William Craft Brumfield

American art historian
William Craft Brumfield
BornJune 28, 1944
Charlotte, North Carolina
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)historian of Russian culture, architectural photographer
TitleProfessor of Slavic Studies,
Sizeler Professor of Jewish Studies, Tulane University
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (2000), D. S. Likhachev Prize (2014), Order of Friendship (2019)
Academic background
EducationJohns Hopkins University
Tulane University
University of California, Berkeley
Academic work
DisciplineRussian architecture
Russian literature
InstitutionsHarvard University
Tulane University
Websitehttps://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3Abrumfield_stpb
Sculpture of William Brumfield by the eminent Russian artist Aleksandr Mikhailovich Shebunin, honoring Brumfield's work in the Russian North (2011).

William Craft Brumfield (born June 28, 1944) is a contemporary American historian of Russian architecture, a preservationist and an architectural photographer. Brumfield is currently Professor of Slavic studies at Tulane University.[1]

William Brumfield at an April 18, 2013 event "Memory, Commemoration, Memorialization: Moscow’s Western Battlefields" at the Kennan Institute.

Brumfield grew up in the deep American South, where he became interested in Russia by reading Russian novels. After receiving a BA from Tulane University in 1966 and an MA from the University of California, Berkeley in 1968,[2] he arrived in the former Soviet Union for the first time in 1970 as a graduate student starting work in architectural photography, although he did not seriously study the craft of photography until 1974.[3] Brumfield earned a Ph.D in Slavic studies at the University of California, Berkeley in 1973 and held a position of assistant professor at Harvard University in 1974–1980.[1]

In 1983 Brumfield, formerly a generalist of Slavic studies, established himself in the history of architecture with his first book, Gold in azure: one thousand years of Russian architecture. It was followed by The Origins of Modernism in Russian Architecture (1991), Russian housing in the modern age: design and social history (1993), A History of Russian Architecture (1993, Notable Book of that year[4] and a best seller[5] according to The New York Times), Lost Russia: Photographing the Ruins of Russian Architecture (1995), Landmarks of Russian Architecture: A Photographic Survey (1997) and Commerce in Russian urban culture: 1861-1914 (English edition 2001, Russian edition 2000).

In 1986 Brumfield organized the first exhibit of photographic prints from the Prokudin-Gorsky Collection at the Library of Congress.[6] Since that time Brumfield has been actively engaged in the study of Prokudin-Gorsky's photographs, including several publications for the site "Russia Beyond the Headlines".[7]

Brumfield lived in the former Soviet Union and Russia for a total of fifteen years,[8] doing postgraduate research with Moscow State University and Saint Petersburg State University,[8] but mostly travelling through the northern country, surveying and photographing the surviving relics of vernacular architecture.[3] In a 2005 interview Brumfield, asked to tell which of those journeys stood out, picked a photo survey of Varzuga, a remote village connected to civilization by 150 kilometers of a sandy clay track.[9] Brumfield donated a collection of around 1,100 photographs of northern Russian and Siberian architecture taken in 1999–2003 to the Library of Congress.[10] Part of his archive was digitized with assistance of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Washington Library.[8] The basic collection of Brumfield's photographic work is held in the Department of Images Collections at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. The William C. Brumfield Collection at the National Gallery of Art consists of 12,500 black-and-white 8" x 10" photographic prints, 40,000 negatives and over 89,000 digital files, most of which are in color (nearly 149,000 in total).[11][12][13]

In 2000 Brumfield was selected a Guggenheim Fellow for Humanities - Russian History.[8] He has been a full member of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences (RAASN) since 2002 and an honorary fellow of the Russian Academy of the Arts since 2006.[8] He currently holds the record for most domes captured in a single photograph.

