The women featured in the exhibition Women & Ruins: Archaeology, Landscape, and Photography at the American Academy in Rome were travelers from abroad—coming from the United States and the United Kingdom to Italy, where they explored the country’s recent archeological findings. Getrude Bell, Esther Van Deman, the Bulwer Sisters, and Marion Blake had an appetite for discoveries.

This conversation will focus on their travels—from site visits in Lazio and Campania, and beyond to longer journeys across present Syria, Saudia Arabia, Tunisia, and Algeria. At a time when travel was neither simple nor accessible, especially for women, they developed their own ways of journeying, exploring, and documenting archeological sites, landscape and its people.

During the evening, novelist and essayist Olivier Guez will discuss his recent book Mesopotamia in conversation with Caroline Goodson, Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Professor at the American Academy in Rome, and Ilaria Puri Purini, Andrew Heiskell Arts Director at the American Academy in Rome, curators of the exhibition Women & Ruins: Archaeology, Landscape, and Photography.

The evening will be moderated by Raffaella Silvestri, journalist and writer.