Elizabeth Augustus Whitehead

Elizabeth Grace Augustus Whitehead (1928–1983) was an American classical archaeologist and philanthropist. She was the general secretary of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) between 1971 and 1978 and president of the board of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) from 1976 until her death in 1983.

Early life and education Elizabeth Grace Augustus was born in Willougby, Ohio, on June 17, 1928. Her father was Ellsworth Hunt Augustus (1887–1964), a businessman and national president of the Boy Scouts of America, and her mother was Elizabeth Good Augustus. She attended Hathaway Brown School and Sarah Lawrence College.

She married Curtis Jones in 1952 and moved to Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Archaeological career Whitehead's interest in archaeology began at the age of 33, on a family tour of Greece, where her father was attending a Scout Jamboree. They were accompanied by a guide, Constantine Nicoloudis, whose deep knowledge of the country's history and antiquities made the trip "nothing less than a first-rate illustrated course in classical archaeology." Her studies covered a range of topics and she was a regular participant in seminars at both Penn and Bryn Mawr College. By 1969, she had completed the requirements for a PhD in classical archaeology, but never submitted a dissertation. Her biographer, Doreen Spitzer, speculated that, while Whitehead remained interested and committed to the discipline, her affluent background left her with little reason to pursue an academic career. The expectations of a housewife and mother-of-three at the time also drastically reduced the time she could devote to her studies, as did her divorce from Jones in 1968.

The library of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research is named for her.