History
THE SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS - SEVEN DECADES OF SCHOLARSHIP
The Society's 3,500 members include architectural historians, architects, preservationists, students, professionals in allied fields and the interested public. Founded in 1940, membership in SAH is open to everyone, regardless of profession or expertise, who is interested in the study, interpretation, and protection of historically significant buildings, sites, cities and landscapes.
The Society of Architectural Historians is a not-for-profit membership organization and learned society that promotes the study and preservation of the built environment worldwide. In 2000 the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) celebrated sixty years of service to the field of architectural history and its related disciplines. The Society's membership of approximately 2,500 individuals includes professors of architectural and art history, architects and other design professionals, preservationists, museum curators, students, and many others who share a passionate interest in the subject. Institutional members, numbering more than 900, include other learned societies, university libraries, art and historical museums, and preservation organizations around the world.
SAH had its beginnings during the summer session at Harvard University in 1940, when a number of professors and students in the field of history met for informal, extracurricular talks, discussions, and study trips. The enthusiasm that these activities generated led to the formal organization of the Society in late 1940. Initially, the Society was known as the American Society of Architectural Historians. From its inception, four key goals informed the Society's mission: (1) to provide multiple forums for presenting, interpreting, and debating architectural history; (2) to foster an appreciation and understanding of the built environment throughout history; (3) to encourage and disseminate research in the field of architectural history; and (4) to promote the preservation of significant monuments worldwide.
To achieve that mission, the members of the Society continued to meet annually to deliver scholarly research papers, to participate in study tours of the region, and to manage the usual governance matters required of a professional society. In 1941 the first issue of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians was published. Realizing that the interests of the members were diverse and international in scope, in 1947 the Board of Directors of the Society voted to drop the word "American" from its name and to approve steps toward incorporation in the state of Connecticut. Within just a few years of incorporation and renaming, the Society established many of the publications, programs, and activities that remain at the center of the organization's work today. The following is a detailed explanation of the Society's current publications, programs and fellowship opportunities.
CURRENT SAH PUBLICATIONS AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (JSAH) - The quarterly JSAH is the leading scholarly architectural journal published in the English language. Early issues containing articles on a wide variety of European and American subjects laid the foundation for much of the subsequent research in the field. Over the years the focus of JSAH has expanded to include articles addressing broader theoretical and critical issues related to the built environment, a wide variety of book reviews on American and international topics, exhibition reviews and multi-media/website reviews. Beginning in January 2004 back issues of JSAH became available electronically through JSTOR, the preeminent provider of scholarly journals online.
SAH Newsletter - In the 1940s and early 1950s, JSAH carried regular reports of the Society's activities. With the launch of the SAH Newsletter in 1957, the Society's time-sensitive announcements and general information were published there. Currently, the SAH Newsletter covers not only Society activities, but also outside events of essential interest to SAH members such as colloquia, symposia, fellowship programs, summer research programs, employment opportunities, activities of the SAH Local Chapters, and websites of architectural interest. The Newsletter is available both in print and online through the SAH website.
BUILDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES (BUS) - The United States is one of the few countries in the developed world without a comprehensive series of publications addressing its national architectural heritage. In 1979, the Society accepted the challenge laid by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, author of the seminal Buildings of England, to fill this void. In 1993 the Society published the first four BUILDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES books, the award-winning 60-volume series of guidebooks/encyclopedias documenting and interpreting American architecture state by state. The New York Times has called the series, the Society's major educational outreach initiative, "one of the most ambitious in publishing history." To date, eleven volumes have been published.
SAH Website - The SAH website first went online in 1994 and has become a vital resource in expanding the Society's mission in the electronic age. In addition to including basic information about membership, fellowships, annual meetings, and study tours, the website provides a wealth of scholarly information, including resources for educators, a bank of images that can be used for teaching, and links to other architecture-related websites. The Society's Guide to Graduate Programs in the United States is now posted on the website, with live links to specific university departments across the U.S. Throughout 2008 and beyond new interactive features will be introduced to the website including online registration for meetings and tours, a Forum for Graduate Students, and a Career Center. The SAH website also includes a bank of electronic images, the Image Exchange, which are available for download for teaching and educational proposes.
SAH Listserv - The Society's tool for more personal electronic communications, the SAH Listserv is a moderated electronic bulletin board open only to SAH members. Since it was inaugurated in 1995, the SAH Listserv has developed into an important resource for SAH members to pose questions and exchange information about research topics, position listings, upcoming conferences, lectures, exhibitions, and other architecture-related events. SAH members should contact the SAH Manager of Membership Services at membership@sah.org to be added to the SAH Listserv.
