Marion Elizabeth Blake (March 23, 1892 – September 11, 1961) was a classical languages professor who is known for her work in researching the technology of Roman construction. Dr. Blake died in Rome, Italy, in 1961.
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Marion Blake was born in New Britain, Connecticut, where she was the daughter of Arthur C. Blake and Elizabeth Snow Blake. Ms. Blake attended college at the Mount Holyoke College, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1913, majoring in the Greek and Latin languages. Blake earned her Master of Arts degree (1917) and her Ph.D. degree (1921) from Cornell University in New York State.[1]
Dr. Blake was a professor of classical languages at a series of five American colleges during the years from 1912 through 1938: the Illinois College (1921–22), Converse College (1922–28), the Mount Holyoke College (1929–36), Sweet Briar College (1936), and Winthrop College (1937–38).
Next, Dr. Blake took a professional position as a research associate in Roman Archaeology at the Carnegie Institute in Washington, D.C., (1938–47), and then she worked in Italy at the American Academy in Rome from 1947 to 1961.
The later work of Dr. Blake - that in Roman construction technology - was closely connected with that of Dr. Esther Boise Van Deman. Dr. Blake took up the task of completing Dr. Van Deman's unfinished manuscript on Roman construction technology following her death in 1937. Ironically, Dr. Blake's third and final book, Roman construction in Italy from Nerva through the Antonines, was completed after her own death in 1961 by yet another woman author, Doris Taylor Bishop (1917–69).