Full Name: Strong, D. E.
Other Names:
- Donald Emrys Strong
Gender: male
Date Born: 1927
Date Died: 1973
Place Born: Pembrokeshire, Wales, England, UK
Place Died: İznik, Turkey
Home Country/ies: United Kingdom
Overview
Strong attended Haverfordwest school studied as an open scholar at Brasenose College. Although his performance in Greats was unspectacular (owning to his entrance from outside the university-track education), he excelled in his concentration in Archaeology in which his diploma was awarded. He was awarded a scholarship to study archaeology at the British School in Rome in 1952. His Ph.D. was granted in 1954 writing his dissertation on Roman architectural ornament under J. M. C. Toynbee. He worked at the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments. Bernard Ashmole hired Strong at the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities of the British Museum as Assistant Keeper. He authored the Museum handbook on carved amber in 1966. Strong was appointed the first Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Provinces at the Institute of Archaeology at the University of London in 1968. By all accounts, this was his forte. A strong lecturer, he expanded the Roman studies to include provincial Imperial studies. He emphasized the practical aspects of field work. In the early 1970s, Nikolaus Bernard Leon Pevsner contacted Strong to write the volume on Roman art for his Pelican History of Art series. He married Shirley Twallin. His death in Turkey at age 46 stunned his colleagues. He died in İznik, Turkey, which was formerly Nicaea. His mentor, J. M. C. Toynbee, edited the manuscript, largely completed, for his Roman Art volume, which appeared in 1976.
Selected Bibliography
[dissertation:] Roman Architectural Ornament in the Augustan Age. Oxford University, 1954; [collected essays and complete bibliography:] “A Bibliography of Professor D. E. Strong (1927-73).” Roman Museums: Selected Papers on Roman Art and Architecture. London: Pindar Press, 1994, pp. 325-337; Catalogue of the Carved Amber in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London: British Museum, 1966; and Toynbee, Jocelyn M. C. Roman Art. Pelican History of Art 39. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976; Roman Imperial Sculpture. London: A. Tiranti, 1961; Catalogue of the Carved Amber in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London: British Museum, 1966; translated, Coarelli, Filippo. Greek and Roman Jewellery. Feltham: Hamlyn, 1970; and Ashmole, Bernard, and Cook, B. F. Relief Sculpture of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Sources
Pevsner, Nikolaus. “Editor’s Foreword.” Strong, Donald Emrys. Roman Art. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976, xvii-xviii; [frontispiece] Strong, Donald Emrys. Roman Art. 2nd ed. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1988; “Dr R. [sic] E. Strong, Archaeologist of Vision.” The Times (London) September 28, 1973, p. 20; F H T “Dr. D. E. Strong.” The Times (London) October 3, 1973, p. 17.