CURRENT SAH PROGRAMS AND AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS
Annual Meetings - Along with the quarterly JSAH, the Annual Meeting, which was first organized in the late 1940s, serves as the cornerstone of the Society's efforts to advance the study of architectural history through the presentation and discussion of current scholarly research. Beginning in 1949, the Society met with the College Art Association, a practice that continued until 1973. That year, the Society collaborated with its corresponding society, SAH Great Britain, and held its annual meeting in Cambridge, England. From then on, the Society established its own schedule, with the annual conference generally held in April. The five-day program features a Preservation Colloquium, twenty-five paper sessions in which scholarly research papers are delivered, an annual business meeting, an awards ceremony, extensive local architectural tours, and special workshops on topics such as the integration of computer and Internet technologies into architectural history curricula and techniques of architectural photography. Since 1998, the Annual Meeting also includes a plenary talk by a distinguished scholar who is invited to speak on the study of the built environment.
Study Tours - Every year the Society organizes four domestic and international study tours, available to members and to the general public. The study tours, which are eligible for AIA Continuing Education Credits, focus on the architecture of a particular architect, period, region, or style. Domestic tours generally last approximately five to seven days, and international study tours run approximately two to three weeks.
SAH Chapters - The first Chapters of SAH were formed in the early 1940s, and by 1957 there were as many as ten. The Society currently has more than twenty Chapters across the country. The Chapters help the Society extend its educational mission to individuals throughout the U.S. who have a specific interest in the architecture of their region.
Corresponding and Affiliate Organizations - SAH has one corresponding society, SAH Great Britain, and several affiliates, including the ARLIS/NA, Census of Stained Glass, Decorative Arts Society, DOCOMOMO-US, Historians of Islamic Art, International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments, National Committee for the History of Art, and Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada. These organizations, whose educational missions parallel those of the Society, may sponsor sessions at the Society's annual meeting.
The Charnley-Persky House - From the time the SAH was founded, its leaders hoped to have headquarters in a building of historical significance. For most of its existence, the Society was located in Pennsylvania, first in Media, at the home of the first executive secretary, Rosann Berry, and then in downtown Philadelphia. In 1995, Society board member Seymour H. Persky donated funds to the Society to purchase the landmark James Charnley House on Chicago's Gold Coast, to which the Society moved its headquarters in July of that year. Designed by Louis H. Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright in 1891, Charnley House has been called the first modern home in America. Mr. Persky's extraordinary generosity prompted the SAH board to rename the house the Charnley-Persky House. Although the building houses the offices for SAH and BUS staff, it is open to the public for free docent-led tours every Wednesday at noon. On Saturday mornings, docents lead tours of the Charnley-Persky House, the Albert Madlener House, and the architecturally rich Astor Street neighborhood.
CURRENT SAH AWARD AND FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
Awards for Excellence in Scholarly Writing - To recognize and promote scholarly excellence, each year the Society bestows a number of awards for books, articles and exhibition catalogs. The tradition had its beginnings in 1949 when the Society established the Alice Davis Hitchcock Award for the best publication in architectural history during a given year. Since that time, the number of awards for excellence has grown and includes:
• The Alice Davis Hitchcock Award honors the mother of Henry-Russell Hitchcock,
former president of the Society and an international leader in architectural history
for half a century. It is given for the most distinguished work of scholarship in the
history of architecture by a North American scholar published during the previous
two years. List of previous awardees.
• The Spiro Kostof Award was established in 1993 to honor a former president of
the Society whose innovative scholarship helped establish significant new
parameters for the historical study of the built environment. It is awarded each
year for the book that, focusing on urban history and its relationships with
architecture, has made the greatest contribution during the past two years to
understanding the processes of historical development and change.
List of previous awardees.
• The Philip Johnson Award was established in 1990 and in 1998 was named to
honor the distinguished architect who was instrumental in establishing the
architectural exhibition as an important function of museums and who, through
such work, has had a major impact on scholarship and practice. The Johnson
Award is given for the exhibition catalog that has made the most outstanding
contribution to architectural history during the previous two years.
List of previous awardees.
• The Antoinette Forrester Downing Award was established in 1986 in honor of a
national leader in historic preservation during the second half of the twentieth
century who also was instrumental in developing the architectural survey as a
key component in the preservation process. The Downing Award is given for the
most outstanding publication devoted to historical topics in the preservation field
that enhances the understanding and protection of the built environment in the
United States. List of previous awardees.
• The Elisabeth Blair MacDougall Award was established by the SAH Board in 2005
to recognize annually the most distinguished work of scholarship in the history of
landscape or garden design. Named for former SAH President and landscape
historian, Elisabeth Blair MacDougall, the award honors the late historian's key role
in developing the field of study. The award is open to authors worldwide for books
published in English during the previous two years. List of previous awardees.
• The Founders' Award was established in 1969 and was named in 1970 in honor of
the founding members of the Society. It is awarded each year for the best article
written by a junior scholar to appear in the previous two years in the Journal of the
Society of Architectural Historians. List of previous awardees.
