From College Days ... I bet there are a pile of these little private collections around North America:

Thanks to Ripon College's Clark Collection students have the opportunity to see and connect with Ancient Mesopotamian and Greek civilizations without traveling to a museum.

The collection is an assortment of ancient art collected by Professor of Latin and Roman Archeology Edward W. Clark in the early 1900s. It was recently relocated from Rodman to Lane Library.

"It will enable students to have better access to the collection along with other relevant materials," says Diane Mockridge, professor of history.

The collection was moved to floor 2A of the library before fall break. Books pertaining to topics such as ancient Greek and Roman civilizations are located nearby.

While making room for more art pieces in Rodman was a key component of the move, according to Mockridge, so too was its proximity to related resources.

"For research purposes, it being down at Rodman wasn't as accessible to students," says junior Sandy Patrowsky.

The Clark Collection originated in 1905 with Clark, a professor at Ripon for 19 years. He began purchasing the artifacts for the college during a sabbatical in Italy.

Though most commonly referred to as the Clark Collection, there has been recent desire to move away from that name. "We now prefer to call [it] the Ripon College Classical Antiquities Collection, which is its original name," says Eddie Lowry, professor of Greek and Latin.

"Clark Collection is simpler, but recent, and somewhat misleading in that Professor Clark purchased it for, rather than gave it to, the college," says Lowry.

The collection contains a vast array of objects portraying many lands and ways of life.

"It is a collection of ancient Greek, Roman, and Etruscan artifacts. We have about 40 vases, 50 Roman lamps and 200 Roman coins," says Mockridge.

The collection also has a website dedicated to its history that catalogues many of the artifacts the collection contains.

Over the years the collection has become a teaching tool for classes in multiple departments, including history and anthropology, to give students a hands-on approach to the cultures and history they are studying.

"I use the collection whenever I teach my History 214, Greek and Roman Society, course. Students collaborate on projects involving various items from the collection," says Mockridge.

Patrowsky, who took Greek and Roman Society as a first year, enjoyed using the collection.

"I think that working with actual artifacts is a good opportunity for students because it's one thing to be told to do a research project on a conical urn, but it's a whole different thing to be told 'this is a conical urn, learn something from it,'" says Patrowsky.

It's something Patrowsky feels students should try to take advantage of.

"Not every school in the world can say that they have a collection with pieces [this] old," she says. "So I think for a school the size of Ripon, it gives us a little prestige."

The Clark Collection is available for viewing whenever the library is open.