Cesnola, Luigi Palma di

Cesnola, Luigi Palma di (Count)

(1832–1904) archaeologist; born in Rivarolo, Italy. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy in Turin (1843–48) and fought in the Austrian, Crimean, and—immigrating to the U.S.A. in 1860—American Civil Wars. After he took American citizenship (1865), he became U.S. consul in Cyprus. There he conducted many archaeological excavations. His outstanding collection of antiquities, the fruits of these excavations, were given to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, where he was director from 1879 to his death.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.