Milner, Director

@italprof

And to round off our summer #ObjectOfTheWeek series BSR Director Stephen Milner chose our trusty moka pots used to make the coffee, or ‘black gold’, that fuels life at the BSR. Captured beautifully here by this year’s Québec Resident Dan Popa.

 

Restoring the ‘Opera di Bartolomeo Scappi, mastro dell’arte del cucinare’

(English translation below)

La Biblioteca della BSR possiede due volumi dell’Opera di Bartolomeo Scappi.  L’edizione del 1643 e la preziosissima prima edizione del 1570.

Bartolomeo Scappi, cuoco privato dei pontefici Paolo III e Pio V, fu l’autore di quello che viene considerato il più importante testo di Gastronomia del XVI secolo, Opera di Bartolomeo Scappi, mastro dell’arte del cucinare, divisa in sei libri (1570).

Scappi prestò servizio come cuoco presso i più noti personaggi del tempo, tra cui il pontefice Pio V per il quale curò il banchetto d’intronizzazione, divenendone successivamente ‘cuoco segreto’ (cioè ‘privato’).

I sei volumi della sua Opera propongono al lettore oltre mille ricette, ma suggeriscono anche innovative tecniche di ristorazione, preziosi suggerimenti per la conservazione degli alimenti, regole per l’allestimento di banchetti e tutte le conoscenze che un cuoco rinascimentale di alto livello doveva possedere.  Nel trattato troviamo persino i primi cenni di cucina dietetica per persone inferme e utili riflessioni sull’igiene alimentare.  Tra le tante curiosità in cui ci si può imbattere durante la lettura dell’Opera vi è la prima raffigurazione conosciuta di una forchetta o la definizione del parmigiano reggiano come ‘il miglior formaggio del mondo’.

Nel 2017 la BSR ha provveduto al restauro e alla conservazione dell’edizione del 1643.  Grazie a questo intervento, eseguito a cura dello Studio Aelle di Luigia Antonazzo, il libro è ora perfettamente recuperato e fruibile.

Nuove prospettive si aprono ora per il restauro e la conservazione della rarissima edizione del 1570. Si è, infatti, avviata una proficua collaborazione con l’Istituto Alberghiero ‘Sandro Pertini’ di Brindisi.  Sotto la guida della Prof.ssa Severina Carnevale, ideatrice del progetto, gli studenti di questa scuola hanno così deciso di ‘adottare’ il libro. Per ora l’incontro con il prezioso volume è potuto avvenire solo via Skype, grazie alla disponibilità della Bibliotecaria della BSR, Dott.ssa Valerie Scott, e della restauratrice Luigia Antonazzo.

L’interesse dei giovani studenti è stato grande e con i loro docenti, Professori Miano, Bistanti, Rubino, Marrazzo, Ugenti, De Giuseppe, Mariano, Fanciullo e Pellegrino, hanno avviato un percorso di ricerca e recupero delle antiche ricette di Scappi culminato nell’allestimento di un ‘Saggio di Cucina Rinascimentale’.  Un vero e proprio ‘banchetto rinascimentale’ tenutosi il 6 giugno 2019 presso le sale dell’Istituto Pertini.  Il ‘Menù dei Papi’ è stato molto apprezzato dai commensali e tante sono state le curiosità riguardo le tecniche e gli ingredienti usati.

I piatti serviti sono stati: uovo ripieno, crostone con capirotata, gattafure di cipolle alla genovese,riso alla damaschina, arrosto con prugne-uvetta e mele, insalata di mescolanza con fiori, insalata con capperi ed uva passa, fraole saucate con zuccaro, torta bianca reale, finocchio fresco dolce, arance candite e taralli dolci.

Un grande plauso, dunque, agli studenti del Pertini, con l’augurio che la collaborazione possa proseguire e che il patrimonio librario della BSR possa essere utile alla ulteriore crescita della loro sensibilità storica e delle loro competenze professionali.

Gina Antonazzo (Studio Aelle di Luigia Antonazzo)

http://www.brindisitime.it/presso-lalberghiero-pertini-si-e-svolto-il-saggio-di-cucina-rinascimentale/

 

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Bartolomeo Scappi, private chef to Popes Paul III and Pius V, was the author of what would come to be considered the most important text on gastronomy from the 16th century, Opera di Bartolomeo Scappi, maestro dell’arte del cucinare (1570).

The BSR Library has two volumes of the Opera di Bartolomeo Scappi, the 1643 edition, and the first edition of 1570.

