Where Architectural Historians Fear to Tread Author(s): John Maass Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of the Society of Architectural

Historians, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Mar., 1969), pp. 3-8 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/988523 . Accessed: 14/03/2012 15:46
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

University of California Press and Society of Architectural Historians are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.

http://www.jstor.org

Where ArchitecturalHistorians Fear to Tread

JOHN MAASS City of Philadelphia

humanitiesand socialsciencesaspracticedin the United States today have come under criticism from radical scholars. The editor of a recent critique charges the academic establishment with "publicirrelevance" "esoteric and his several contributorsarrive at similar professionalism";1 conclusions in essays on their respective disciplines. Only one criticism of art history, from the inside, has come to my attention2though it would seem to offer a most vulnerabletarget;some Americanart historians'ritualisticpreoccupationwith the trivia of dating, attribution,and provenance certainly epitomizes mock scholarshipat its most irrelevant. The presentessay subjectsthe relateddisciplineof architectural history to scrutiny. It does not cover current researchprojectswhich are usefully listed from time to time in the Newsletter the Society of Architectural of Historians.3 It does not deal with the teaching of architectural history, which has been the subjectof severalsymposia.4It does not attempt to assessthe entire printed output of architectural historians.My analysisis based upon all writings published in theJournalof the Societyof Architectural Historians5 over a period often years,from I958 to I967 inclusive.This sample is large enough to be representative, and I regardit as parThese are the writings which the architicularlysignificant. tecturalhistorianshave submitted to their peers; it is thereTHE

Mr. Maasswould like it known that he feels that the merits and
shortcomings of the JSAH are primarily due to its contributors rather than its editors. This, we feel, is not only gracious, but it also means that his article can stand as an invitation to contributors. Ed. I. The Dissenting Academy, Edited by Theodore Roszak (New
York,
2.

1968), p. 19.

James S. Ackerman, "On American Scholarship in the Arts," College Art Journal, Summer 1958, pp. 357-362. 3. Most recently in the June 1967 issue. torians, October 1967, pp. 178-I99. 5. Subsequently referred to asJSAH.

4. Most recently in theJournalof the Societyof Architectural His-

forejust that they should be judged by these contributions. In the ten volumes (40 issues) from I958 to 1967 the JSAH published257 by-lined articles.I have made no distinction here between the longer papersand the "Shorter Notices" and "American Notes." Each is counted as one article regardlessof length. The JSAH also published 204 signed book reviews. These may be more influentialthan the articlesbecausethe JSAH does not claim to review all books on architectural history;it is thereforehighly significant which books are recognized and which are ignored. Thus the total number of contributionswas 461. I have not taken into account the "Lettersto the Editor"becausethey are only comments on some of these articles and book reviews. A word on the contributors:the Society of Architectural Historianshas alwaysbeen equally hospitableto academics, to other professionals,and to amateurs. However, most contributionsto theJSAH come from the academy. Table I breaksthem down by affiliationof their authors: 359 Colleges and Universities National Park Service 21 Museums 12 Libraries 3 Other Institutesand Organizations ii Architects 6 I Newspaper No AffiliationGiven 48 Total 461 six contributionswere written by men identifiedas Only architects;of these five individuals, one is a government official,and two had retiredfrom the practiceof architecture. Practicingarchitects have, of course,alwaysbeen prolific authors of books and frequent contributorsto many periodicals.They simply do not choose to publish in the JSAH. I had read almost all 461 contributionson publication.
3

For this study I conscientiouslyre-readevery one of them. I found the experience entirely painless.The architectural historiansmust be given high marksfor readability.There is no ritualisticformat; treatmentand style are quite varied. The tone is sober but I trust that most of the authorshave not lost all enthusiasmfor their topic. Most contributions are in clear English;6there is little of the jargon which befouls some learnedjournals. So much for the simple methodology of this study. As for results, I contend that this analysisreveals enormous gaps and serious deficienciesin the writing of architectural hisI have grouped these sins of commission and omission tory. under eight heads:
I. THE BOURGEOIS STANDARD

tween formal and vernacular is architecture not always easy to draw but, at most, only 13 articlesout of 257 dealt with the latter.7 American architectural historiansof the I96os are at the same stage as the Frenchbourgeoisie was in 1789 when the Third Estate outvoted the Nobility and Clergy in the Estates General for the first time. Articles about cathedrals, royal palaces,and aristocraticmansions are now outnumbered by those on public and private buildings which are associatedwith the urban middle class. The architectural historiansdo not yet pay attentionto the anonymous architecture of early and ruralsocieties.
2. THE RACIAL BIAS