In 2014 the D. S. Likhachev Foundation in St. Petersburg awarded Brumfield the D. S. Likhachev Prize "for outstanding contributions to the preservation of the historic and cultural heritage of Russia."[14][15]

In 2019 Brumfield was awarded the Order of Friendship, “for the merits in strengthening friendship and cooperation between peoples, fruitful activities for the rapprochement and mutual enrichment of cultures of nations and nationalities.”[16][17] [18]

In 2021 Brumfield launched a virtual exhibition entitled "Lost America," which is based on photography done in the United States primarily in the 1970s.[19] These photographs represent an essential part of Brumfield's development as an artist, and they are the basis of an exhibition in July-August 2023 at the A. V. Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, Russia's preeminent museum devoted to the study and documentation of architecture.[20] The project is featured in an accompanying book entitled Lost America.[21]

Brumfield's first exhibit at the Shchusev State Museum, "The Russian North. The Witness of William Brumfield", opened on September 5, 2001. The exhibit consisted of several rooms devoted to Brumfield's photographic work in the historic Russian north (the region around the White Sea).[22][23]

Publications

Portrait of William Brumfield by Zoya Zhilkina
  • Gold in azure: one thousand years of Russian architecture (1983)
  • The Origins of Modernism in Russian Architecture (1991)
  • Russian housing in the modern age: design and social history (1993)
  • A History of Russian Architecture (1993)
  • Lost Russia: Photographing the Ruins of Russian Architecture (1995)
  • Landmarks of Russian Architecture: A Photographic Survey (1997)
  • Commerce in Russian urban culture: 1861—1914 (2001)
  • Architecture at the End of the Earth: Photographing the Russian North (2015)
  • Journeys through the Russian Empire: The Photographic Legacy of Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky. Durham; London: Duke University Press Books, 2020.
  • Lost America ("Tikhaya Amerika"). Moscow, «Три квадрата» (Tri Kvadrata), 2024.

With financial support from the Kennan Institute, the publisher «Три квадрата» (Tri Kvadrata) began in 2005 to release the series Открывая Россию/Discovering Russia by Brumfield:

  • Totma: Architectural Heritage in Photographs (Moscow, 2005)
  • Irkutsk: Architectural Heritage in Photographs (2006)
  • Tobolsk: Architectural Heritage in Photographs (2006)
  • Solikamsk: Architectural Heritage in Photographs (2007)
  • Cherdyn: Architectural Heritage in Photographs (2007)
  • Kargopol: Architectural Heritage in Photographs (2007)
  • Chita: Architectural Heritage in Photographs (2008)
  • Buriatiia: Architectural Heritage in Photographs (2008)
  • Solovki: Architectural Heritage in Photographs (2008)
  • Kolomna: Architectural Heritage in Photographs (2009)
  • Suzdal: Architectural Heritage in Photographs (2009)
  • Torzhok: Architectural Heritage in Photographs (2010)
  • Usol'e: Architectural Heritage in Photographs (2012)
  • Smolensk: Architectural Heritage in Photographs (2014)
  • Chukhloma Region: Architectural Heritage in Photographs = Чухломский край: архитектурное наследие в фотографиях (Moscow, 2016; Discovering Russia, issue 15). ISBN 978-5-94607-208-3
  • Pereslavl-Zalesskii: Architectural Heritage in Photographs = Переславль-Залесский: архитектурное наследие в фотографиях (Moscow, 2018; Discovering Russia, issue 16). ISBN 978-5-94607-222-9
  • Ekaterinburg: Architectural Heritage in Photographs = Екатеринбург: архитектурное наследие в фотографиях (Moscow, 2023; Discovering Russia, issue 17). ISBN 978-5-94607-265-6

With financial support from the "Vologodskie Zori" Fund (Vologda, Russia), the publisher «Три квадрата» (Tri Kvadrata) began in 2005 to release the Vologda series by Brumfield on the architectural heritage of the Vologda region:

  • Vologda Album (2005)
  • Velikii Ustiug (2007)
  • Kirillov. Ferapontovo (2009)
  • Ustiuzhna (2010)
  • Belozersk (2011)
  • Vologda (2012)
  • Cherepovets: Architectural Heritage of the Cherepovets Region, Moscow: Tri Kvadrata Publishers, 2017, ISBN 978-5-94607-218-2.