Annual Meeting Fellowships - In order to provide financial assistance for graduate students and scholars residing outside the United States to participate in the Society's annual meeting activities, the Society awards the following fellowships annually. Current application and deadlines.
• The George R. Collins Fellowship was created in 1993 by Christiane
Crasemann Collins and the family of the late George R. Collins in honor of the
distinguished scholar of architectural and urban history. The Collins Fellowship
is awarded annually to support the attendance of an international scholar whose
paper on a nineteenth- or twentieth-century topic has been accepted for delivery
at the Society's annual meeting.
• The Rosann S. Berry Fellowship was established in 1982 in honor of a former
executive secretary of the Society whose leadership from 1955 to 1980 helped
bring the organization to maturity. The fellowship is awarded annually to support
the travel of a graduate student member of SAH to attend the Society's annual
meeting.
• The Spiro Kostof Fellowship was established in 1998 by Diane Favro, Richard
Ingersoll, and Zeynep Çelik to provide funds for a graduate student member of
SAH to attend the Society's annual meeting. The fellowship is intended to
underwrite travel costs.
• The Keepers Preservation Education Fund Fellowship was established in
1989 by William J. Murtagh, the first Keeper of the National Register of Historic
Places and a leading figure in the preservation movement during the second half
of the twentieth century. The Keepers Fellowship is awarded annually to support
the attendance of a graduate student in historic preservation at the Society's
annual meeting. Membership in SAH is not required to qualify.
• Samuel H. Kress Foundation Fellowships - Every year the Society applies for
funding from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to support the travel of international
scholars who will be delivering papers at the Society's Annual Meeting that focus
on architectural traditions from Antiquity through the 18th century.
• SAH Annual Meeting Fellowships - In 2000 the SAH Executive Committee
decided to allocate funds from membership dues to provide funding for international
scholars and graduate students who would be delivering papers at the Society's
Annual Meeting.
• Scott Opler Annual Meeting Fellowships for Advanced Graduate Students and
Emerging Scholars were created in 2003 by SAH to honor the late Scott Opler, a
historian of Renaissance art. The Opler Annual Meeting Fellowships provide
support for a significant number of advanced graduate students and emerging
scholars to deliver papers at the SAH Annual Meeting.
• The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation Fellowship recognizes a speaker
at the SAH Annual Meeting who is presenting a paper that best advances the
status of the history of women in architecture. The award recognizes the best
paper delivered at the SAH annual meeting that concerns gender issues and
related topics in the history of architecture, landscape architecture and related
disciplines.
Research Fellowships - In order to further research in the field of architectural history, by established as well as emerging scholars, the Society annually grants the following three research fellowships:
• The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation Dissertation Fellowship of the Society
of Architectural Historians was created in 2006 to support preparation of a
dissertation focusing on the history (pre-1980) of women's contributions to the
production of architecture, whether as practitioners of design, urbanism, landscape
or engineering, as advocates of preservation and planning, or as architectural
historians, theorists, teachers and critics.
• The Samuel H. Kress Foundation Dissertation Fellowship of the Society of
Architectural Historians was support preparation of a dissertation focusing on
the history of architecture and the built environment in Europe from ancient
times through 1900. The subject area can include architectural, interior and
landscape design, preservation and urban planning in Europe.
• The Edilia and François-Auguste de Montêquin Fellowship was endowed in 1991
in honor of his mother by François-Auguste de Montêquin, a distinguished scholar
of Latin American architecture and urbanism. The endowment was expanded in
1997 with his bequest. The Junior de Montêquin Fellowship of is awarded annually
to an emerging scholar to support travel and research focusing on Spanish,
Portuguese, or Ibero-American architecture including colonial architecture produced
by Spaniards in the Philippines and in what is today the United States. The Senior
de Montêquin Fellowship is awarded biannually for research by a senior scholar
focusing on the same area of specialization.
• The Sally Kress Tompkins Fellowship was established in 1989 in honor of the
former deputy chief of the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American
Engineering Record, whose advocacy of historical research has had a significant
impact on that program. Awarded jointly by the Society and the Historic American
Building Survey (HABS) of the National Park Service, the fellowship supports the
work of an architectural history student working on a HABS project over the summer.
• Study Tour Fellowships Every year the Society offers a number of fellowships to
enable graduate students and emerging scholars to participate in the Society's
domestic and international study tours.
Over the past seven decades, the Society of Architectural Historians has become the leading international learned society that documents, interprets and critiques all aspects of the built environment, from interiors and individual buildings to landscapes and urban plans. The Society prides itself on its long history of presenting scholarly research to national and international audiences through its publications, meetings, study tours, and website. At the same time, it is important that the Society remain flexible and open to new research, ideas, and means of communicating so the organization can continue to take a leadership role in documenting and protecting the built environment for decades to come.
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