Elizabeth Caroline Gray
Elizabeth Caroline Hamilton Gray (née Johnstone, 1810–1887) was a Scottish historian and travel author. She was born in Alva, Clackmannanshire, in 1810. After marrying John Hamilton Gray, a priest and genealogist, in June 1829, Gray moved to Bolsover Castle in England, where she lived until shortly before her death.[1][2]
Gray became interested in the history of the Etruscans after visiting an exhibition of Etruscan artefacts in London organised by Domenico Campanari in 1837,[3] and pursued her interest during a visit to Italy in 1837–39, drawing on contacts among German and Italian archaeological circles. In 1840, she published Tour to the Sepulchres of Etruria, which served as both a travelogue and an account of her own archaeological research. She then wrote a general History of Etruria, publishing the first two volumes in 1843–44 and the third in 1868.[1]
As a woman, Gray was attacked for her historical research. The explorer George Dennis, who went on to write his own history of the Etruscans, stated in a review of Gray's work in 1844 that "any deep or earnest investigation of matters connected with the social institution of a gentile nation is not properly within the female province".[4]
Other than her research on Etruria, Gray wrote a work on the classical and early medieval church and empire, as well as two popular children's histories of Rome.[1] With her husband she maintained a collection of antiquities, acquired both from dealers in Italy and her own excavations, which included an unusual red-and-black Etruscan amphora in the Italo-Geometric style, known as the "Hamilton Gray vase".[5] She died in 1887.[1]
Works
- Tour to the Sepulchres of Etruria. London: J. Hatchard and Son. 1840. (1843 ed.)
- The History of Etruria. London: J. Hatchard and Son. 1843–68. (Vol. 1, 2, 3)
- History of Rome for Young Persons. London: T. Hatchard. 1847. (1858 ed.)
- Emperors of Rome from Augustus to Constantine: Being a Continuation of the History of Rome. London: T. Hatchard. 1850.
- The Empire and the Church, from Constantine to Charlemagne. Oxford: J. Henry and J. Parker. 1857.
References
- ^ a b c d "Elizabeth Caroline Gray". British Travel Writing. University of Wolverhampton. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
- ^ Williams, Dyfri (2009). "The Hamilton Gray Vase". In Swaddling, Judith; Perkins, Philip (eds.). Etruscan by Definition: Papers in Honour of Sybille Haynes. London: British Museum Press. pp. 10–20: 10. ISBN 978-0861591732.
- ^ de Grummond, Nancy Thomson (ed.). "Campanari Family". Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology. London and New York: Routledge. p. 225. ISBN 978-1884964800.
- ^ Quoted in Williams 2009, p. 11.
- ^ Williams 2009, p. 13.
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