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Elisabeth Jastrow (1890-1981)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Helen Nagy
Helen Nagy*
Affiliation:
University of Puget Sound, 7822 Goodman Dr. NW, Gig Harbor, WA 98332, USA
*
Email: inagy@pugetsound.edu
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Abstract

In 1961 Elisabeth Jastrow retired from her position as Professor of Art at the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). That same year her friends and colleagues established a scholarship for advanced art history students in her name. Jastrow devoted 20 years of her life to teaching at Greensboro. These were both difficult and rewarding years, fraught with financial worries, lack of library facilities, personal losses and a constant struggle to obtain teaching materials for her classes. At the same time she immersed herself in providing a high quality education despite the limited resources at her disposal. Her career began far from North Carolina under very different circumstances and with plans for a considerably more active academic life.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , 2013, pp. 43 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2013

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References

1. Elizabeth Jastrow Scholarship for junior art history majors at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Established by friends of Dr. Elisabedi Jastrow, professor emeritus of art history at UNC-G: http://fia.uncg.edu/scholarships/.Google Scholar
2. The primary source for biographical information on Elisabeth Jastrow is the ‘Biographical/Historical Note, Elisabeth Jastrow Papers, 1870-1971. Collection no. 920062. Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
3. In addition to the material at the Getty, information regarding Jastrow’s career was sent to me by Erin Lawrimore from the Archives of the University of North Carolina. These include a scanned copy of Jastrow’s Faculty Personnel Information Form dated June 10,1952, a 14 page document containing earlier copies of a scholarly biography and a memorandum and résumé from 1940 that were probably part of her original application to the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Ms. Lawrimore also forwarded to me copies of press releases pertaining to the activities of Elisabeth Jastrow.Google Scholar
4. Bonfante, Larissa and Recke, Matthias, Margarete Bieber: two worlds (pdf at: http://www.brown.edu/Research/Breaking_Ground/bios/Bieber_Margarete.pdf), 4. Regarding Bieber’s 1909-1910 fellowship year in Greece and Rome and rejections by other fellows, Bonfante quotes the renowned archaeologist Theodore Wiegand on Bieber’s stay at Miletus: ‘There is really no end of visitors here – the presence of Miss Bieber was particularly dreadful.’Google Scholar
5. Mau, August, von Mercklin, Eugen, Matz, Friedrich, Nachod, Hans, Jastrow, Elisabeth, Weickert, Lothar, Reinke, Gerhard, Herbig, Reinhard, and Moortgart, Anton, Katalog der Bibliothek des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts in Rom. 1. Supplement: ergänzungen zu Band 1 für die Jahre 1911-1925. (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1930). Herbig later became director of the DAI in Rome (1956-1961). The project was funded by the Emergency Association of German Science until 1930.Google Scholar
6. Dr. Richard Neudecker has kindly provided me with three brief unpublished manuscripts on the history of the Realkatalog. These manuscripts comprise the source of much of the information I obtained on the catalogue project. A DAI publication concerning the years 1879-1929 at the Institute mentions Jastrow briefly as working on the Realkatalog: Wickert, Lothar, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts von 1879 bis 1929 (Mainz: von Zabern, 1979). For ZENON-DAI see: http://opac.dainst.org/. For the Projekt Dyabola version see: http://dyabola.de.Google Scholar
7. In January 1934 Dr. Jacobstahl wrote a letter of support on behalf of Jastrow. This document is now part of the Jastrow Papers at the Getty (Box 7, Folder 9). Jacobstahl outlines his reasons for hiring Jastrow and emphasizes why she was the ideal candidate for the position.Google Scholar
8. Jastrow, E., “Zur Darstellung griechischer Landschaft,” Die Antike 8 (1932): 201–214;Google Scholar
Jastrow, E., “Relief-Tor in Capua,” Archäologischer Anzeiger (1932): 21–38. According to Jacobstahl she also made considerable progress on her South Italian arulae publication.Google Scholar
9. Holocaust Encyclopedia, 1933: Key dates: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?Moduleld= 10007499. (Online access via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website: http://ushmm.org/.)Google Scholar
10. von Oertzen, Christine, ‘Networks of an academic world community: the exodus of German-speaking women scientists and the Refugee Aid Program of the American Association of University Women’, Bulletin 27 (German Historical Institute (Washington, D.C.)) 27 (Fall 2000). (Online access via the GHI’s website: http://www.ghi-dc.org/.) This article sums up some of the tremendous obstacles faced by women scholars during and after the holocaust years and provides a scholarly overview of the women’s organisations that provided aid to refugee women, with special emphasis on the AAUW. Report on the year Jastrow held the Fellowship: ‘The Work of the AAUW Fellows, 1934/5,’ AAUWJournaliO, no.2 (1936): 93. Google Scholar
11. Memorandum written by Jastrow in 1940, attached to her UNCG Faculty Personnel Information File, compiled in 1952. The date of this memorandum suggests that Jastrow prepared it while searching for positions in the USA.Google Scholar
12. The techniques learned while in Switzerland led to Jastrow’s most significant publication: Jastrow, E., Abformung und Typenwandel in der antiken Tonplastik. (Lund: C.W.K. Gleenup, 1938).Google Scholar
13. Many academic women seeking to settle in the USA applied for part-time or one-year positions. The physicist, Hedwig Kohn, had three such offers from women’s colleges (UNCG, Sweetbriar and Wellesley). See Jewish Women: a comprehensive historical encyclopedia: http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/kohn-hedwig.Google Scholar
14. Memorandum (see note 10).Google Scholar
15. All examples are from the Jastrow Papers at the Getty. On Sept. 2, 1945 she wrote to J.D. Beazley (Lincoln Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford): ‘for many years I have had little opportunity of keeping up with archaeological publications or doing any work in this field.’ Box 1, Folder 32. On Sept. 4, 1945 to Ernst Baum, ‘I have been teaching history of art at the WCUNCG these past years, living among friendly people but mostly women...and far, far away from art and books.’ Box 1, E 30.Google Scholar
16. Jastrow Papers: Box 6, Folder 25.Google Scholar
17. Jastrow Papers: Box 7, Folder 15.Google Scholar
18. A letter from Gudrun Hanson in 1944 praises a commissioned portrait bust as a success and hopes to procure more commissions for Jastrow: Box 6, Folder 5. Letter to Sidney Markman at Duke University (rough draft) offering rare books for sale: Box 8, Folder 44.Google Scholar
19. “Oral History Interview with Ann Dearsley-Vernon by Betty Carter”: http://library.uncg.edu/dp/crg/oralHIstoryItem/aspx?i=1336.Google Scholar
20. The definitive work on the arulae was published in 1993 by van der Meijden, Hellebora, Terracotta-Arulae aus Sizilien und Unteritalien (Amsterdam: Adolf Hakkert, 1993).Google Scholar