Walter Woodburn Hyde

Walter Woodburn Hyde studied Ancient History at Cornell University until 1893. He then taught Latin and history at schools in Westerly, Rhode Island and Northampton, Massachusetts. At the latter, he was appointed principal in 1899. In the meantime, he had also spent a year at the American Schools of Classical Studies in Athina and Roma. From 1900-02 he again went to Europe and continued his studies at the universities of Genève, Göttingen, and Halle. At Halle, Hyde completed his doctorate thesis titled De Olympionicarum statuis a Pausania commemorates (On the Olympic Statues Mentioned by Pausanias).

After his return to the United States, Hyde taught Latin in Baltimore. From 1908 he lectured as professor of Latin at the University of Tennessee and then as professor of Greek at his alma mater, Cornell University. In 1910 Hyde changed over to the University of Pennsylvania as professor of Greek and Ancient History, where he held the chair for 30 years until his retirement.

Since his studies in Halle, Hyde had been interested in the Ancient Olympic Games. In Philadelphia he researched the archaeology, philology, literature, religion, geography, and law of the ancient world. During his life Hyde published 14 monographs and 160 essays. The University of Pennsylvania awarded him the title of Doctor of Letters in 1948. An avid mountaineer, he reconstructed, among other things, Hannibal’s route across the Alps marching towards Roma.

The only book with the title History of Olympic Games, Ancient and Modern that could be identified was first published in 1931 in the run-up to the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The author was Hugh Harlan, who is not mentioned anywhere else in connection with the Olympic Games or as a book author. Hugh Valentine Harlan (1889-1964) was an American journalist who lived in California and it is possible that he acted as a ghostwriter for Hyde. The first edition of the book was 10,000 copies, the second edition, after the book was promoted by the USOC, had 50,000 copies.