Society of Architectural Historians

10/07/2026

Images drawn from SAHARA’s collections can document the moment of a structure’s birth – its construction – and provide precious insights into the building process. Querying the database for search terms like “construction techniques” or “fabrication” reveals the ways that contributors have thought about their images.

🏗️ See the full collection of images: https://sah.org/2026/09/28/sahara-highlights-construction/

SAHARA is a digital image archive developed by the Society of Architectural Historians in collaboration with JSTOR/ITHAKA and funded by the Mellon Foundation. Monthly selections presented by SAHARA Co-Editors Jacqueline Spafford and Jeannine Keefer and Associate Editor Elisabeth Narkin. Become an SAH member to access over 200,000 images of the built environment for your research and teaching.

Image 1: Construction Site, Xi’an, China, late 1980s. Photograph by Stephen Harby, 1986.
Image 2: Coop Himmelblau, Musée des Confluences, Lyon, France, 2013. Photograph by Gabrielle Printz, 2014.
Image 3: Adobe Building, Ollantaytambo, Cuzco, Peru, early 2000s. Photograph by Dell Upton 2003.

10/06/2026

SAH is now accepting applications for the Sally Kress Tompkins fellowship, which permits a graduate student in architectural history or a related field to work on a 12-week Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) history project. During the fellowship period, the Fellow will prepare a written history that focuses on a significant U.S. building or site for the permanent HABS collection at the Library of Congress.

The fellowship was established in 1989 in honor of Sally Kress Tompkins, former Deputy Chief of HABS/HAER and a longtime member of SAH.

Applications for the 2027 fellowship cycle are due December 31 at 11:59 p.m. CST:

Enables a graduate student to work on a 12-week, outline format, Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) history project. Applications open annually in October. Work is typically undertaken and completed the following summer.

10/05/2026

This year's SAH Celebrates gala takes place at The Fortnightly of Chicago, whose home has been the Helen & Bryan Lathrop House since 1922. The Georgian style house designed by Charles Follen McKim in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood was completed in 1892 (the same year as the Charnley House!), and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Join us on November 13 to get an exclusive inside look while supporting SAH and our headquarters at the Charnley-Persky House Museum Foundation! Even if you can’t attend in person, you can still show your support by bidding on an array of tours and unique stays through the SAH Celebrates online auction. Bidding opens on November 1.

🎟️ Get tickets and view the online auction items: https://sah.org/programs/sah-celebrates/

Photo (1964): Harold Allen, Photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

10/01/2026

Applications are now open for the first cycle of LALH-SAH Research Grant Program! 🌳These grants will support and promote research and scholarship related to the history of landscape design and planning in North America through a broad range of projects including journal articles, book manuscripts, films, exhibitions, public lectures, and cultural landscape reports.

The program is a partnership between SAH and the Library of American Landscape History (LALH). Applications are due on December 31 at 11:59 p.m.

Learn more: https://sah.org/jobs-opportunities/sah-fellowships-and-grants/lalh-research-grant-program/

Image: Native Flora Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden from Beauty of the Wild by Darrel Morrison. HorsePunchKid, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

09/30/2026

SAH invites nominations and self-nominations for a Review Editor for Multi-Media Topics and Modalities of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (JSAH). The Review Editor for multi-media topics and modalities is responsible for commissioning and editing reviews of films, books, software, and diverse other media that are appropriate for discussion in JSAH and is expected to start commissioning topics for review in summer 2027. This is a volunteer position.

Learn more and submit a nomination by December 15:

For full consideration, please submit nominations and self-nominations by December 15, 2026.

09/18/2026

SAH's 6th annual Virtual Conference starts next week! There is still time to register to hear the latest research in architectural history from speakers representing more than 60 institutions from 22 countries.

View the conference program to see the full schedule and reserve your spot: https://sah.org/conferences/virtual-2026/sah-2026-virtual-conference-program/

09/16/2026

In celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States, this month's SAHARA Highlights looks at the seemingly infinite variety of American house styles. They include styles that are original, revival, and imaginative mashups; practical to fantastical; palatial grand homes to simple vernacular dwellings.

📚 Check out the full collection of images: https://sah.org/2026/08/26/sahara-highlights-houses-in-america/

SAHARA is a digital image archive developed by the Society of Architectural Historians in collaboration with JSTOR/ITHAKA and funded by the Mellon Foundation. Monthly selections presented by SAHARA Co-Editors Jacqueline Spafford and Jeannine Keefer and Associate Editor Elisabeth Narkin. Become an SAH member to access over 200,000 images of the built environment for your research and teaching.

Image 1: Farmhouse, Seneca, Ohio, U.S., ca 1880-1895. Photograph by Christopher Riley, 2013.
Image 2: Henry Hohauser, Armstrong Apartments, Miami Beach, Florida, U.S. 1948. Photograph by Peter Clericuzio, 2013.
Image 3: Henry C. Trost House, Trost and Trost, El Paso, Texas, U.S., 1909. Photograph by Gerald Moorhead, ca late 1990s.

09/14/2026

During the final month of Caroline Amstutz' Brooks Travelling Fellowship, they hopped between the island extremities of Ireland and Scotland: up to the Orkney Islands, an archipelago off Scotland’s northern coast, and tracing down Ireland’s western edge from Achill Island to the Burren and Aran Islands, and down to the Di**le Peninsula.

"While the global vernaculars I have studied throughout my fellowship have all endured intense climates over a remarkable span of time, the architecture I documented in Ireland and Scotland operates on an entirely different timescale. Most structures I observed were between 1,000 and 5,000 years old, with the “youngest” structures a mere 250 years old. This incredible age is not mere luck; it points to cultures that consider time and endurance on a long-range horizon," wrote Amstutz.

📝 Read the full piece "Building with Time: A Geologic Architecture in the British Isles": https://sah.org/2026/08/25/building-with-time-a-geologic-architecture-in-the-british-isles/

Created through a 2010 bequest from noted scholar and architectural historian H. Allen Brooks, this prestigious fellowship provides emerging scholars with an opportunity to study the built environment through travel and contemplation.

Image 1: Sandstone delamination, Mainland, Orkney
Image 2: Skara Brae, Mainland, Orkney
Image 3: Gallarus Oratory, Di**le Peninsula, Co. Kerry

09/09/2026

SAH is pleased to welcome David Karmon, professor of the history of architecture and urbanism at Holy Cross, to present the Sekler Plenary Talk "Rethinking a Discipline Built on Solid Ground" during the 2026 Virtual Conference. This three-day online event happening September 24-26 offers attendees an opportunity to participate in meaningful exchange of ideas, no matter their time zone or ability to travel. 🌎

Can't make the date? Registrants will receive access to all session recordings for 30 days following the conference.

Register today: https://sah.org/conferences/virtual-2026/