Esther Boise Van Deman (October 1, 1862 – 3 May 1937) was a leading archaeologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

From 1889 she worked closely with the new, young Professor Francis Kelsey, who encouraged her to study the cult of the Vestal Virgins.

She commenced studying for her doctorate at the University of Chicago in 1896 and became the first woman to be awarded a PhD in Latin there in 1898; her thesis again focused on the Vestal Virgins.

She then taught Latin at Mount Holyoke College from 1898 to 1901[2][3] In 1901 Van Deman travelled to Rome, assisted by her mentor Kelsey, to gather further material on the Vestal Virgins.

The House of the Vestal Virgins was being excavated at the time and Van Deman regularly observed the dig and examined the finds.

She returned to America in 1903 to become an associate professor at Goucher College teaching Latin and classical archaeology.

Her life's work centered around the analysis of building materials to establish a chronology of construction on ancient sites.

[6] Van Deman's major work, written after she retired and settled in Rome, was The Building of the Roman Aqueducts (1934).