The Classical Collection

The Smart Museum's Classical collection began developing in the 1890s and now consists of approximately eight hundred pieces, including large-scale statuary and floor mosaics, vases, figurines, coins, lamps, and other utensils. The first extensive study of the Smart's collection, this catalogue presents a selection of the museum's antiquities and provides a historiographical introduction that traces the formation of the collection in relationship to the pedagogical ideas of the University of Chicago. Serving as a factual and functional guide, this catalogue serves classicists and art historians, as well as the museum's many visitors.