Lily Ross Taylor

Lily Ross Taylor (August 12, 1886 – November 18, 1969) was an American academic and author, who in 1917 became the first female Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

Biography Born in Auburn, Alabama, Lily Ross Taylor developed an interest in Roman studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, earning an A.B. in 1906. She went to Bryn Mawr College as a graduate student that year, and received her Ph.D. in Latin in 1912. Her dissertation advisor was Tenney Frank. From 1912 until 1927, she taught at Vassar, and, in 1917, she became the fourth female Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

In 1927, Taylor became a professor of Latin and the chairman of that department at Bryn Mawr. She rose to become dean of the graduate school there in 1942. That same year, she served as president of the American Philological Association, and in 1947 as first female scientist she was named Sather Professor in the University of California. From 1943 to 1944, during World War II, she was the principal social science analyst in the Office of Strategic Services. In 1945, she was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1951.

Retiring from Bryn Mawr in 1952, she remained active as professor-in-charge of the Classical School of the American Academy in Rome, and as a member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. That year, she received the Achievement Award from the American Association of University Women.

She trained numerous graduate students while at Bryn Mawr, notably Irene Rosenzweig (1931), Berthe Marti (1934), Agnes Kirsopp Lake Michels (1934), and Beryl Rawson (1961).