Women and Ruins: Archaeology, Photography, and Landscape

Fondazione Luigi Rovati hosts a conversation with Laura M. Michetti (Sapienza University of Rome) and Raffaella Silvestri (Writer), together with Ilaria Puri Purini and Caroline Goodson (American Academy), on the occasion of the presentation of the catalogue for the exhibition Women and Ruins, currently on view at the American Academy in Rome.

The exhibition celebrates the explorers, archaeologists, and photographers who, in the early twentieth century, used photography to document excavations and the transformations of post-Unification Italy. At a time when social conventions limited women’s presence in research, figures such as Esther Van Deman, Marion Blake, Agnes and Dora Bulwer, Gertrude Bell, and Maria Pasolini Ponti captured the golden age of Roman archaeology and beyond, from Mediterranean sites to Turkey.

More information on the website of the American Academy in Rome 

The event is free of charge, but booking is recommended. The ticket for the conference does not include admission to the Art Museum. A video of the event will be published on Fondazione's YouTube channel.

Friday, 3 October 2025, 6 p.m.

Luigi Rovati Foundation

Conference Room

Corso Venezia 52, Milan

Photo credit: Ester Van Deman, Ostia, Colums of the Theatre, 1910. Photographic Archive American Academy in Rome