A Master Teacher

David Gordon Mitten, James C. Loeb professor of art and archeology

"Dr. Mitten is a most encouraging, affirming, and accepting instructor--without compromising his prodigious critical faculties. He is a superb example of how a teacher should teach, and he clearly loves his profession. Harvard--especially the Extension School--is lucky to have him on the faculty."

"Dr. Mitten is so knowledgeable on the topic of Greek vases. He is also very amiable and approachable. I found him most willing to assist students in any way he could."

"As usual, this was a superb course. I learned much about mythology and vase painting, not only courtesy of Professor Mitten, but also through the presentations of my classmates. Professor Mitten's insistence that each student stand and deliver their research throughout the semester made the learning environment both intensive and nurturing. It is with great regret that this is to be my last class, as I will be starting my master's thesis with Dr. Mitten in the fall."

These are three of the reviews written on the back of course evaluation forms for CLAS E-241 Greek Vase Painting and Mythology taught at Harvard Extension School in spring 2000 by James C. Loeb Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology David Gordon Mitten. On the front of the evaluations, where students are invited to rate different aspects of the course, the assignments and examinations, and the instructor, one finds row upon row of darkened circles in the far right-hand column--indicating students' highest accolades.

Professor Miiten and a student examine ancient coins during an Extension School class.

David Gordon Mitten has taught at Harvard University for nearly 40 years: arriving as a graduate student in 1957, completing his MA and PhD in classical archaeology by 1962, and rising through the ranks of Harvard's faculty in only seven years. He received appointment as a tenured full professor in 1969 at the age of 33. By then Mitten was known as a prodigy in classical studies, having participated in excavations at Sardis, Turkey, for eight years; received Wilson and Fulbright fellowships for study at Harvard and the American School of Classical Studies in Athens; and acquired reading fluency in eight classical and modern languages, and spoken fluency in five more.

Since the 1960s, Professor Mitten has continued to be recognized for his extraordinary contributions to classical archaeology and to Harvard. He has been awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1976), the Thomas Hoopes Prize (1984), and the Extension School's Petra T. Shattuck Prize for Excellence in Teaching (1988); he was elected fellow of the American Numismatic Society (1987), and appointed visiting professor at the American School in Athens (1990-91); and he was granted the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize (1993). The Phi Beta Kappa prize committee noted that Dr. Mitten's vivid lectures "convey his delight in the beauty of the past and bring the ancient world to life. His seminars bring students into close contact with the artifacts, the coins, and the images of ancient Greece and Persia and instill in students trust and confidence in their own first steps into the world of the ancients."

David Mitten grew up in Ohio, the son of a high school teacher of Latin and German. By the first grade, he was already attracted to the ancient world. "I remember reading a big article in the October 1941 issue of National Geographic on daily life in ancient Egypt--by William Stevenson Smith of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. I was dazzled by the pictures. I was also interested in the scenes of ancient life suggested in the Bible studies in our Sunday school class, and by my grandfather's arrowhead and axhead collection. But I came to love the mythology of the ancient Greeks and Romans most of all, and I did as much as I could to pursue this passion in high school."

In 1952, during his senior year, Mitten's Latin teacher suggested that he attend a three-day conference of archaeologists in Cleveland--one of the first such international gatherings since the end of World War II. There the teenage Mitten met some of the world's most eminent classical scholars--Edward Capps of Oberlin College, and Homer and Dorothy Thompson of the Princeton Institute of Advanced Study--who encouraged him to pursue classical studies. Mitten entered Oberlin the following year to study with Capps, Charles T. Murphy, and Alfred Cry Schlesinger; and years later, he defended his senior independent study project in classical archaeology before Dorothy Thompson, whom Oberlin flew in for the examination. "I still remember the mistakes I made in that exam!" Mitten sheepishly admits.

Mitten's Oberlin faculty--finding no mistake grave enough to derail their most exceptional student--urged him to continue his studies at Harvard. Winning the Wilson Fellowship to Harvard, and soon the Fulbright for study at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, David Mitten acquired the tools and insights of a classical archaeologist. Since then he has published numerous scholarly papers, catalogue entries and essays, and exhibit and collection catalogues, including Master Bronzes from the Classical World with S. Doeringer (1967); Studies Presented to George M. A. Hanfmann (1971, honoring Mitten's Harvard faculty mentor); Classical Bronzes, The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (1975); and The Gods' Delight: The Human Figure in Classical Bronzes (1988). Dr. Mitten is presently working on a handbook of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman bronzes and a catalogue of the ancient bronzes in Harvard's art museums, where he has served as curator of ancient art since 1975.