All Orientalarchitecture, ancientand modern, from North Africa to Japan, is the topic of four articles.8There is no in as Architectural world, contributionabout China; the political situationduring the history, writtenandtaught theWestern hasneverbeenconcerned morethana few selectcultures. with In decademay explainthis lack. The sameexcusecannot apply it termsof space comprises a smallpartof the globe-Europe, but to the absenceof any referenceto Japan.The entire field of of stretches EgyptandAnatolia-orlittlemorethanwasknownin the secondcentury A.D. Moreover, evolutionof architecture Far Eastern architectureis representedby one article dethe is usually dealtwith onlyin its latephases. the scribingtwo buildings in Honolulu. The so-called "PrimiSkipping firstfifty chroniclers uswitha full-dress of centuries, tive" civilizationsof Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Ameriusually present pageant a "formal" as the architecture, arbitraryway of introducing artof cas are representedby a total of two articles.9 as, building say,datingthe birthof musicwith the adventof the There can be no doubt that the assumptionof white suthe of orchestra. can Although dismissal theearlystages symphony forms the basis for this unbalancedview of the of be explained, by thoughnot excused, the scarcity architectural premacy The ratio of 25I:4:2 correspondswith the Victorian the of is monuments, discriminative approach thehistorian mostly globe. architectural scheme which divided the world into civilized, semi-civias dueto hisparochialism. Besides, history we know to it is equallybiasedon the socialplane.It amounts littlemore lized, and barbarousraces.10 This simplisticdoctrineshould who thana who'swho of architects commemorated power and no longer be reflectedby a scholarlydisciplineandjournal of of, wealth;ananthology buildings by, andfortheprivilegedin the late twentieth century. the housesof trueandfalsegods,of merchant and princes princes of the blood-with never a word about the housesof lesser people.... polemic: row concepts the artof building introducing unfamiliar of the by It architecture. is so littleknownthatwe world of nonpedigreed don't even have a namefor it. For want of a genericlabel,we shall it vernacular, call rural, indigenous, anonymous, spontaneous, as the casemaybe. The overwhelmingly rich and varied world to which Rudofsky's book provides a tantalizingintroduction,is rarely mentioned in the JSAH from 1958 to I967. The line beArchitects Without Architecture attemptsto break down our narmer I958; Jan Van Der Meulen, May 1963; Philip Dole, December I964. 8. By Alexander Badawy, March I959; M. W. Wolfe, March 1963; Nancy Bannick, May I963; Oleg Grabar, December I963. 9. By G. Carroll Lindsay, Winter 1958; Douglas F. Fraser, March 1960. io. Even William H. Prescott, the sympathetic historian of the Aztecs and Incas, wrote: "The monuments of China, of Hindostan, and of Central America are all indicative of an immature period, in which the imagination has not been disciplined by study, and which, therefore, in its best results, betrays only the ill-regulated aspirations after the beautiful, that belong to a semi-civilized people" (History of the Conquestof Peru [I847], Book I, Chapter v).

A book of transcendent importanceto architectural history was publishedduring the decade:BernardRudofsky,ArchitectureWithoutArchitects(New York, I965). Over forty years of search-rather than re-search-went into this book of modest size and brilliantoriginality. Significantly,it was not reviewed in the JSAH. Its Preface begins with a brief

As Rudofsky points out, architecturalhistoriansvirtually ignore all non-Western civilizations. Table 2 shows the record ofJSAH: Articles BookReviews Total Western Architecture I99 450 251 II Non-Western Architecture 6 5

by 7. Representative examplesarethe articles WalterHorn, Sum-

6. One is in clear French; December 1962.

3.

