Talbot Faulkner Hamlin (June 16, 1889 – October 7, 1956) was an American architect,
architectural historian
An architectural historian is a person who studies and writes about the history of architecture, and is regarded as an authority on it.
Professional requirements
As many architectural historians are employed at universities and other facilities ...
, writer and educator.
Ginling College
Ginling College (), also known by its pinyin romanization as Jinling College or Jinling Women's College, is a women's college of Nanjing Normal University in Nanjing, China. It offers both bachelor's and master's degrees. It offers six underg ...
,
Peking University, and the Wayland Academy were among his major work projects, particularly in
China.
Early years
Born in New York City, Hamlin was the fourth child of
Alfred Dwight Foster Hamlin (1855-1926), a professor of architecture at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. He graduated from
Amherst College in 1910 with a BA degree, and from Columbia University in 1914 with a degree in architecture, the beginning of a 46-year relationship with Columbia.
Career
Architectural projects early in his career include Wayland Academy,
Hangzhou, China
Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...
, 1919;
Peking University,
Peking, China
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, 1919-1922; and
Ginling College
Ginling College (), also known by its pinyin romanization as Jinling College or Jinling Women's College, is a women's college of Nanjing Normal University in Nanjing, China. It offers both bachelor's and master's degrees. It offers six underg ...
,
Nanking, China
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...
, 1919-1925.
The Ginling College campus was to play an important role during the
Rape of Nanking
The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Ba ...
in 1937.
Hamlin was hired as a draftsman in the New York architectural firm of Murphy and Dana. He became a partner of the firm in 1920. In 1921, both Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1879-1933) and J. Duncan Forsythe departed, so with the addition of Henry J. McGill ( - 1953), the firm became Murphy, McGill and Hamlin. That combination lasted until 1924, when Henry Killam Murphy (1877-1954) withdrew and the firm became known as McGill and Hamlin. This partnership with Henry J. McGill ended in 1930, and Hamlin began his own solo practice, which lasted until the Depression, when commissions became scarce.
In 1934, he relinquished his professional practice and accepted the full-time position of Avery Librarian for the
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University.
Hamlin was also an active member of the
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 ...
.
Published works include
* ''The Enjoyment Of Architecture'' (1916)
* ''The American Spirit in Architecture'' (1926)
* ''Some European Architectural Libraries'' (1939)
* ''Architecture through the Ages'' (1940)
* ''Greek Revival Architecture in America'' (1944)
* ''Architecture: An Art for all Men'' (1947)
* ''We took to cruising; from Maine to Florida afloat'' (1951)
* ''Forms and Functions of Twentieth Century Architecture'' (1952)
* ''Benjamin Henry Latrobe'' (1955)
Hamlin's biography of the American architect
Benjamin Henry Latrobe
Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) was an Anglo-American neoclassical architect who emigrated to the United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in the new United States, draw ...
won the 1956
Pulitzer Prize, and the 1955
Alice Davis Hitchcock Award
The Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award, established in 1949, by the Society of Architectural Historians, annually recognizes "the most distinguished work of scholarship in the history of architecture published by a North American scholar." The oldes ...
.
Political activity
Hamlin's political activities were noted in a report, "Prepared and released by the
House Committee on Un-American Activities
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
, United States House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. April 19, 1949.
The committee included California congressman
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
.
:"Talbot Hamlin was a sponsor of the
Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace which ran from March 25–27, 1949 in New York City. It was arranged by a Communist Party USA front organization known as the
National Council of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions. The conference was a follow-up to a similar gathering, the strongly anti-America, pro-Soviet
World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace
The World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace ( pl, Światowy Kongres Intelektualistów w Obronie Pokoju) was an international conference held on 25 to 28 August 1948 at Wrocław University of Technology. It was organized in the afterma ...
which was held in Poland, August 25–28, 1948.
At another point in the HUAC report Hamlin is noted in a section that reads:
:"Letter protesting ban on entrance of
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...
, 1948 (total 3):
Thomas H. Creighton, Talbot Hamlin,
Jacob Moscowitz"
References
External links
Talbot F. Hamlin collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamlin, Talbot
1889 births
1956 deaths
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American architects
American architecture writers
20th-century American biographers
Amherst College alumni
Architects from New York City
Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation alumni
Writers from New York City
20th-century American male writers
American male non-fiction writers
Historians from New York (state)
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners
Columbia University librarians