• Date of Birth: May 26, 1857
  • Born City: Bridgton
  • Born State/Country: ME
  • Parents: Josiah Taylor & Dorothy Cary H.
  • Date of Death: November 12, 1932
  • Death City: Rome
  • Death State/Country: Italy
  • Education:

    B.A. Oberlin, 1883; study at Leipzig, 1895-6; M.A. Oberlin, 1898; study at ASCSR, 1902-3.

  • Professional Experience:

    Instr. to prof. Lat. Wellesley, 1888-1925, mng. comm. ASCSR, 1899-1912; adv. counc. AAR, 1919-27.

  • Publications:

    “Charities and Philanthropies in the Roman Empire,” CW 6 (1912-3) 178-81; “Latin in the Twentieth Century,” Wellesley Alumnae Quarterly 2 (1918) 146-9; “Les Erinnyes at Orange,” CJ 19 (1923-4) 172-3; “Similitudo non pulchritudo;' CJ 21 (1925-6) 497-510; “The Kaleidoscope of Rome,” The Wellesley Magazine 10 (1926) 113-6; “A Journey through the Roman Empire,” CJ 23 (1928-9) 594-600; “Light Reading from the Papyri,” CJ 25 (1929-30) 535-44; “The New Antiquarium in Rome,” CJ 27 (1931-2) 417-22; Citizens of Long Ago: Essays on Life and Letters in the Roman Empire (New York & Oxford, 1934).

  • Notes:

    Adeline Belle Hawes belonged to the first generation of American women in the classics who were as much at home in Rome as they were on their American campuses. She sailed to Italy during almost every summer and sabbatical, where she followed the latest developments in archaeology and epigraphy, worked in the American School library (and later, the American Academy Library), and mastered the Italian language. On retirement, she moved permanently to Rome. Generous in sharing her vast knowledge of Italy, she served as unofficial mentor, guide, and hostess to many young scholars at the Academy and to her old students on tours. Hawes's projects fall into two areas. First, she studied literary and archaeological evidence for Roman daily life. In particular, she was interested in the children of antiquity, which was the subject of the first chapter of her posthumously published book. Romans known only through anonymous portraits or through inscriptions intrigued her more than famous historical figures. Second, she reported on new museums and cultural events in Italy and southern France interesting to classicists back in America. Throughout her writing, she displayed a broadly humanistic, sympathetic approach rather than an interest in detailed scholarly analysis.

  • Sources:

    Florence Converse, Wellesley College 1875-1938 (Wellesley, 1939) 105, 230, 252; Jean Glasscock, ed., Wellesley College 1875-1975 (Wellesley, 1975) 55, 353, 474-5; Oberlin College Archives; Grant Showerman, in Citizens of Long Ago, v-vii; Alice Walton, “Adeline Belle Hawes, Professor of Latin Literature Emeritus 1888-1925,” The Wellesley Magazine 10 (1925) 15-6; ibid., 17 (1933) 241.

  • Author: Katherine A. Geffcken