THE BEATEN

PATH

Articles BookReviews Total Canada Mexico Guatemala Caribbean South America South Africa Portuguese Asia General 3
I 2 I 2

American architectureoutnumbersall other subjectsin the JSAH. This is entirely proper and does not indicate any parochialattitude. It is a practicalmatter:not all American architecturalhistorianshave the opportunity of extended foreign travel and direct observationwhich are essentialto any sound writing on foreign topics. The map shows all contributionsabout Europeanarchitecture which could be assigned to countries. It is evident that the architectural historians follow the well-worn pathof the eighteenth-centuryGrandTour from Englandthrough Franceand Italy. Germany and Spain are seriously underrepresented. All smaller nations are badly neglected or wholly ignored. Russiadoes not exist. Contributions about Western Architecture outside the United Statesand Europe are listed in Table 3:

4
I 2

4
I I I I

4
I

I
2

The absence of articles on Mexico and South America is surprising. This conventional record bears out a contemporaryhistorian's aphorism: "Whatever tends to be uninterestingis either something with which we are excessivelyfamiliaror something which is utterly alien to us . . . Historically

6 speaking,we areusuallyattractedto placesand periodsabout which we alreadyknow something."ll

4. THE GENTEEL TRADITION

Forty-five years have passed since the publication of Vers with its praise for American factories and Une Architecture but American architecturalhistoriansstill grain elevators, consider industrialarchitecturea negligible subject. Only three articles on industrial buildings were published: on a cotton mill,12a canallock,13and a gas station.14 The latterwas publishedbecauseit is a work of FrankLloyd Wright. The editor of the "AmericanNotes" addeda pertinent suggestion: "The filling station,as an all too conspicuous feature of the American roadside deserves further investigation."15 was The high interestand merit of industrialarchitecture in an outstandingbook publishedduring the demonstrated in decade: J. M. Richards, The FunctionalTradition Early It was not reviewed in Industrial Buildings(London, 1958). theJSAH.16 The distinguishedauthorand his noted photographic collaborator,Eric de Mare, presentedan introduction to the following historic building types in Britain: Warehouses, Docks, Naval Dockyards, Textile Factories, Water-Mills, Windmills, Breweries, Maltings and OastHouses, Sheds, Bridges. No article on any such building was published in the JSAH except the aforementioned Note on a cotton mill. historianshave shown no interest Americanarchitectural which are now usually designed in the workaday structures civil engineers,for example: bridges, dams,harbors,and by railroads.The professions of architectureand engineering only separatedin the nineteenth century; this neglect is therefore historically unsound.
5. THE SURFACE TREATMENT

pened between the architect'splan on paper and the completion of the building; thereis rarelya word about builders and craftsmen; problems arising during construction are not mentioned; detailed working drawings and construction photographs are seldom reproduced.This is a rather history. skin-deep and boneless way to write architectural We may compare it to a book on gastronomy which describes the handsome appearanceand garnishingof dishes in the dining room but does not mention cooking; a writer on food need not be a masterchef but he should certainly know his way around a kitchen. The reason for this neglect of structureshould be admitted frankly: A small number of Americanarchitectural the historianswere originally educatedas architects;18 majority have only had "soft" trainingin the humanitieswithout "hard"coursesin mathematicsand science.They write little about the technology of building becausethey know little about it. Curriculumplanning is beyond the scope of this essay, but it would seem reasonablethat the education of an architectural historian should include some study of architectural design and construction.
6. THE ISOLATED BUILDING

Scholarsusually deprecatethe "facadism"of popularizing writers on architecturewhose books are innocent of plans historiansdo not and sections. However, the architectural always practicewhat they preach;most of the contributions to the JSAH slight the structureof buildings. Only 30 out of 257 articles seriously attempt the technical aspects of building.17 Usually the authors do not tell us what hapI. John Lukacs, Historical Consciousness(New York, 1968). I3. By Harley J. McKee, December 1960. I4. By Robert C. Wheeler, December 1960. I5. Charles E. Peterson, December 1960, p. 174. I6. Though it was listed under "Books Received," March 1959, p. 36. I7. Representative examples are the articles by Charles E. Peterson, December I965; Gustina Scaglia, May I966; Cecil A. Hewett, March I967.
12. By Barbara Wriston, May 1965.