Other publications:

  • Brumfield, William С. (2012), Appointment in Dauria: George Kennan, George Frost, and the Architectural Context (PDF), Harriman Review, vol. 18, New York: Harriman Institute, Columbia University, pp. 3–57, archived from the original (PDF) on 11 December 2013, retrieved 6 December 2016.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2014), "In the Presence of Two (Future) Nobel Laureates", Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, 11 (4): 331–334, archived from the original on 23 January 2015, retrieved 23 January 2015.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2014), "Sleptsov Redivivus", Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, 11 (2): 357–389, archived from the original on 13 September 2014, retrieved 24 September 2014.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2014), "Invitation to a Beheading: Turgenev and Troppmann", Informatsionnyi Gumanitarnyi Portal "Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie" (6), archived from the original on 2 April 2015, retrieved 17 March 2015.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2015), "The West and Russia: Concepts of Inferiority in Dostoevsky's "The Adolescent"", Informatsionnyi Gumanitarnyi Portal "Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie" (1): 149–161, archived from the original on 24 May 2015, retrieved 23 May 2015.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2015), "From Victor Hugo to Fedor Dostoevskii: 19th-Century Perceptions of Architecture as Historical Text", Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences, 8 (6): 1026–1036, doi:10.17516/1997-1370-2015-8-6-1026-1036.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2015), "Bazarov and Riazanov: The Romantic Archetype in Russian Literature", Informatsionnyi Gumanitarnyi Portal "Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie" (3): 95–113, archived from the original on 29 October 2015, retrieved 8 October 2015.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2015), "Cross Cultural Ties between Generations and Countries: Visual Communication" (PDF), Rol' sovremennoi kommunikatsii mezhdu obshchestvom i gosudarstvom [The Role of Contemporary Communication between Society and State]: 22–27, ISBN 978-5-98427-082-3, archived (PDF) from the original on 7 March 2016, retrieved 3 February 2016.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2015), "Two Hamlets: Questioning Romanticism in Turgenev's Bazarov and Sleptsov's Riazanov", Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences, 8 (9): 1792–1802, doi:10.17516/1997-1370-2015-8-9-1792-1802, archived from the original on 21 June 2017, retrieved 21 June 2016.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2016), "New Directions in Russian Orthodox Church Architecture at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century", Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences, 9 (1): 5–40, doi:10.17516/1997-1370-2016-9-1-5-40.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2016), "Thérèse philosophe and Dostoevsky's Critique of Rational Egotism", Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, 13 (1): 304–317, doi:10.17805/zpu.2016.1.28.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2016), "Eastern Motifs in the Ornamentation of Eighteenth-Century Siberian Church Architecture", Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences, 9 (4): 745–774, doi:10.17516/1997-1370-2016-9-4-745-774.
  • Guseinova, I.A.; Brumfield, W.С. (2016), "Russian Folklore as a Poetics of Inference: (Based on Material from the Fairytale by Leonid Filatov "Fedot the Musketeer, a Brave Lad")", Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences, 9 (9): 2223–2230, doi:10.17516/1997-1370-2016-9-9-2223-2230.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2016), "America as a Representation of Modernity in the Russian Architectural Press, 1870–1917", Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, 13 (3): 132–146, doi:10.17805/zpu.2016.3.11.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2016), "Style Moderne and the Rediscovery of the Wooden Architecture of the Russian North: The Photographic Connection", Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences, 9 (10): 2383–2397, doi:10.17516/1997-1370-2016-9-10-2383-2397.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2017), "Yurii Gagarin and My Launch into Space" (PDF), Vestnik of Moscow State Linguistic University. Series: Humanitarian Sciences, 2 (769): 106–112, archived (PDF) from the original on 21 May 2017, retrieved 21 May 2017.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2017), "Gateway to Siberia: the Architectural Heritage of Verkhoturye and Ekaterinburg", Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences, 10 (5): 612–640, doi:10.17516/1997-1370-0071, archived from the original on 11 January 2018, retrieved 19 June 2017.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2017), "Monuments of Church Architecture in Belozersk: Late Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Centuries", Russian History, 44 (2–3. Special Issue: Twenty Years of the Midwest Medieval Slavic Workshop at the University of Chicago): 260–297, doi:10.1163/18763316-04402001, JSTOR 26549845, retrieved 21 August 2022.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2017), "Tara and Omsk: Western Siberian Architectural Heritage in Historical Context" (PDF), Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences, 10 (10): 1462–1484, doi:10.17516/1997-1370-0148, archived from the original on 5 November 2017, retrieved 6 November 2017.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2017), "The Cathedral of St. Demetrius in Vladimir: Sources, Form and Documentation", Theory and History of Art (1/2): 29–48, archived from the original on 20 June 2022, retrieved 1 October 2018 Alt URL.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2018), "The Historic Architectural Legacy of the Chita Region in Eastern Siberia" (PDF), Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences, 11 (6): 874–902, doi:10.17516/1997-1370-0278, archived from the original on 5 August 2018, retrieved 5 August 2018.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2020), Skrodzka, Aga; Lu, Xiaoning; Marciniak, Katarzyna (eds.), "Restating Classicist Monumentalism in Soviet Architecture, 1930s–early 1950s", The Oxford Handbook of Communist Visual Cultures, pp. 65–88, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190885533.013.3, ISBN 9780190885533, archived from the original on 25 June 2020, retrieved 25 June 2020.
  • Brumfield, William С. (2020), "Confrontation in Idyllia: The Country Estate as Moral Space in Russian Literature" (PDF), Aktual'nye problem teorii i istorii iskusstva, X: 400–411, doi:10.18688/aa200-2-35, archived from the original (PDF) on 29 January 2021, retrieved 29 January 2020.

