Randolph to host open house for new home of Ancient Collections on campus

Art history professor Andrea Campbell and Sara Primm ’20 look at glass samples from Randolph’s archaeology collection. As part of a 2018 Summer Research project, they reorganized and relocated the College’s Ancient Collections to Room 416 of the Harold G. Leggett Building. 

In conjunction with International Archaeology Day, Randolph’s museum and heritage studies program will celebrate the installation of its Ancient Collections in Room 416 of the Harold G. Leggett Building tomorrow, October 17. The open house will be held from 5-7 p.m. and is free and open to the campus community as well as the public.

Items in the Ancient Collections Room include glass fragments, mosaic, marble, bronzes, metals, inscriptions, coins, ceramics, and other artifacts from ancient Rome, Carthage, and other civilizations. The collection will be displayed, snacks will be available, and Randolph museum and heritage studies faculty members will be on hand to provide commentary and answer questions.

Susan Stevens, a classics professor and the Catherine E. and William E. Thoresen Chair in Humanities, is pleased to see the Ancient Collections Room become the third core collection for the museum and heritage studies program, along with the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College and the Natural History and Archaeology Collections in Martin Science Building.

“Although Ancient Collections has been around a long time—most of it belonged to [history professor, emeritus] Herbert Lipscomb—it has been mostly in storage in the Psychology Building,” Stevens said. “Thanks to their Summer Research project in 2018, [art history] professor Andrea Campbell and museum and heritage studies major Sara Primm ’20 reconfigured the old art history slide library room into an accessible space that includes a small seminar and research area as well as areas for object preparation, cataloging, and secure storage.”

Learn more about Randolph’s museum and heritage studies program as well as other exhibitions and collections at http://www.randolphcollege.edu/museumstudies/.