In 1924 Lewis Mumford publishedhis firststudy of Ameriand can architecture civilization;thirty yearslaterhe wrote in the prefacefor a new edition: "I have left to the last perhaps the greatestcontribution that Sticksand Stonesmade, though it is one that has not yet, I regret to say, been fully absorbed by critics and historiansof architecture.This is that fact that I thought to relate individual structuresto their urban site or their setting in the rural landscape."19 Another fourteen years have passed since, and, I regret to still say, the historiansof architecture have not absorbedthe fact that "except in the abstractionof drawing or photographyno building exists in a void."20This lessonhas, however, since been learnedby architectsand critics who now think in terms of "environment" and "townscape" as a matter of course. I counted every articledealing with the architectureof a street, square,neighborhood, campus, village, town, city,
and region; the total is 17 out of 257.21 Articles about sep-

arate buildings rarelyproject any "sense of place"; usually

i8. They can sometimes be "spotted" by the fine old custom of doing their own drawings; for example the late Talbot Hamlin, Turpin C. Bannister. I9. Lewis Mumford, Sticks and Stones (second revised edition, New York, I955). 20. Ibid. 21. Representative examples are the articles by George R. Collins, May 1959; Turpin C. Bannister, May I96I; Hermann G. Pundt, May 1967.

there is no referenceto town or country, landscapeor climate; the buildingsaredescribedasif they stood on a library shelf. The architecturalhistoriansevidently leave matters beyond the individual buildings to other disciplines,geograThis narrowphy, city planning,andlandscapearchitecture. is angle view of architecture22 both obsolete and un-historifor in pastcenturies". .. no sharplydefinedborderlines cal, existed between city planning and architecture,between architectureand decoration,between decorationand stage design, between stage design and landscapearchitecture."23 historiansto close the generaIt is time for the architectural them from the architectsand tion gap which now separates from other scholars who study communities rather than isolated buildings.
7. THE ISOLATED ART

Architecturalhistory is usually regardedas a branch of art historiansare art historians history, and some architectural as well. It is thereforesurprisingthat very few articlesin the JSAH make any referenceto other arts.24 No articleswere devoted to painting or sculpturein associationwith architecture, though a few picturesand sculptureswere mentioned in passing.Drawings and engravings are frequently reproduced as documents but the relation between architectureand the graphic arts is not explored. Buildings are generally presented as if they were empty shells, reflecting the rather old-fashioned distinction beand tween the "fine art"of architecture the "minor arts"or The entire man-made en"appliedarts"of interior design. vironment, outside and inside, is the proper concern of architecturalhistory, and the study of furnishings should not be relegated to periodicals for antique collectors and interior decorators. No article referred to the performing arts of drama, music, dance or pageantry which take place in specially settings. designed architectural Architecturalhistoriansare interestedin the concept of styles should not be viewed separatestyle, but architectural from those of all other contemporaneousarts. ly
8. THE ISOLATED DISCIPLINE

be choppedinto fragmentsof time like "MedievalHistory," or fragmentsof space like "FrenchHistory," or fragments of content like "Art History." It should be evident that triple fragmentationslike "History of Nineteenth-Century American Architecture"have no valid meaning except as the title of a college course or text book. For practical purposes we compromise, dividing and sub-dividingthe seamlessweb of knowledge into academic task disciplinesand specialized"fields."It is the historian's to the re-establish connectionsbetween the fragments,though he can never reach the ideal state of wholeness again. The late Erwin Panofsky described this difficult process with inimitable elegance and wit: this art As timegoeson, the worldof the German historian-and of an writeris no exception-tendsto resemble archipelago little whenviewedfroman a islands pattern forming, perhaps, coherent whereas of but separated channels abysmal ignorance; by airplane to confrere be compared a massive theworldof hisAmerican may of a of tableland specialized overlooking desert general knowledge
information.25

