About Edward W. Clark
Clark presented his collection to his students at Ripon College and small communities across the Midwest, quickly becoming a local sensation. At times, people, numbering over a thousand, filled auditoriums to attend his lantern slide lectures and see images of his travels. His talks became so popular that they received special coverage by the Chicago Daily News.
It was Clark’s opinion that the learning of the Classics could only be truly successful through the usage of the laboratory method. This method of teaching utilizes material things in the classroom to produce a better understanding of the subject matter.
He resigned from his position at Ripon College in 1909 to head the Italian branch of the Bureau of University Travel in Rome. In 1917, Clark moved to California to become the principal of Venice High School.
Clark's work had a lasting influence on classical education in the city of Los Angeles. By founding the Latin Museum in the 1930's at Venice High School, the Los Angeles Unified School District became the benefactor of a wide range of antiquities. To this day, in partnership with the University of Southern California, pieces from the LAUSD Art and Artifacts Collection, including objects collected by Clark, are taken into area schools each week to provide students with a hands-on experience with ancient artifacts.
Clark's legacy continues as the collection is used by Ripon College students, faculty and other interested patrons—both locally and globally—to promote critical thinking and lifelong learning.
This 1910 photograph, from a student scrapbook in the Lane Library Archives, is the classroom where Clark applied his laboratory method of teaching. A cinerary urn and the amphora, currently part of the collection, can be seen in the upper left portion of the photograph. In the upper right of the photograph, is the volute krater, also currently in the collection.
Clark's 1906 publication, "Roman Terra-cotta Lamps," in Records of the Past, was read with stereopticon illustrations at the Classical Conference in Ann Arbor Michigan in 1906. The objects shown here are still currently part of the Ripon College collection. The entirety of the 1906 publication, "Roman Terra-cotta Lamps," by Edward W. Clark, in Records of the Past, can be viewed here on page 170.