Van Nice, Robert

Date born: 1910

Place born:

Date died:

Place died:

Dumbarton Oaks staff researcher, published core documentation on Hagia Sophia. Van Nice studied to be an architect at MIT. In 1937, the Dean of the architecture school, William Emerson (1873-1957), traveled to Hagia Sophia church in Instanbul to examine the mosaic exposure and conservation work being performed by Thomas Whittemore. The multi-connected Whittemore had close business connections with Elizabeth Cram (1874-1943), wife of Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942), the former dean of the MIT architecture school. Emerson and Van Nice elected to conducted a detailed architectural survey of the church-mosque-cum-museum on the heels of Whittemore's work. Van Nice worked for Whittemore's foundation, the Byzantine Institute, making copious notes and surveying the building. After Whittemore's sudden death, Harvard's Dumbarton Oaks research center gradually assumed control of the center, installing Van Nice in basement offices to continue his project. Van Nice lectured periodically for example at Vassar College in 1967 as the Class of 1928 Visiting Scholars' Lecture.

Home Country: United States

Sources: KMP, 59 cited; Richard, Paul. "Dumbarton Oaks." Washington Post August 26, 1979, p. G1,

Bibliography: and Emerson, William. "Hagia Sophia and the First Minaret Erected after the Conquest of Constantinople." American Journal of Archaeology 54 no. 1 (January 1950): 28-40; Santa Sophia in Instanbul: An Architectural Survey. Washington, D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1966-