Norman Morrison Isham (1864–1943) was a prominent architectural historian, author, and professor at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

and RISD. He was an ardent preservationist and a pioneer in the study of early American architecture.

Biography

Norman M. Isham was born in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

on November 12, 1864, to Dr. Henry and Frances Elizabeth (Smyth) Isham. As a child his family moved to

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. Norman Isham attended Mowry and Goff's preparatory school and

. At Brown he received a A.B. in 1886 and an A.M. in Architecture in 1890. After graduation in 1886, Isham worked for architectural firm of Stone, Carpenter and Wilson and later Martin and Hall. He also served as an architecture instructor at Brown University.Norman Morrison Isham
at home.sprynet.com In 1899 Isham and Benjamin Wright created an architecture partnership which existed from 1912 to 1920 and 1923 to 1933. Isham chaired the architectural department at the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

starting in 1912. He was a member of the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects and published several architecture texts, including "Early Rhode Island Houses" in 1895. Isham was well known for his renovations of many prominent early Rhode Island and other New England houses, particularly,

stone-enders The stone-ender is a unique style of Rhode Island architecture that developed in the 17th century where one wall in a house is made up of a large stone chimney. History Rhode Island was first settled in 1636 by Roger Williams and other colonis ...

. After Isham's wife, Elizabeth Barbour Ormsbee, died in 1917, he moved from Providence to

Wickford, Rhode Island Wickford is a small village in the town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States, which is named after Wickford in Essex, England. Wickford is located on the west side of Narragansett Bay, just about a 20-minute drive across two bridges fro ...

. There, he constructed a two-story, shingle-style Colonial Revival home on Boston Neck Road. Initially, it was a summer home, but he moved there permanently after the death of his wife. Isham was a consultant on the building of the American Wing of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York, and was a consulting architect on the

Delaware Legislative Hall The Delaware Legislative Hall is the state capitol building of Delaware. Located in the state capital city of Dover on Legislative Avenue, it houses the chambers and offices of the Delaware General Assembly. It was designed in the Colonial Rev ...

, 1930–1933.

Memberships and societies

* Member of the

General Society of Colonial Wars The Society of Colonial Wars is a hereditary society composed of men who trace their descents from forebears who, in military, naval, or civil positions of high trust and responsibility, by acts or counsel, assisted in the establishment, defense, ...

* Elected to the

Walpole Society The Walpole Society, named after Horace Walpole, was founded in 1911 to promote the study of the history of British art and artists. From 1762 on, Walpole had published the first history of art in Britain, based on the manuscript notebooks of G ...

in 1911 * Elected to the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...

in 1933

Historic preservation

Norman Isham is perhaps best known for his work preserving and restoring Colonial-era homes and structures in Rhode Island. He wrote extensively on the topic of Colonial architecture and furniture. His books ''Early Rhode Island Houses'', published with Albert F. Brown in 1895, and ''Early Connecticut Houses'', published in 1900, are classics in their field. Some of the buildings Isham worked to preserve include: * Bullock-Thomas House,

North Kingstown, Rhode Island North Kingstown is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and is part of the Providence metropolitan area. The population was 27,732 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. North Kingstow ...

* Clemence-Irons House,

Johnston, Rhode Island Johnston is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 29,568 at the 2020 census. Johnston is the site of the Clemence Irons House (1691), a stone-ender museum, and the only landfill in Rhode Island. Incorpora ...

, 1691 *

Smith's Castle Smith's Castle, built in 1678, is a house museum at 55 Richard Smith Drive, near Wickford, a village in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States. Smith's Castle is one of the oldest houses in the state. It was designated a National Historic ...

, 1678 * Clement Weaver House,

East Greenwich, Rhode Island East Greenwich is a town and the county seat of Kent County, Rhode Island. The population was 14,312 at the 2020 census. East Greenwich is the wealthiest municipality within the state of Rhode Island. It is part of the Providence metropolitan st ...

, 1679 *

John Balch House The John Balch House, located at 448 Cabot Street, Beverly, Massachusetts, is one of the oldest wood-frame houses in the United States. It is now operated as one of the historic house museums of Historic Beverly, and open seasonally. History ...