Scappi took up service as chef to Pope Pius V for whom he prepared the banquet of enthronement, and thereafter became known as the ‘secret chef’ (in the sense of ‘private’).

The six volumes of his Opera set out over 1,000 recipes, but also make suggestions about innovative techniques for food conservation, how to set up the banquet tables and everything you might want to learn from a renaissance chef working in the top echelons of society. We even find mention of dietary requirements for the sick, and some useful reflections on food hygiene. Amongst other curiosities within the book we find the first depiction of a fork, as well as Parmigiano Reggiano being described as ‘the best cheese in the world’.

In 2017 the BSR arranged for the restoration and conservation of the 1643 edition. Thanks to this intervention, carried out by Studio Aelle di Luigia Antonazzo, the book is now perfectly salvaged and usable.

New possibilities are now opening up for the restoration and conservation of the rare edition of 1570, in the form of a collaboration with the Istituto Alberghiero ‘Sandro Petrini’ in Brindisi. Under the guidance of Professor Severina Carnevale, the project’s creator, students of the school have ‘adopted’ the book. So far, their contact with the book has only been possible through Skype, thanks to the willingness of BSR Librarian, Valerie Scott, and the restorer Luigia Antonazzo.

The students took great interest, and alongside their teachers, Professors Miano, Bistanti, Rubino, Marrazzo, Ugenti, De Giuseppe, Mariano, Fanciullo and Pellegrino, they began a course researching and rediscovering Scappi’s recipes, culminating in the production of a ‘Saggio di Cucina Rinascimentale’, and a Renaissance banquet was held on 6 June at the Istituto Pertini. The ‘Menu di Papa’ was much appreciated by the diners who were intrigued by the techniques and ingredients used. The dishes were as follows: uovo ripieno, crostone con capirotata, gattafure di cipolle alla genovese,riso alla damaschina, arrosto con prugne-uvetta e mele, insalata di mescolanza con fiori, insalata con capperi ed uva passa, fraole saucate con zuccaro, torta bianca reale, finocchio fresco dolce, arance candite etaralli dolci.

Many thanks to the students of the Istituto Pertini – we hope that this collaboration will continue to offer them a sense of the historical tradition in which they are working as they progress in their culinary careers.

Gina Antonazzo (Studio Aelle di Luigia Antonazzo)

http://www.brindisitime.it/presso-lalberghiero-pertini-si-e-svolto-il-saggio-di-cucina-rinascimentale/

 

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Back in February BSR cook Luca Albanese treated BSR staff, residents and award-holders to a Renaissance themed dinner based on one of Scappi’s recipes, which included costolette di maiale, cavolo alla romanesca, and rotolo di datteri.

 

 

Ashby Patrons Weekend 2019

This month we hosted our Ashby Patrons visit to Rome, a highlight of the BSR’s annual calendar. The benefaction of our Ashby Patrons plays a vital role in supporting the BSR. This special weekend, exclusively for Ashby Patrons, is a unique opportunity to become more closely involved with the BSR’s activities, award-holders and staff and to understand first-hand the work and mission of the institution. This years’ programme did not disappoint, with a full schedule of varied activities and excursions.

The opportunity for our Patrons to meet and engage with our current resident award-holders is a key part of the weekend, be that through the medium of presentations, studio tours or one-to-one informal conversations over dinner.

The first full day of the Patrons weekend included a behind-the-scenes visit to see the collections, Library and Archive of the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, a historically important institution which the BSR collaborates closely with, recently co-hosting this academic years’ international RA250 conference: The Roman Art World in the Eighteenth Century and the Birth of the Art Academy in Britain.

Following the visit, we were most grateful for the hospitality of Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Holy See, Mrs Sally Axworthy MBE, who hosted us at the current Ambassadorial Residence for lunch. HMA Mrs Axworthy explained the direction and work of the Embassy in the context of current major global challenges.

On return to the BSR the Patrons were treated to a wet-plate collodion workshop given by Heritage Photography expert Tony Richards , which focused on the BSR’s archive collections and the photographs of Thomas Ashby, the BSR’s illustrious first director, after whom the Ashby Patrons are named.

The second day continued along this watery theme… our Patrons took to the river for a boat trip down the Tiber. Despite rather wet conditions our spirits were not dampened – the cruise was most interesting. In the words of Director Stephen Milner it was an “eerie experience cruising down the Tiber… No boats, no developments, no tourists… an abandoned wildlife corridor to the sea. Yet once the umbilical cord that sustained one of the greatest cities known to human history”. The BSR has long worked on both the city and the port of Ostia and Portus, yet future research hopes to explore the river connections between the three sites.

