Collector · Museum director
Charles Walston
1856–1927 · United States, United Kingdom
Cambridge classical archaeologist, born Waldstein in New York in 1856, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum from 1883 to 1889 and former owner of the Newton Hall Athena.
Biography
The Fitzwilliam Museum's account of its acquisitions of 2001 to 2006 names Charles Walston as the former owner of the Newton Hall Athena, a Greek statue the museum acquired in that period1. No Cypriot object is recorded as passing through his hands.
He was born Waldstein in New York on 30 March 1856 and educated at Columbia and Heidelberg1,2. In 1880 he became lecturer in Classical art and archaeology at Cambridge, when these subjects entered the Classical tripos, and he was later Reader there. He was Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum from 1883 to 1889, then Director of the American School at Athens, where he directed excavations, the best known being at the Heraion at Argos. In 1918 he anglicised his name from Waldstein to Walston because of anti-German sentiment1. He died at Naples on 21 March 19272.
Life and work
- 30 March 1856
- 1880Appointed lecturer in Classical art and archaeology at Cambridge, on the introduction of these subjects into the Classical tripos.
- 1883–1889Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum.
- 1918Anglicised his name from Waldstein to Walston because of anti-German sentiment.
- 21 March 1927Died at Naples.
- UndatedFitzwilliam Director and member of the managing committee of the Cyprus Exploration Fund, which brought the Museum a share of finds.
Connections
1 personColleagues & contacts
- Connected with Sir William HamiltonHope vase (kalpis) showing a lady scene The Hope vases : a catalogue and a discussion of the Hope Collection of Greek vases, with an introduction on the history of the collection and on late Attic and (1923)
Recording and study
2 records- Employed by2
1883–1889Charles Walston served as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum for six years.
Employed by Fitzwilliam MuseumRecent acquisitions of Greek,…, p. 197
Charles Walston left Cambridge to become Director of the American School of Archaeology at Athens.
Employed by American School of Archaeology at AthensRecent acquisitions of Greek,…, p. 197
Objects
Newton Hall Athena (Vescovali-Rospigliosi type statue), later acquired by the Fitzwilliam Museum
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Mentioned in
5 mentionsDocuments · 3
- Recent acquisitions of Greek, Roman and Cypriot antiquities at the Fitzwilliam Museum 2001-2006
Employed · 1883 · p. 197
Charles Walston served as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum for six years.
- "Greeks" in the Neo-Assyrian Levant and "Assyria" in Early Greek Writers
Helm 1980
- Import consumption in the bronze age Argolid: effects of Mediterranean trade on Mycenaean society
Burns 1999
Institutions · 1
- Fitzwilliam Museum
Director · 1883
Charles Waldstein (later Walston), a member of the Cyprus Exploration Fund committee, was Director of the Fitzwilliam; he introduced classical archaeology…
Anon., p. 197; Christophilopoulou 2016
- People · 1listed under Connections
Sources
- 1.Anon.. “Recent acquisitions of Greek, Roman and Cypriot antiquities at the Fitzwilliam Museum 2001-2006”. 191-197.
- 2.Wikidata/GND. Charles Waldstein (authority record). Online
- 3.“Recent acquisitions of Greek, Roman and Cypriot antiquities at the Fitzwilliam Museum 2001-2006”. Online
- 4.David W. J. Gill (2012). From the Cam to the Cephissus: The Fitzwilliam Museum and students of the British School at Athens. In Journal of the History of Collections. pp. 1–10. Oxford University Press. p. 2.. Online
- 5.The Hope vases : a catalogue and a discussion of the Hope Collection of Greek vases, with an introduction on the history of the collection and on late Attic and (1923).
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