Seán Hemingway ’85

art, archaeology

Seán Hemingway’s career today—as curator of Greek and Roman art at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art—rests on a foundation first built at Groton. “I was profoundly influenced by my classical mentors, Hugh Sackett, Rogers Scudder, Warren Myers, and Stuart Johnson, and their enthusiastic introduction to Greek and Latin literature and ancient cultures,” Seán said. “What remains so meaningful for me about my Groton experience was the respect the teachers gave to the students, how important they believed their work educating us was, and the many lasting friendships that I made, especially with my formmates.”

Seán majored in classical archaeology at Dartmouth College, and spent his junior year abroad in Greece and Italy, where he worked on an archaeological excavation—of the Minoan settlement at Palaikastro in eastern Crete—directed by Groton teacher Hugh Sackett. “Greek archaeology became a passion for me,” Seán said. He went on to complete an M.A. and a Ph.D. at Bryn Mawr College in classical art and archaeology and spent two years at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, one year as a Fulbright Scholar. After interning in the Ancient Art Department at the Harvard Art Museum, he moved to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“I believe that art is an important part of life and that we can learn much from the past,” he explained. “I particularly enjoy helping people to learn—as my Groton teachers did with me—about Greek art in the museum’s galleries or at an ancient site like Palaikastro, so that they can enrich their own lives.”

(Photo of Seán Hemingway by Bruce Schwarz)

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