Hi Carl,

I can't tell if you meant for this to go the whole group or
not, but I might as well use the occasion to put in a plug
for the VAF.

As with any group (e.g., archaeologists) architectural
historians have diverse backgrounds. Most of the people
I went to school with had degrees in history or art history.
Some were trained as architects and landscape designers, others
were lawyers and what-not.  Nowadays there are many with
degrees in Historic Preservation and Public History (which, IMO,
seems to be putting the cart before the horse).

As for me, I actuallly did come out of an anthro program
(BA, UVa).  I was very interested in archaeology, but our
department was heavily geared toward symbolic/cultural
studies at the time and lousy for physical anthro.
My intro to digging was as a volunteer for our lone
 archaeologist, the late Egyptologist Michael Hoffman, who
might best be described as 'eccentric.'  I later took his one
course in archaeology, which had a strong prehistoric focus.
I was also lucky enough to take a course with Bonnie Styles
(faunal analysis & ethnobotany, etc.) during her brief stay
at UVa.

My (frustrated) interest in material culture turned to what was then known
as "folk architecture" after discovering the writings of
Henry Glassie.  I considered pursuing a degree in folklore,
cultural geography, and American Studies when I became aware of
architectural history.  I have to say that, as a vernacularist,
I felt a bit out of place in the dept. where there was/[is?] a
fair amount of elitism and art-historical style connoisseurship.
On the other hand, I found that there are things to be learned
from formal analysis, and it helps to have a solid grounding in
the language and history of styles as well as an understanding
of how buildings are designed and put together.

Having said that, I should point out that the field of
architectural history has changed a lot in the last thirty years
and there are now many more people studying the social and
cultural aspects of architecture beyond the stylistic facade.
There are also many more people interested in the 'common' and
non-architect designed buildings that comprise much of our
landscape.  For historical archaeologists, these are the people
you want to meet.  A good place to start is the Vernacular
Architecture Forum, see:

http://www.vernaculararchitectureforum.org

I'll post a query to their mail list to see if there are
any recommendations for courses available in Colorado.  In
the meantime, there is always Tom Carter in Utah -- how far
away would that be?   :)

Marty
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---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Carl Barna <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY <[log in to unmask]>
Date:  Tue, 07 Sep 2004 13:29:55 -0600

>Marty --
>
>What makes an Architectural Historian?  Do such crittters come out of
>History Depts, or Schools of Architecture?  I assume not out of
>prehistoric-oriented anthro depts.
>
>I've looked all over CO for a class on Architectural History, and found
>zippo. I'm taking a HAER class next week in Silverton, so that may be as
>close as I'll find, locally.
>
>Perhaps someone will develop a short course on this, the kind that SHA
>does before their annual meetings.
>
>Cheers!
>
>Carl Barna
>Regional Historian
>BLM Colorado State Office
>








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