A. Henry Detweiler photograph collection

Albert Henry Detweiler was an American historian of architecture born in Pekarsie, Pa. on October 4, 1906 and attended high school in Bethlehem. In 1930, he received his Bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at Tell Billa and Tepe Gawra in Iraq, before joining in 1932 the Tell Beit Mirsim excavations in Palestine conducted under William F. Albright. He spent several other excavation seasons working as an archaeological architect in important sites in the Middle East, such as Gerasa (1932-34), Dura-Europos (1935-37), and Seleucia (1936). In 1939, he married the classical archaeologist Catherine S. Bunnell, whom he had met a few years earlier in the Agora excavations in Athens. After two years at Yale University, he became assistant professor at Cornell University (1939), where he was later promoted to full professor (1948) and associate dean (1956). He served as director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem (1953-1954) and as president of the American Schools of Oriental Research (1955-1966). From this position, he joined George M. A. Hanfmann, in organizing the Cornell-Harvard Archaeological Exploration of Sardis in Turkey (1958-1970). Among his research interests were early Christian and Byzantine architecture as well as 17th century architecture in England. During the 1950s and 1960s, he visited Italy several times as he became very interested in northern Italian architecture. He died at the age of 63 on January 30th, 1970.