The renowned archaeologist, scholar, teacher, and editor Lucy Taxis Shoe was born on the 7th of August 1906 in Camden, New Jersey. Her fascination with antiquity began at age nine, with a visit to the Memorial Hall of Philadelphia where she saw by chance the stereopticon views of Pompeii left over from an 1876 exhibit. By the time she began to attend the Philadelphia High School for Girls (1919-1923), Lucy already knew that she wanted to be an archaeologist, and her teachers took extra time to work with her outside of class in order to make sure she was prepared to meet Bryn Mawr College's entrance requirements. She graduated with honors and was accepted by Bryn Mawr College on a partial scholarship (1923-1935). At Bryn Mawr Lucy earned her A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees and began the preparation for her well-known studies of ancient architectural moldings.
During the years 1929-1934, Lucy studied at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens as a fellow in archaeology. She then worked for a time as a slide cataloger in the Art Department of Smith College (November 1935-June 1936), before accepting a position as Assistant Professor (1937-1941) and then as Associate Professor (1941-1950) at Mount Holyoke College. During her time at Mount Holyoke, she was also periodically in residence as a fellow at the American Academy of Rome. From 1950 until 1972 she was the Editor of Publications for the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. In 1964 she married her colleague Benjamin D. Meritt and in 1972 they both moved to Austin to her family home. There she accepted a position as a visiting professor and scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, which she maintained until her death in 2003. She was also a member of the Institute for Advanced Study and the American Institute of Archaeology, among other institutions. Her awards include the Gold Medal of the Archaeological Institute of America for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement, (1976) and honorary degrees from Brown University (1974) and Hamilton College (1994).
Throughout her life, Lucy Shoe Meritt corresponded with an extensive pool of notable scholars. In particular, her correspondence reveals consistent epistolary relationships with other early female archaeologists, especially with Dorothy Burr Thompson, Dorothy Hill, and Paola Zancani Montuoro. The bulk of her sustained correspondence, however, was with her parents, and extends from about 1910 to 1969. Her correspondence as a whole, together with the transcripts of some of her oral history tapes from the University of Texas at Austin and the diaries she kept as an undergraduate provides valuable information not only for the curious classicist, but also for the social historian.
From the guide to the Lucy T. Shoe Meritt papers, 1888-2003, (Bryn Mawr College)