Our boat docked at Isola Sacra where, after lunch, we were treated to a guided tour of the ancient Necropolis by Archaeology Officer Stephen Kay. This site was included in the area which was surveyed as part of The Portus Project, a very successful and long-standing research collaboration between the British School at Rome, the University of Southampton and the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Colosseo, il MNR e l’Area Archeologica di Roma.

 

To conclude the weekend, Director Stephen Milner delivered a ‘State of the Nation’ address to the Patrons, outlining the current direction and future of the BSR. In light of the update on the progress of the work currently being undertaken on the Lutyens façade, the Patrons were given the opportunity to view Lutyens’ original architectural drawings, recently returned to the BSR and partly conserved due to the generosity of the Patrons additional gifts.  

It was a pleasure to host the Ashby Patrons in Rome and to thank them for their continued encouragement and support.

If you are interested in becoming an Ashby Patron, or would like to learn more about how to support the BSR, please contact Alice Marsh on outreach@bsrome.it

 

Text by Alice Marsh (Impact and Engagement Officer). Images by Natalie Arrowsmith (Communications Manager).

Second World War military intelligence: aerial photography in the Mediterranean Theatre

Earlier this year as part of the event Second World War military intelligence: aerial photography in the Mediterranean Theatre, we were delighted to welcome Allan Williams, director of the UK’s National Collection of Aerial Photography (based in Edinburgh). The NCAP is dedicated to the conservation and dissemination of aerial photography, and the majority of their holdings focus on Germany and Austria, though a significant proportion covers Italy and the Mediterranean, holding further research potential.

Allan was joined by Elizabeth Jane Shepherd, of the Aerofototeca Nazionale, ICCD, who spoke alongside BSR Archivist Alessandra Giovenco about the BSR RAF Collections. You can read more about the event in Italian in this article in Geomedia.

Aerial photograph of the BSR and the Valle Giulia in 1944

We were also honoured to be joined by Francesco Scoppola, Director of Direzione Generale Educazione e Ricerca at MiBACT.

Francesco Scoppola (Director of Direzione Generale Educazione e Ricerca at MiBACT) with BSR Director Stephen Milner and BSR Archivist Alessandra Giovenco

A small exhibition was organized with some archival items from the Aerofototeca Nazionale as well as the BSR Administrative Archive. Original documents and the box in which the photographs were initially stored were on display, alongside reproductions in large scale of aerial views. Also on display was a video telling the story of the huge endeavour that involved thousands of officers, both women and men, in the photo interpretation units in their attempt to defeat the Axis powers.

The story of these collections started with John Bryan Ward-Perkins in the last days of World War Two.

 

The two Johns

John Bryan Ward-Perkins (Photo: BSR Archives, courtesy of the Ward-Perkins family)

John Bryan Ward-Perkins – the BSR’s director from 1945 to 1974 – is well-known for his role as one of the World War Two Monuments Men in his capacity as Deputy Director of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFA&A) Allied Sub-Commission in Italy from 1944 to early 1946. Originally recruited to the 42nd Mobile LA regiment by Mortimer Wheeler, Ward-Perkins spent much of the war in North Africa, particularly Lepcis Magna in Libya. During the war he was enrolled to participate in a massive survey of war damage to Italian heritage as Deputy Director and then Director of the MFA&A Allied Sub-Commission.

Aerial view of Rome, courtesy Aerofototeca Nazionale, ICCD.

It was in his capacity as a Monuments Man that Ward-Perkins was initially approached by John Bradford (pictured below on the left), a pioneer in landscape archaeology and aerial photography for research and scientific purposes. John Bradford was an English historian from Christ Church College, Oxford, who was recruited as photo interpreter in 1943 by the Mediterranean Allied Photographic Reconnaissance Wing (MAPRW) based in San Severo, a small village in Southern Italy (Puglia).