Along the way to earning wide praise for his intimate understanding of the ancient Mediterranean world, David Mitten embraced Islam as his personal faith. "I remember being attracted by the story of the prophet Mohammed as a child, and at Oberlin I discovered Muhammed's People by Eric Schroeder. Then, going to Turkey for ten years to dig for the past, I realized that I had moved from being a Christian who felt he should be converting people to believing that the people in Greece and Turkey are my teachers. I became very close to Orthodox Greeks and Muslims, and it turned out that Islam was essentially what I believed." Since his formal conversion to Islam in Turkey in 1969, Mitten has served as faculty advisor to the Harvard Islamic Society, giving generously of his time and guidance.

Among the many highlights of Dr. Mitten's Harvard career has been his devotion to the Extension School. The invitation came from Michael Shinagel, Mitten's former classmate at Oberlin, fellow graduate student and lecturer at Harvard, and now dean of continuing education and university extension. "I always thought of him as the sophisticated man of the world, as he had come to Oberlin on the GI Bill after serving in Korea," Mitten says of Shinagel.

But things got off to a rough start. "I started at Extension in the spring of 1978," Mitten recalls, "and I was getting ready to give my first lecture when the great blizzard of '78 came along. I was told 'You and George Hanfmann--you two fanatics--will have to go home. We're canceling classes.' So I had to walk from the Fogg Museum to my apartment in Watertown, on Mt. Auburn Street. There were no buses, no one outside at all, and it took me about an hour to get home."

When the snows were finally cleared away, David Mitten established a pattern of course offerings at the Extension School that he has followed each year since: alternating Greek art and archaeology with that of ancient Rome in the fall term, and teaching his seminar for graduate students in the spring. In addition to teaching a course each term, Mitten has served on the Extension School's Administrative Board since 1985.

"My appreciation for Extension students has deepened over the years," he says today. "I am just amazed by the caliber of their commitment to learning. A number of my students have gone on to PhD programs. Jennifer Tremble, now teaching at Stanford, got her doctorate at Michigan. Jennifer Ledig, who had a couple of courses with me, is now returning to do her doctorate in ancient art here at Harvard. And my good friend Aaron J. Paul, who worked here for 13 years as a curatorial associate, did his ALM with me here at Extension. He is now curator of ancient art at the Tampa Museum of Art."

Among the many Extension students who Dr. Mitten has introduced to classical studies is Richard Wing, ALM '94, president of the Society Historia Numorum and a curatorial associate in numismatics at the Sackler Museum. Wing describes the ordeal of writing, whether a brief paper or a massive graduate thesis, for Professor Mitten. "He returns the work over and over, covered with suggestions, corrections, and encouragement. He speaks to you directly, as if from scholar to scholar." Barry Ambroseno, ALB '82, ALM '85, recalls his own transformation in Professor Mitten's classes, from a student with dyslexia who doubted his academic potential, to one whose class notes--full of accurate drawings of the ancient objects Mitten brought to class--were in great demand. And when Ambroseno suggested that the human figure on a bronze coin was "waving" at the demigod who floated above a temple--improbable as that might be--Dr. Mitten hailed the comment as "a new insight" into the well-known work. Using reinforcement such as this, Professor Mitten is able to encourage observation and help his students feel important.

Perhaps the ultimate tribute to David Mitten's place in the hearts of Extension School students was the creation of the David Mitten Classical Studies Endowment in 1995. The endowment was created by George D. Krupp, ALB '95, "to support the offering of courses in the Harvard Extension School in the area of classical studies, primarily in the history of ancient Greece and Rome." Krupp, a well-known Boston developer and philanthropist, had acquired a keen appreciation for ancient coins as a result of his courses with Professor Mitten, and wished to ensure that classical studies would never be forgotten in the Extension School curriculum.

Of the future, David Mitten says, "I have taught at Harvard for 39 years. My goal is to serve for another 11 years and then retire after 50 years of service to Harvard."

Let us hope that Professor Mitten will continue to challenge Harvard Extension School students in the evenings, as he challenges other Harvard students during the day.