Edward Perry Warren

Active
1906–1930
Collecting
Mediterranean vessels, marble sculpture, gems and cameos, and bronze and terracotta figures
Close-up, black and white photo of a man with a mustache, looking thoughtfully into the distance.

A testament to his impact as an influential twentieth-century American antiquities collector, Edward Perry Warren’s (1860–1928, H ’26) name is linked to hundreds of ancient objects housed in institutions across the United States, including more than five hundred works at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art alone. Aware of the dearth of antiquities on American soil—and equipped with purchasing power by means of his family’s wealth derived from the S.D. Warren Paper Mill in Westbrook, Maine—Warren set out to do, as he put it, “the work most needed of all works, supplying eventually the terrible gap that exists on this new continent, the absence of that which delights the eye and rests the soul.” In a 1915 letter to Professor Henry Johnson (1855–1918), then director of the Museum of Art at Bowdoin, Warren underscored the importance of object-based learning and teaching, declaring that students “must have specimens at hand.” Warren’s donations to the BCMA ultimately form a representative collection of objects from the ancient Mediterranean world, namely terracotta vases, statuary, jewelry and other luxury arts, figurines, ephemera, coins, and fragments. 

Standing woman ca. 4th-3rd c. CE
Hydria (water container) with the abduction of Oreithyia by Boreas Attributed to the Niobid Painter ca. 460–450 BCE
Lekythos (oil flask) Attributed to the Boston Phiale Painter ca. 430 BCE
Kylix (cup) ca. 525 BCE
Nolan amphora (wine vessel) Attributed to the Pan Painter ca. 460 BCE
Stamnos (vase) ca. late 4th c. BCE
Striated agate bead with heron Attributed to Dexamenos 450–425 BCE
Panel amphora (wine vessel) Attributed to the Painter of Berlin 1686, ca. 550–530 BCE ca. 550–530 BCE
Scarab 5th c. BCE
Cameo with Nike and chariot 1st c. BCE - 1st c. CE
Lekythos (oil flask) ca. 480–470 BCE
Kylix (cup) Attributed to the Briseis Painter 480–470 BCE
Lekythos (oil flask) Attributed to the Bird Painter ca. 450 BCE
Askos (oil flask) Attributed to Makron 490–480 BCE
Gold cable bracelet ca. 4th-3rd c. CE
Kylix (cup) ca. 420–400 BCE
Skyphos (drinking cup) fragment with flying Eros Attributed to the Antiphon Painter ca. 500–480 BCE
Krater (vase) fragment with horse head Attributed to Exekias ca. 525–500 BCE