Historical License: Architectural History in the Architectural Profession

In this essay, it is my intent to examine the history of architectural history's intersection with the profession of architecture in the United States.1 A common lens for viewing this evolving relationship is that of academia—that is, how architectural history has figured within architectural e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 2017-03, Vol.76 (1), p.5-9
Main Author: CUFF, DANA
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
American history
Architectural history
Architecture
FIELD NOTE
Higher education
Licensing examinations
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Summary:In this essay, it is my intent to examine the history of architectural history's intersection with the profession of architecture in the United States.1 A common lens for viewing this evolving relationship is that of academia—that is, how architectural history has figured within architectural education. Instead, I will take a more arcane object of investigation: the architectural licensing exam. Since its inception in the 1920s, architectural history has been a constituent element of the tests that individuals must pass in order to call themselves architects. Thus, the licensing exam is the profession's deliberated and institutionalized statement of the status of architectural history, and an examination of the exam reveals the history of architectural history in relation to the profession of architecture.It is my argument that the mutable nature of this relationship demonstrates architectural history's sensitive tracking of the profession's status in the American political economy and, in turn,...
ISSN:0037-9808
2150-5926
DOI:10.1525/jsah.2017.76.1.5