John Bradford with his wife Patience and brother-in-law Derek. The photo was taken by the siblings’ father in 1950 (photo taken from John Bradford e la ricerca archeological dal cielo 1945/1957 by Francesca Franchin Radcliffe)

Referring to the photographs taken by the RAF for military and intelligence operations, Bradford reports that: ‘It was originally intended, by the operational units concerned, that as the battle-line moved forward, so the air photos thus rendered non operational would be discarded and sent as ballast back to England for pulping … In the spring of 1945 it was decided to scrap everything up to a line PISA-PESARO, and eventually of course the same treatment was to be applied to all photos of France, the Balkans, Germany, etc, as soon as the war ended’. Having induced the RAF authorities to suspend the destruction of such material, deemed so important for historians, geographers, archaeologists and researchers, he persuaded Ward-Perkins of their unique value, and Ward-Perkins went on to make significant use of aerial photography when undertaking the South Etruria survey in the 1950s.

What happened to the aerial photographs?

Courtesy BSR Administrative Archive

In this letter Ward-Perkins (writing to the BSR’s Honorary General Secretary Evelyn Shaw in London) attests to the ‘archaeological value’ of the RAF aerial photographs, that had been just moved from San Severo to the Allied Forces Headquarters in Rome. He suggests that the collection be distributed amongst Rome’s foreign institutes, after the completion of the selection conducted by Bradford with the assistance of RAF personnel over the Summer and the Autumn 1945. In a letter addressed by Bradford to Ward-Perkins in December 1945, he says:

‘A total of 2,058,000 prints were taken over from HQ. MAAF of which about 1/3 were selected as essential. These are now crated and stored in several repositories, ie. the British and French Schools, the American Academy and the Swedish Institute.’ Ward-Perkins secures for the BSR the RAF aerial photographs concerned with central and southern Italy, that were arranged in nearly 2,000 boxes for a total of approximately 233,000 prints. In 1974 an agreement between the BSR and the Italian Ministry of Education, allowed the transfer of this remarkable collection to the Aerofototeca Nazionale, ICCD on permanent loan, acknowledging this institution as its natural place for conservation and access. Those deposited with the American Academy were also taken over by the Aerofototeca Nazionale in 1966. In 1980 the set of the French School (Ecole Française de Rome) reached the Centre Camiille Jullian at Aix-en-Provence and the aerial views of Greece were handed over to the British School at Athens soon after the war ended. At the same time, Bradford managed to select and secure a set for the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, where he was appointed Assistant Curator in 1947.

The original boxes in which the aerial photographs were stored. Photo courtesy Aerofototeca Nazionale, ICCD.

We are eager to continue our collaboration with the Aerofototeca Nazionale, ICCD, and other international partners for future projects to highlight the importance of these collections.

You can listen to the event Here: https://youtu.be/xxePViG2hDo

Alessandra Giovenco (BSR Archivist) and Natalie Arrowsmith (Communications Manager)

 

 

Ward-Perkins permanent exhibition opens at Castelnuovo di Porto for the Giornata Nazionale del Paesaggio

Today, on the occasion of the Giornata Nazionale del Paesaggio, a permanent display of photographs from the BSR Collections will be opened in the Sale della Rocca Colonna – with the room being dedicated to former BSR Director and pioneer of landscape archaeology John Bryan Ward-Perkins – at Castelnuovo di Porto. You can read more in this week’s feature in La Repubblica, or in the press release.

The exhibition John Bryan Ward-Perkins, SOUTH ETRURIA SURVEY. Un’ indagine fotografica sull’Etruria meridionale negli anni ’50 e ’60 is made up of fifteen photographic prints and is curated by Elisabetta Portoghese and Valerie Scott.

This follows the photographic exhibition Castelnuovo Fotografia in September, an initiative curated by Elisabetta Portoghese, in which a selection of photographs of excavations and archaeological surveys carried out in the area of Castelnuovo di Porto as part of the South Etruria Survey project was exhibited in a three-day event.

Ward-Perkins’ South Etruria Survey (1950s-70s) is one of the most important archaeological surveys conducted in Italy, and is pivotal for our understanding of the archaeological landscape preceding the urban expansion of Rome.

John Bryan Ward-Perkins – the BSR’s director from 1945 to 1974 – is well-known for his role as one of the World War Two Monuments Men in his capacity as Deputy Director of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFA&A) Allied Sub-Commission in Italy from 1944 to early 1946.

It was in his capacity as a Monuments Man that Ward-Perkins was initially approached by John Bradford, a pioneer in landscape archaeology and aerial photography for research and scientific purposes. John Bradford was an English historian from Christ Church College, Oxford, who was recruited as photo interpreter in 1943 by the Mediterranean Allied Photographic Reconnaissance Wing (MAPRW) based in San Severo, a small village in Southern Italy (Puglia).

