Marcus Whiffen(4 March 1916 - February 2002) was an English architectural journalist, historian, author and photographer specialising in British and American architecture. He was Professor Emeritus in the School of Architecture atArizona State University.

Life and career

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Marcus Whiffen was born inRoss-on-Wye,Herefordshireon 4 March 1916, the son of Thomas Joseph Whiffen and Jessie Anne Hardy.[1]

He graduated fromCambridge Universitywith a BA in 1937, and then completed his MA in 1946.[2]

Following his graduation, he joinedThe Architect and Building Newsin 1937. After the war, in 1946, he joined theArchitectural Review(London) as assistant editor.[3]

Whiffen moved to the United States in 1952, where he held lecturer positions atMassachusetts Institute of Technologyand then at theUniversity of Texas.In 1954 he joinedColonial Williamsburgas architectural historian.[4]He moved to Arizona State University in 1960 where he held various positions, and finally as Professor Emeritus.[3]He corresponded extensively with several other leading architectural historians including SirNikolaus Pevsner,Henry-Russell Hitchcockand SirJohn Summerson,plus architects includingWalter Gropius,Paul Schweikher,andBart Prince.[5]

Whiffen served as director of theSociety of Architectural Historians(1969-1971, 1975-1978) and director of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (1963-1968). His awards included the Society of Architectural Historians Annual Book Award forThe Public Buildings ofWilliamsburg(1958) and the Arizona State University Alumni Association Faculty Achievement Award (1979).[5]

Marcus Whiffen lived in a house designed for him in 1963 by architect (and Arizona State University colleague)Calvin C. Straubin theArcadiadistrict ofPhoenix, Arizona.[6][7]He died, aged 85, in Phoenix in February 2002.[3]

Photographs by Marcus Whiffen are held at the Conway Library in theCourtauld,London, and are being digitised.[8]

Select bibliography

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  • Stuart and Georgian churches: the Architecture of the Church of England outside London 1603-1837.Marcus Whiffen. B. T. Batsford, 1948.ISBN1199549886
  • Thomas Archer:Architect of the English Baroque.Marcus Whiffen, Art & Technics, 1950.ASINB0000CHSQV
  • The Architecture of SirCharles Barryin Manchester and Neighbourhood.Marcus Whiffen. Manchester, 1950.
  • An Introduction to Elizabethan and Jacobean Architecture.Marcus Whiffen. Art & Technics, 1952.ASINB0000CI8FD
  • The Public Buildings of Williamsburg - colonial capital of Virginia - an architectural history.Marcus Whiffen. Williamsburg, Va. Colonial Williamsburg, 1958.ASINB0007DPFK0
  • American Architecture, 1607-1976.Marcus Whiffen. Cambridge: MIT Pr. 1981.ISBN9780262231053
  • The Eighteenth-century houses of Williamsburg - a study of architecture and building in the colonial capital of Virginia.Marcus Whiffen. Williamsburg, Va. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1983.ASINB000GR8V5I
  • Pueblo deco: The art deco architecture of the Southwest.Marcus Whiffen and Carla Breeze. Albuquerque. University of New Mexico Press, c1984.ISBN0826306764
  • American architecture since 1780: a guide to the styles.Marcus Whiffen. Cambridge, Mass. London: MIT, 1992.ISBN9780262730570

References

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  1. ^"White family".freepages.rootsweb.Retrieved2021-03-29.
  2. ^"Marcus Whiffen Collection (WHF01) Archive Collection | Historic England".historicengland.org.uk.Retrieved2021-03-29.
  3. ^abc"Marcus Whiffen - Design and the Arts Library Collections | ASU Library".lib.asu.edu.Retrieved2021-03-29.
  4. ^"Marcus Whiffen papers (1959–1981)".Colonial Williamsburg.Retrieved11 May2021.
  5. ^ab"Marcus Whiffen Collection 1930s-1990s Marcus Whiffen Collection".azarchivesonline.org.Retrieved2021-03-29.
  6. ^Reunion of Cal Straub and Marcus Whiffen alumni,Modern Phoenix(2009). Retrieved: 11 May 2021.
  7. ^Calvin C. Straub, ArchitectatarchINFORM.Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  8. ^"Who made the Conway Library?".Digital Media.2020-06-30.Retrieved2021-03-29.