Good Morning Obots!
This week we are featuring our very own versions of Indiana Jones! LOL, well not exactly, but these individuals are pioneers in the field of Archaeology. Today:
John Wesley Gilbert (July 6, 1864 – November 19, 1923) was the first African American archaeologist, the first graduate of Paine College, the first African American professor of that school, and the first African American to receive a master’s degree from Brown University.
Born to slaves in Hephzibah, Georgia on July 6, 1864, Gilbert split time between grammar school and doing manual labor. After finishing public school, he enrolled in the Atlanta Baptist Seminary. In 1884, he enrolled in the newly-opened Paine Institute (later known as Paine College). In 1886, he was given financial assistance in order to transfer into the junior class of Brown University.
While at Brown, he received a scholarship to attend the American School of Classics in Athens, Greece.
He was the first African American to attend that school, and remained the only one to have through 1901. During his time, he was bestowed an award for “excellence” in Greek. He was there from 1890-1891 and conducted archaeological excavations on Eretria with Professor John Pickard. After his work there, he produced the first map of Ancient Eretria.
He received his bachelor’s degree from Brown in 1888. In 1891, he became the first African American to receive a master’s degree from Brown after the completion of this thesis, “The Demes of Attica.”
In 1891, he returned to Augusta, Georgia and began to teach the Greek language and English at his former school, Paine College. In 1913, he was appointed the president of Miles College. He served in that post for one year before returning to Paine College.
In 1889, he married Osceola K. Pleasant, a graduate of Fisk University and Paine College. Together, they had four children. He died on November 19, 1923.