After inducing the RAF authorities to suspend the destruction of their photographs taken for military and intelligence operations, deemed so important for historians, geographers, archaeologists and researchers, Bradford persuaded Ward-Perkins of their unique value, and Ward-Perkins went on to make significant use of aerial photography when undertaking the South Etruria survey.

For further reading see Christopher Smith’s ‘J.B. Ward-Perkins, the BSR and the Landscape Tradition in Post-War Italian Archaeology’ in PBSR 86 (2018), pp. 271-92.

All images courtesy BSR Photographic Archive (Ward-Perkins Collection, South Etruria Series)

 

From conflict to peace. Photographs from the John Bryan Ward-Perkins collection

The use of photography to document conflicts and atrocities committed during wars has always been a powerful means to raise public awareness and build momentum towards collective actions, either for the protection of the civilian population or for cultural heritage.

No surprise, then, that the display of photographs from the J.B. Ward-Perkins War Damage series alongside images of contemporary conflicts at the Cultural Heritage protection event recently organised at the British Embassy, triggered a series of questions relating to the urgency and importance of collecting and archiving memories during war time to build best practices for the future and preserve social and cultural legacies.

Firenze, Ponte S. Trinità, Autunno by G. Caccini, 1944-1946, Ward-Perkins Collection, War Damage Series.

Itri, S. Maria, campanile, 1943-1946, Ward-Perkins Collection, War Damage Series.

This invaluable photographic collection also piqued the interest of the MuseumPasseier, which has used some of these images in the exhibition Who protects Art in War?, launched in San Leonardo in Passiria in late September.

The photographs from the War Damage Series were taken or collected by J.B. Ward-Perkins as Deputy Director of the MFA&A (Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives) Sub-Commission for Italy. Nearly 1,100 silver gelatin prints documenting damage to Italian monuments throughout Italy during World War II, spanning the period 1943-1946, are available for consultation on our Digital Collections website.

It was Ward-Perkins’ academic training and knowledge of archaeology and topography that led him to understand the potential value of the material produced during the war for scholarly research. Not only did he secure a copy of the photographs of war damage for the BSR but also over a million air photographs taken by the Royal Air Force, now on permanent loan at the Aerofototeca (ICCD), and a set of maps of Italy produced by the British military. He also left his library, his archive and a collection of over 40,000 images to the BSR.

John Bryan Ward-Perkins, courtesy of the Ward-Perkins family.

Among these images, it is worth mentioning those that form the South Etruria Survey (1950s-1970s) collection, one of the most important archaeological surveys conducted in Italy, pivotal for our understanding of the archaeological landscape preceding the urban expansion of Rome. These images have drawn the attention of two local communities, Calcata and Castelnuovo di Porto, and led to the installation of two exhibitions.

Formello, district, Roman road paved with blocks of tufa, the Ponte San Silvestro road, 1954-1968, Ward-Perkins Collection, South Etruria Series.

Near Belmonte, Castelnuovo di Porto region, 1954-1968, Ward-Perkins Collection, South Etruria Series.

The Calcata exhibition was preceded by a workshop analysing the issue of continuity-discontinuity of urban forms in ancient times with a particular focus on central pre-Roman Italy and the case of Falerii and Volsinii as a consequence of the military events of 264 and 241 BC.

The continuity-discontinuity of ancient times was used as a case study to mirror the events that occurred in the same territory many centuries later, through a royal decree issued in 1935, stating that the village of Calcata should cease to exist. To document the changes (as well as what didn’t change), nearly 50 photographs were selected by the Comune di Calcata in collaboration with other Italian institutions and shown in two exhibitions, the latter of which is still on display at the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia until 3 December.

 

Calcata exhibition at Museo nazionale Etrusco Di Villa Giulia, courtesy of Museo Nazionale Etrusco

At Castelnuovo Fotografia, an initiative curated by Elisabetta Portoghese, a selection of photographs of excavations and archaeological surveys carried out in the area of Castelnuovo di Porto as part of the South Etruria Survey project were exhibited in a three-day event at the end of September alongside other contemporary photographers.

All in all, a year of successful initiatives and dynamism around the John Bryan Ward-Perkins photographic collection, which follows the reprinting of some early photographs from the Ashby and the Parker collections on the occasion of the exhibition Appia self-portrait. Il mito dell’Appia nella fotografia d’autore launched this year at the end of June.

 

Appia Self-portrait exhibition opening in June 2018 (photos by Alessandra Giovenco)

 

Alessandra Giovenco (Archivist)