LUIGI PALMA DI CESNOLA. 833 



LIJIGI PALMA DI CESNOLA (1832-1904) 



Fellow in Class III, Section 4, 1881. 



Luigi Palma di Cesnola was born at Rivarola June 29, 1832. After 

 completing his education at the Royal Academy of Turin, he served 

 with distinction in the Sardinian army during the revolution of 1848, 

 and again in the Crimean war. The same love for liberty which led 

 him into the war against Austrian rule brought him to the United 

 States, where he was naturalized as a citizen in 1860. Enlisting in the 

 army he was rapidly promoted till he became colonel of the fourth 

 New York Cavalry. At the battle of Aldie he was severely wounded 

 and taken prisoner, being held in Libby prison for nearly a year. 

 Liberated in 1864 he served again till the close of the war and was 

 mustered out with the rank of Brigadier General. From 1865 to 1876 

 he was Consul General of the United StateS in Cyprus. Here he soon 

 became interested in antiquities, conducted extensive excavations, and 

 gathered the largest collection of Cypriote antiquities that has ever 

 been made. The acquisition of the main part of this collection by 

 the Metropolitan Museum again brought Cesnola into relation with 

 New York. In 1876 he resigned his post in Cyprus to become 

 Secretary of the Metropolitan Mifseum, and in 1879 he was made 

 Director, a position which he held till his death November 21, 1904. 

 He held the degree of Doctor of Laws from Columbia and Princeton, 

 in 1897 he received the medal of honor from Congress, and the King of 

 Italy caused a gold medal to be struck in his honor besides granting 

 him several knightly orders. 



Although a student of art in his boyhood, his interest in the work 

 for which he gained renown was largely the result of circumstances. 

 When he came to Cyprus in 1865 his labors as consul for the United 

 States and for Russia were not arduous, his British and French col- 

 leagues were already engaged in collecting antiquities, and he found 

 abundant opportunity to engage in the same pursuit. His success 

 in winning the friendship of the natives brought him early information 

 of important discoveries, while his genius for organization proved 

 invaluable in the excavations he undertook. General di Cesnola was 

 not a scholar or an archaeologist, but a collector. In 1865, when he 

 began his work, scientific excavations were as yet unknown, and 

 relatively little was known of the complex problems raised by Cypriote 

 antiquities. That Cesnola failed to develop scientific methods of 



