Frank Edwin Salmon (born 8 June 1962) is an English architectural historian based at the
University of Cambridge, where he was the President of
St John’s College Cambridge until 2019. He is also a Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries, a Trustee of
Sir John Soane's Museum and a member of
Historic England's Expert Advisory Group.
Biography and works
Salmon was born in
Ipswich and educated at
Northgate Grammar School for Boys,
Downing College, Cambridge
Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the olde ...
, and the
Courtauld Institute of Art. He taught at the
University of Manchester from 1989 to 2002 and as Adjunct Associate Professor for
Yale University's Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London from 2002 to 2006. Since then he has taught in the Department of History of Art at
Cambridge, where he succeeded
David Watkin. He has been a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, since 2006.
He won the Hawksmoor Essay Medal of the
Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain
The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (SAHGB) is a United Kingdom learned society for people interested in the history of architecture.
Purpose
The Society exists to encourage interest in the history of architecture, to enab ...
in 1992. In 2001 his book ''Building on Ruins'' was joint winner of the Whitfield Prize of the
Royal Historical Society, and it also won the 2002 Spiro Kostof Prize of the American
Society of Architectural Historians
The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) is an international not-for-profit organization that promotes the study and preservation of the built environment worldwide. Based in Chicago in the United States, the Society's 3,500 members include ...
. In 2006 Salmon was the invited Plenary Speaker in
Savannah
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...
, Georgia, at the annual meeting of the Society.
Salmon’s reassessment of
William Kent's public architecture, including unbuilt designs for new Houses of Parliament of the 1730s, appeared in
William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain' (2013), the book that accompanied the major William Kent exhibition held at the
Bard Graduate Center, New York, and the
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in 2014.
Salmon has served as Chairman of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (2003-2006) and as Chairman of the Faculty of Archaeology, History and Letters of the
British School at Rome
The British School at Rome (BSR) is an interdisciplinary research centre supporting the arts, humanities and architecture.
History
The British School at Rome (BSR) was established in 1901 and granted a UK Royal Charter in 1912. Its mission is " ...
(2006-2011). The Rickman Society, a graduate architectural history discussion group named after
Thomas Rickman, author of
An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture' (1817) and designer of the ‘Wedding Cake’ New Court and the
Bridge of Sighs at St John’s College, Cambridge, meets in Salmon’s rooms at St John’s.
He is married to art historian Catharine MacLeod, Curator of Seventeenth-Century Collections at the
National Portrait Gallery, London
The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...
, and has two children.
Publications
* ''Building on Ruins: The Rediscovery of Rome and English Architecture'', Ashgate, 2000
*
Summerson and Hitchcock: Centenary Essays on Architectural Historiography', ed., Yale University Press, 2006
* ''The Persistence of the Classical: Essays on Architecture Presented to David Watkin'', ed., Philip Wilson Publishers, 2008
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salmon, Frank
Architecture educators
1962 births
Living people
British architectural historians
Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge
Writers from Ipswich
People educated at Northgate Grammar School, Ipswich
Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge
Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London