Sterling Dow

Sterling Dow (19 November 1903, Portland, Maine – 9 January 1995, Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American classical archaeologist, epigrapher, and professor of archaeology at Harvard University.

After secondary education at Phillips Exeter Academy, Dow matriculated in 1921 at Harvard University and graduated there in 1925 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy. As the winner of the Fiske Scholarship, Dow spent the academic year 1925–1926 studying ancient history at Trinity College, Cambridge. Returning to Harvard in 1926, he graduated with an M.A. in 1928 and a Ph.D. in history in 1936. His doctoral supervisor was the Canadian ancient historian William Scott Ferguson (1875–1954). Dow married Elizabeth Sanderson Flagg in 1931.

A Guggenheim Fellowship for the academic year 1934–1935 and various Harvard awards supported Dow in Athens. He benefitted from working with the epigrapher Johannes Kirchner (1859–1940). During WW II, he was given an academic leave of absence and served as a member of the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, DC, and Egypt. Ohio State University's Center for Epigraphical and Paleographical Studies administers The Sterling and Elizabeth Dow Fellowship in Greek epigraphy and history.

Dow's wife died in 1990 and he died in 1995.