The American School at Athens is now in its twelfth year. It was founded October 2, 1882, under the auspices of the Archaeological Institute of America and has been conducted by a Managing Committee of which Professor John Williams White of Harvard was the first chairman. The school is under the direct management of a permanent director, Dr. Charles Waldstein of Cambridge, England. With him is associated an annual director who is chosen each year by the managing committee, from one of the cooperating colleges in the United States. Professor White of Harvard is the present annual director.

The American colleges which cooperate in the support of the school are over twenty in number. Three of these are women's colleges,- Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, and Vassar. All students who have taken the bachelor's degree in any one of these colleges, and a few others who are eminently qualified, are given free use of the privileges of the school. On the other hand, students are obliged to pay all their own expenses while living at Athens.

The work of the school consists of original study and research on the part of each student, and also of excavations and explorations which are carried on under the guidance of the director. Lectures are given on general topics connected with classical archaeology, and the collection of inscriptions, vases, reliefs, and the like to which the school has access, are made the subjects of special study. Some time is given each year to excavation. In the past few years excavations have been made at Icaria, Plataea, Eretria, Sicyon and Argos; and a number of interesting discoveries have been made. The site of Icaria has been determined and a number of inscriptions and pieces of sculpture have been found there.

One of the main objects of the founding of the school at Athens was to arouse a greater interest in antiquities among American students. In this the school has been very successful. The plan of appointing an annual director has kept the colleges in touch with the work of the school, and the fact that a number of students return from Athens each year to take positions as instructors in different parts of the United States has done much to arouse general interest in classical studies.

Harvard and Yale have been the most prominent in supporting the school. Professor White was one of the most active of the founders of the school, and Professor Goodwin was the first annual director. Professor Norton has been a member of the managing committee. Professor Frank B. Tarbell, now of the University of Chicago, but formerly an instructor at Harvard, was the first permanent director.