Beverly, Massachusetts Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, and a suburb of Boston. The population was 42,670 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. A resort, residential, and manufacturing community on the Massachusetts North Shore, Beverly incl ...

, 1679 *

Eleazer Arnold House The Eleazer Arnold House is a historic house built for Eleazer Arnold in about 1693, and located in the Great Road Historic District at Lincoln, Rhode Island. It is now a National Historic Landmark owned by Historic New England, and open to th ...

Lincoln, Rhode Island Lincoln is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 22,529 at the 2020 census. Lincoln is located in northeastern Rhode Island, north of Providence. Lincoln is part of the Providence metropolitan statistical are ...

, 1693 *

John Randall House The John Randall House is a historic house on Connecticut Route 2 in North Stonington, Connecticut, North Stonington, Connecticut. Its earliest section dates to 1685, with the main block reaching its present configuration before 1720. The house ...

North Stonington, Connecticut North Stonington is a town in New London County, Connecticut which was split off from Stonington in 1724. The population was 5,149 at the 2020 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of whi ...

, 1690 *

General Nathanael Greene Homestead The General Nathanael Greene Homestead, also known as Spell Hall, is a historic house at 20 Taft Street in Coventry, Rhode Island.The General's first name is Nathanael, but the National Historic Landmarks program listing for him misspells his fi ...

Coventry, Rhode Island Coventry is a town in Kent County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 35,688 at the 2020 census and is part of the . Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of . of it is land and of it ...

, 1774 *

Gilbert Stuart birthplace The Gilbert Stuart Birthplace and Museum is located in Saunderstown, Rhode Island, US. Gilbert Stuart was born on December 3, 1755, in the colonial-era house located on the property, becoming a famous American portraitist of the 18th and 19th c ...

Saunderstown, Rhode Island Saunderstown is a small village and historic district in the towns of Narragansett and North Kingstown in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. Saunderstown has its own post office with the ZIP Code of 02874, which also includes a sm ...

, 1751 *

Hyland House The Hyland House Museum or Hyland–Wildman House is a historic house museum at 84 Boston Road in Guilford, Connecticut. Built in 1713, it is one of the town's best-preserved houses of that period. It has been open to the public as a museum sinc ...

Guilford, Connecticut Guilford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, that borders Madison, Branford, North Branford and Durham, and is situated on I-95 and the Connecticut seacoast. The population was 22,073 at the 2020 census. History Guilfo ...

, 1713 * John Updike House,

* Newport Colony House,

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

, 1739 * Old City Hall,

, 1762 * Newport Brick Market,

, 1762 *

Stephen Hopkins House The Governor Stephen Hopkins House is a museum and National Historic Landmark at 15 Hopkins Street in Providence, Rhode Island. The house was the home of Stephen Hopkins (politician), Stephen Hopkins—a governor of Rhode Island and signatory of ...

, 1708 *

Redwood Library The Redwood Library and Athenaeum is a subscription library, museum, rare book repository and research center founded in 1747, and located at 50 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. The building, designed by Peter Harrison and completed ...

, 1747 *

Trinity Church (Newport, Rhode Island) Trinity Church, on Queen Anne Square in Newport, Rhode Island, is a historic parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island. Founded in 1698, it is the oldest Episcopal parish in the state. In the mid 18th century, the church was home to ...

, 1724 * University Hall,

* Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House,

, 1697 * Whitehall Museum House,

Middletown, Rhode Island Middletown is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 17,075 at the 2020 census. It lies to the south of Portsmouth and to the north of Newport on Aquidneck Island, hence the name "Middletown". History Vari ...

, 1729

Death and burial

Norman Isham died on January 1, 1943. His funeral attracted many renowned architects to Wickford to pay their respects. Tragically, fellow Providence architect Harry Slocomb suffered a heart attack and died after Isham's funeral service. Isham is buried with his wife and parents at Elm Grove Cemetery in

. He left no descendants.

References

External links

Isham bioExamples of Isham's work
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Isham, Norman 1864 births 1943 deaths Architects from Providence, Rhode Island People from North Kingstown, Rhode Island Writers from Hartford, Connecticut Burials in Rhode Island Brown University alumni Rhode Island School of Design faculty Writers from Providence, Rhode Island