LATE LIFE
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Kelsey's remarkable energy sustained him well into his later years, but in the mid-1920s his multiple responsibilities and projects began to take their toll. Traveling to Paris in March 1927 to accept the honor of election to the Académie Française des Belles-Lettres, he was ill and too weak to deliver his inaugural address. He attended the meeting, but someone else had to read his speech for him. Yet his intellectual energy, enthusiasm, and vision remained intact and, according to some, seemed greater than ever as he continued to plan large scale projects for the University. He returned to Ann Arbor in early April and checked himself in to a hospital. Remaining in the hospital and shuttling back and forth to the campus when the discomfort eased, he somehow managed to keep up his schedule of editing, publishing, planning archaeological projects, leading the Michigan Schoolmasters' Club, and seeking funds for further acquisitions for the University's collections.
As he continued to experience chest pains (diagnosed as "rheumatism") while in the hospital, his health slowly deteriorated. His death on May 14th from heart failure came as a shock to family, friends, students, and colleagues. The loss to the University of Michigan and to the fields of classical scholarship was profound. In the years following his death, Kelsey was honored by German scholars for his fundraising efforts to save the publication of the Latin Thesaurus and to keep the library of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome open in the years after World War I. The Italian government also awarded him a medal in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the study of Pompeii.
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Isabelle and Francis Kelsey Patricia Diel Arthur/Ruth Kelsey Diel Collection
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Kelsey's inaugural address to members of the Académie Française des Belles-Lettres, delivered in Paris on the occasion of his election to the Académie Kelsey Museum Library
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Portrait of F. W. Kelsey owned by his colleague and collaborator, John G. Winters Inscribed by Winters on the back. Kelsey Museum Archives
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Last entry Kelsey wrote in his diary of 1927 Bentley Historical Library, Kelsey Museum Papers
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Telegram from Easton Kelsey to Ruth, May 14, 1927 Patricia Diel Arthur/Ruth Kelsey Diel Collection
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Newspaper obituary for Francis Kelsey Kelsey Museum Archives
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Newspaper articles
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News article on posthumous tribute offered by Kelsey's German colleagues. Tribute to Kelsey's efforts to find funds for the Latin Thesaurus and the library of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome to stay open after World War I Bentley Historical Library, Patricia Diel Arthur/Ruth Kelsey Diel Collection
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News article on the medal awarded posthumously to Kelsey by the Italian government. Awarded for contributions to scholarship on Pompeii Bentley Historical Library, Patricia Diel Arthur/Ruth Kelsey Diel Collection
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Detail of postcard view of Newberry Hall From A. Duderstadt, The University of Michigan: A Photographic Saga (Ann Arbor, 2006)
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Newspaper article Patricia Diel Arthur/Ruth Kelsey Diel Collection
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Newspaper article, February 13, 1953 Patricia Diel Arthur/Ruth Kelsey Diel Collection
