Background
Whittemore, Thomas was born on January 2, 1871 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Saint Clair) Whittemore.
Whittemore, Thomas was born on January 2, 1871 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Saint Clair) Whittemore.
He taught at Tufts for a year and then studied at Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Tufts College in 1894. From 1911 until his death Whittemore served as American representative on the Egyptian Exploration Fund. Whittemore worked in various capacities to provide relief to Russian refugees during World War I and following the Russian Revolution.
He spent 8 months in Russia in 1915-1916 and reported on conditions there when he returned to New York to organized shipments of supplies.
Of the radical and sudden transformation of Hagia Sophia from an active mosque to a secular museum in 1931 he wrote: "Santa Sophia was a mosque the day that I talked to him. The next morning, when I went to the mosque, there was a sign on the door written in Ataturk"s own hand.
lieutenant said: "The museum is closed for repairs""
In 1934, Harvard University appointed him keeper of Byzantine coins and seals at the Fogg Art Museum for a year. He also accepted a presidential appointment to represent the United States at the Byzantine Conference in Sofia in September of that year.
His work was widely reported in the United States.
In 1942, the New York Times noted his return to Istanbul for his "ninth year in uncovering Byzantine mosaics in the Saint Sophia Museum". Beginning in 1948, he sponsored a program for the restoration of the mosaics in the Chora Church in Istanbul. Brown University awarded him an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1950.
On June 8, 1950, he suffered a heart attack while visiting the United States. Department of State in Washington, District of Columbia He was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Fellow Royal Geography Society, London. Member Archaeological Institute American, American Numismatic Society. Clubs: Faculty (Cambridge, Massachusetts).