High demandsare being made of the "New Historian"; Harry Elmer Barnes proposed that he be trained in the following sciences:physics, biology, geography, physiology, psychology, anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, jurisprudence, ethics.26 These and more would also be relevantto the study of architectural history: The doctrine of L'artpourl'arthas little hisSocialScience: is toric significance, and L'architecture l'architecture so pour absurdthat it has not yet been proposed. Some articlesin but to theJSAH do relatearchitecture social history27 more the diamond sparkle."28 "light is needed to make The architect has always had to be a man of Economics: affairs.Not many articlesin the JSAH refer to economic
conditions.29

PoliticalHistory:The architectof a public building becomes almost inevitably involved in politics. A few articlesin the JSAH recognize this fact but there seems to be some reluctance to "drag politics" into architecturalhistory.30
Migra25. ErwinPanofsky,"TheHistoryof Art,"in TheCultural 26. Harry Elmer Bares, A Historyof Historical Writing(second

History" is a conPhilosophicallyspeaking, "Architectural in terms; History is a continuum which cannot tradiction

22. The same narrow focus is reflectedin conventionalarchitectural photography which sedulously crops out neighboring structures. Architectural photographers have only recently begun to present buildings in their real setting. 23. Paul Zucker, Town and Square (New York, I959), p. I53. 24. Representative examples are the articles by Henry-Russell Hitchcock, October 1965 and March 1966; Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., December I965.

tion, Edited by W. Rex Crawford (Philadelphia, I953), p. I04. revised edition, New York, 1962), pp. 386-390.

articlesare those 27. Representative examplesof socially-oriented by WalterA. Lunden,DecemberI959;HannahBennerRoach,May

I965. 28. This attractive metaphor is the last sentence of Heinrich Wolfflin, Die KlassischeKunst (Munich, 1898). 29. Representative examples of economically-oriented articles are those by J. D. Forbes, Fall 1958; Roy Lubove, May I964. 30. Representative examples of politically-oriented articles are those by Harold and James Kirker, March 1963; Anthony Jackson, March I965.

8 historiandescribedpoWhen a distinguishedarchitectural she litical realities,31 was savagely vilified for it in a "Letter to the Editor."32 The Literature: British historianG. M. Trevelyan askedthat those who write the history of a period should be "soaked The architecturalhistoriansare diligent in its literature."33 but in trackingdown books about architecture they do not often allude to general literature. Psychology:This science goes to the deep roots of architecture. Almost no work has been done by architectural historiansalong this difficult line; no article in the JSAH referredto psychology. Architecturalhistory must maintainties to other relevant disciplines;otherwise it could not claim a higher rank than pursuits like philately and the collecting of antique buttons.34 To sum up: Much writing of architecturalhistory is locked in a number of boxlike concepts. If architectural history is to remain a vital discipline,it will have to break out of these rigid compartmentswhich are not only out of date but historicallyunsound.Architectural historiansmust link architectureto wider concerns or they consistently will merit John Betjeman'sheartfelt sarcasm:"We know . . .the exact date and the name of the architectand the are style of a building. The Herr-Professor-Doktors writing down for us, sometimes throwing in a little everything hurriedpontificating too, so we need never bother to feel or think or see again."35 I may have given the impressionthat the writing of architecturalhistory demands the multiple talents and universal erudition of a veritable genius; such a standardof perfectionwould be discouraging.On the contrary,I mean to suggest a bright prospect: Architecturalhistorians are fortunate because they are working in a field where the surfacehas hardly been scratched.

3I. Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, March 1965, pp. 24-25. 32. October 1965, pp. 254-255.

34. Stampand button collectorshave many societiesandjournals of their own.

35. John Betjeman, First and Last Loves (London, I952), p. I5.

33. G. M. Trevelyan, Clio, A Muse (London, I913), p. 25.