Image Details

Before becoming the “Father of Archaeology,” Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890) had a series of colorful careers ranging from grocer’s apprentice to frontier banker during the California gold rush. A citizen of Germany, Russia and America, he married twice and knew 18 languages. Schliemann’s early adult life was spent accumulating a fortune in the import-export business in St. Petersburg—where he married Ekaterina Petrovna Lyzhina (shown here), the staid daughter of a prominent attorney. Ekaterina had little in common with her husband. As one St. Petersburg merchant wrote to Schliemann: “[S]he now consents to cast her lot with yours … because she knows you are now rich.”