Bluma L. Trell
Bluma Lee Popkin Trell was an American classicist, archaeologist, and numismatist. She earned a law degree from New York University at age 21 and had a private law practice for several years before becoming bored and returning to her studies. She was later a professor of Classics at New York University, and a recognized expert on the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Her reconstruction of the temple was on display at the British Museum and was used as a model in a painting by Salvador Dali. At NYU, the Bluma L. Trell Prize is awarded each year to a graduating senior who has made notable contributions in the field of Classics.
In 1973, Trell participated in a protest against the Metropolitan Museum's attempt to sell 6,000 ancient coins that it had lent the American Numismatic Society. A photograph of Trell playing the cello with the NYU Student Orchestra at the Society during the protest appeared in the New York Times and the New York Post which generated a lot of publicity and likely contributed to the success of the protest.
In 1977, Trell published Coins and Their Cities: Architecture on the Ancient Coins of Greece, Rome and Palestine, along with renowned British Museum authority Martin Price.
Personal life
Bluma Lee Popkin was born in 1903 to Max Popkin, a portrait painter who helped establish the Grand Central Art Galleries, and Mary Samuels Popkin.In 1924, she married screenwriter Max Trell, and they had one son named Max Trell Jr.
Awards
- American Council of Learned Societies grants, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1977
- National Science Foundation grant, 1973
- New York University, teaching award, 1975