Philippa Wallace Matheson (background, at left) in 1961 in the Wine Jars Workroom. Andreas Dimoulinis is in the foreground (photo from ascsa.net).
From:
Dear Colleagues,
I am writing with the sad news that Philippa M. Wallace Matheson died on April 12, 2026, her 80th birthday, in Toronto. Though never officially a member of the School, her ties to the School’s scholarly community ran deep, and she was a pioneer in computer applications in archaeology.
Her parents, Mary Barton and William Wallace, were both students at the School in the mid 1930s, and her father was Visiting Professor in 1960-61 when 15-year-old Philippa accompanied them to Athens. On December 22, 1960, Virginia Grace, by then a long-time friend of the Wallace family, wrote in her calendar: “[Philippa] Wallace to learn rubbing” (graphite-on-cigarette-paper copies of amphora stamps). By January, Philippa was working in the Stoa of Attalos ‘wine jars workroom’ [pictured below].
Following in the family tradition, Philippa earned her BA in Classics at the University of Toronto and went on to Cornell for graduate studies. From there, pursuing work in publishing, she moved to the Netherlands where she met her future husband, the scientist and polymath Dugald Matheson.
Philippa became an indispensable member of Grace’s research team along with Maria Petropoulakou, Andreas Dimoulinis, and Carolyn Koehler. Philippa checked and double-checked references and restored readings, assisted with profile drawings, and traveled to Alexandria and Rhodes to document finds. She learned Russian, at first just to produce translations of Russian amphora scholarship, but the more she learned, the more she grew to love its logic and nuances. She was sometimes frustrated, though, when the quality of the scholarship did not match the effort invested in the translation.
In the early 1980s, Philippa began her ground-breaking efforts to harness emerging computing technology to the needs of the Humanities. She began with data entry and programming for the ATHENIANS, John Traill’s compilation of all known ancient Athenians. Spurred on by his side interests in math and science as well as his graduate school friendship with David Packard, Traill sought out computer programmers as soon as he arrived at the University of Toronto. Philippa offered the perfect mix of exceptional attention to detail and a willingness to learn all she would need on the programming side to be the perfect collaborator for ATHENIANS. Soon thereafter, she and Carolyn Koehler initiated the AMPHORAS Project, based on Grace’s effort to organize corpora of amphora stamps. Unlike Traill, Grace was initially skeptical of the utility of computerization but was won over when she saw how quickly and effectively the database could generate lists, sorted by different parameters. Indeed, Philippa was quite skilled at winning over skeptics. In 1983, writing to Grace about an evening with David Jordan, that great scholar of Greek curse tablets, Philippa recounted, “… I got the computer to cough up some of his favorite curses, together with all the Athenians of the same name and date known from other sources, after which he became a computer convert.” (P. Matheson to Grace, Feb. 17, 1983, ASCSA Archives VRG_Folder_0612.20)
Beyond these endeavors, Philippa developed an early database for searching books and journals, TOCS-IN. She worked extensively with the University of Toronto Press both in editing and production, with projects spanning Sanskrit to Erasmus. Phoenix, the journal of the Classical Association of Canada, depended for decades on Philippa’s skills in typesetting a mix of ancient Greek, Latin, French and English.
At the same time, Philippa remained deeply involved in foundational amphora research. She and her brother, Mac Wallace, were especially interested in defining ancient units of capacity measurement and determining whether clay amphoras met those standards. Their 1982 article, in a special issue of Hesperia honoring Virginia Grace and Dorothy Thompson, explored the increasing refinement of Rhodian amphora capacities. Philippa was particularly involved, along with Maria Petropoulakou, in efforts to compile a corpus of Koan amphora stamps. She also worked closely with Barbara Clinkenbeard on the jars of Lesbos and with Carolyn Koehler on the Knidian stamps.
Though based in Toronto, Philippa devoted much time and effort to the family’s summer cottages near Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. There, she sailed to get the groceries, repaired plumbing and leaking boats, evicted squirrels' nests, and swatted mosquitos (“twice the size of the ones in Athens”). Her energetic preparations ensured family and visitors were well-fed, warm, and comfortable.
Even at the lakeside cottage, Philippa rigged up a generator and eventually solar panels to power her computer, and she often thought of Athens. She hated the process of getting there, but being there was time to be cherished above all else: Virginia Grace’s apartment at 33 Ploutarchou, oranges and honey for breakfast, fresh produce from the laiki, a drink and lively conversation on the balcony gazing out at Mt. Hymettos.
Carolyn Koehler wrote, “Philippa was firm in her opinions, incisive in her speech, generous of heart, and warm in her friendships.” To Philippa’s family and friends across the School community, I offer deepest condolences.
Sincerely,
Mark
I thank Camilla MacKay and Carolyn Koehler for assistance with this notice. The Virginia Grace papers are housed at the ASCSA Archives.
Philippa Wallace Matheson (background, at left) in 1961 in the Wine Jars Workroom. Andreas Dimoulinis is in the foreground (photo from ascsa.net).