William Bell Dinsmoor

• Name — William Bell Dinsmoor Sr. • Born — 29 July 1886 • Birthplace — Windham, New Hampshire, US • Died — 2 July 1973 • Place of death — Athens, Greece • Employer — Columbia University • Spouses — Zillah Frances Pierce (1910 til her death in 1960), [Unknown Greek woman, first name, Nota, who had been his nurse after the stroke] (til his death in 1973) • Children — William Bell Dinsmoor Jr., Frances Atheniese Dinsmoor Sandstone

Dinsmoor was born on July 29, 1886, in Windham, New Hampshire. Dinsmoor graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Science degree (1906). After working in an architectural firm, he joined the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece, in 1908 and became the School's architect in 1912. Dinsmoor joined the faculty of Columbia University in 1919. In 1927–1928 he was the architectural consultant for the construction of the interior of a full-scale concrete replica of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee. He then returned to the American School as a professor of architecture (1924–1928). He was married to Zillah Frances Pierce (1886–1960). During the years in Athens, he wrote his magnum opus, a rewritten edition of the Architecture of Ancient Greece by William James Anderson (1844–1900) and Richard Phené Spiers (1838–1916); it first appeared in 1927 and would go to three editions and be a mainstay for the teaching of Greek architecture through the twentieth century. Dinsmoor was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1933. In 1934, following the resignation of S. Butler Murray, the Department of Fine Arts at Columbia was reorganized, and Dinsmoor became chairman. He held this position until 1955. During the mid-1930s, Dinsmoor engaged in a celebrated debate on the configuration of the three phases of the Parthenon with the eminent Acropolis scholar Wilhelm Dörpfeld. In 1935, he was named professor of archaeology at Columbia University. Between 1936 and 1946, he was president of the Archaeological Institute of America. During World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Dinsmoor chair of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Treasures in War Areas. Dinsmoor was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1944. For much of his career he taught at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. He retired from Columbia University in 1963. In 1969, he was awarded the gold medal for his archaeological achievements by the Archaeological Institute of America. He died of a stroke while in Athens on July 2, 1973.

The canonical record carries the following identifying particulars.

The following is established of origins and background. Born in 1886 at Windham. It is also recorded that william Bell Dinsmoor died in 1973 at Athens.