SAH Archipedia Announces Ann Gilkerson as Managing Editor

Ann Gilkerson has joined SAH Archipedia as SAH Archipedia/BUS Managing Editor. She will work with SAH Archipedia/BUS Editor in Chief Gabrielle Esperdy managing the publication of born-digital peer-reviewed content on the history of the built environment across the United States.

"SAH Archipedia/BUS is at an inflection point: as we near the completion of the State 100 project, we are planning a new model for future BUS volumes that will leverage and expand our existing content, bringing it to print in a streamlined authoring and publication work flow,” said Esperdy. “We are excited to have Ann join us in this work.”

An independent architectural historian and editor, Ann Gilkerson has a B.A. in art history from Smith College and a Ph.D. in the history of modern architecture from Harvard University. She has taught at a variety of institutions including Tufts, Oberlin, the University of California at Davis and Harvard. Gilkerson has also been a researcher at the National Gallery of Art, where she was assistant editor, with Craig Hugh Smyth, editor, of Michelangelo Drawings, Studies in the History of Art, The National Gallery of Art. She has also published in Visual Resources and JSAH. Currently based in Tucson, Arizona, she has written several entries for the Arizona portion of SAH Archipedia, and is now completing more entries, and three short essays, for Nevada. In addition, she has been active in preservation, and has worked for the Northampton and Cambridge Massachusetts Historical Commissions. An early member of the Berkeley Prize Committee, she was its administrator for the first five years. More recently, she has worked as a freelance editor. 

Since 2021, Ann has served as the managing editor for the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (JSAH). She will step down from this role in March 2025.

SAH Archipedia is an authoritative online encyclopedia of the U.S. built environment organized by the Society of Architectural Historians and the University of Virginia Press. It contains histories, photographs, and maps for over 22,000 structures and places. These are mostly buildings, but also includes landscapes, infrastructure, monuments, artwork, and more. The content of SAH Archipedia was originally drawn from the award-winning book series, Buildings of the United States (BUS), and includes histories and thematic essays from all of the published BUS print volumes. The database has continued to grow with the addition of peer-reviewed born-digital content and as new BUS volumes are completed. As of 2017, SAH Archipedia encompassed entries representing all fifty U.S. States.