1923

William Linn Westermann (1882-1964), joined the Department of History at Columbia as professor of ancient history in 1923. Westermann’s scholarship focused primarily on ancient economic history. He was one of the leading papyrologists in the United States and translated five volumes of Greek Papyri. Westermann served as an expert on Near Eastern affairs at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and was elected president of the American Historical Association in 1944.

Read Westermann’s inaugural address as president of the American Historical Association, December 28, 1944.