Laura Sumner (numismatist)

Laura Sumner (5 September 1921–18 June 1993) was an American classical numismatist and poet, who was a Professor at the University of Mary Washington.

Laura Sumner
Born5 September 1921
Brooklyn, New York, USA
DiedJune 18, 1993(1993-06-18) (aged 71)
Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA
OccupationNumismatist
Classical scholar
Academic background
Alma materJohns Hopkins University
ThesisThe Coins of the Emperor Domitian (1945)
Academic work
InstitutionsUniversity of Mary Washington

Biography

Laura Bennett Voelkel was born on 5 September 1921 in Brooklyn to John and Laura Bennett Voelkel.[1] She studied for her undergraduate degree at Vassar College and graduated in 1942.[1] She then studied for her MA at Johns Hopkins University, graduating in 1943.[1] Sumner continued to study there for her PhD, which she was awarded in 1945 for a thesis entitled “The Coin Types of the Emperor Domitian”.[2]

In 1945 Sumner was appointed as Assistant Professor of History of Art at Wesleyan College in Georgia, where she taught for two years.[1] In 1947 she was appointed Assistant Professor at Mary Washington College, where she was to teach for the subsequent thirty-two years.[1] Sumner was dedicated to teaching and pedagogy, with many students remembering her with enthusiasm.[3] This meant that she did not publish widely. However she did work on both the excavations in 1963 and the subsequent catalogue of the coins from Kenchreai.[4] She was passionate about the ability that numismatics had to "make the past come alive for students".[5] Other publications included a commentary on the Lusiads.[6] She was also involved with Mary Washington's archaeology society.[7]

Sumner also held multiple Visiting Fellowships at universities in the USA, including: University of Wisconsin, University of Iowa, Humanities Institute, Fairfax.[1]

Awards and fellowships
  • Overseas Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society.[8] She was first elected in 1945.[9]
  • President (1970-71), Vice-President (1958-60) - Southern Section of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South.[10]

Personal life

In addition to her classical scholarship, Sumner also wrote and published poetry.[11] She married Raiford Eve Sumner on 20 December 1953.[1] She died on 18 June 1993 in Fredericksburg, Virginia.[1]

References
  1. "SUMNER, Laura Bennett Voelkel". dbcs.rutgers.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  2. Voelkel, Laura Bennett. The coin types of the Emperor Domitian... Diss. Johns Hopkins University, 1945.
  3. "1961". Mary Washington Magazine | Fall/Winter 2017 Mary Washington Magazine. 2011-11-21. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  4. Chicago, University of; Bloomington, Indiana University; Athens, American School of Classical Studies at (1976). The Coins. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-05729-6.
  5. Arbuthnot, Mabel F. (1957). "The Latin Institute—1957: An Open Letter". The Classical Outlook. 35 (1): 3–5. ISSN 0009-8361. JSTOR 43930328.
  6. Sumner, Laura Voelkel; Abel, D. Herbert; Beede, Grace L. (1955). "The Teacher's Scrapbook". The Classical Journal. 50 (7): 291–294. ISSN 0009-8353. JSTOR 3292992.
  7. Alvey, Edward (1974). History of Mary Washington College; 1908-1972. University Press of Virginia. ISBN 978-0-8139-0528-0.
  8. Carson, R A G (1986). A History of the Royal Numismatic Society, 1836-1986 (PDF). Royal Numismatic Society.
  9. "The Royal Numismatic Society: List of Fellows 1964". The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society. 4: xxxvii–lxvi. 1964. ISSN 0267-7504. JSTOR 42662624.
  10. "Elected Officers of The Classical Association of the Middle West and South" (PDF).
  11. Sumner, Laura Voelkel (1961). Sonnets. Priv. print. at the Holly Hill Press.
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