Interviews

  • Brumfield, W.С. (2016), "Faded Glory in Full Color: Russia's Architectural History (Interview with William Craft Brumfield)", Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, 17 (2): 379–404, doi:10.1353/kri.2016.0031, S2CID 159806547.

Audio and Video

  • Brumfield, William C. (2020) "Journeys through the Russian Empire - A Discussion with William Craft Brumfield" (recording), online discussion with Dr. Masha Zavialova, Chief Curator of The Museum of Russian Art, Minneapolis on 21 October 2020.
  • Brumfield, William C. (2021) "Photography as a Time Machine: Exploring Russia's Past" (recording), online lecture. Hosted by the Russian Cultural Centre, Washington, D.C..
  • Brumfield, William C. (2022) "Perspectives on the Crisis in Ukraine" (recording), online lecture. Hosted by the Tulane Alumni Association.
  • Brumfield, William C. (2023) "Above the Abyss: Apocalyptic Visions in Photography" (recording), presentation at the Yorkville Branch of the New York Public Library. Hosted by the Russian-American Cultural Center (RACC) on 13 December 2023.

Bibliography

  • Glushchenko, N. D. (2017), "Discovering Russia: The Books of William Brumfield about Russian Architecture", Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, 14 (4): 257–266, doi:10.17805/zpu.2017.4.23.

References

  1. ^ a b "William Craft Brumfield (faculty profile)". Tulane University. Archived from the original on February 8, 2017.
  2. ^ John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Reports of the president and of the treasurer (2000), p. 56.
  3. ^ a b Ian Mitchell (September 2009). "Professor William Craft Brumfield – Architectural Historian Extraordinaire". Passport Moscow magazine.
  4. ^ "Notable Books of the Year 1993, page 2". The New York Times. December 5, 1993.
  5. ^ "Best Sellers". The New York Times. November 7, 1993.
  6. ^ "The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated: The Empire That Was Russia". Library of Congress.
  7. ^ "Discovering Russia". Russia Beyond the Headlines.
  8. ^ a b c d e "William Craft Brumfield (Guggenheim Fellowship biography)". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 2000.
  9. ^ Michele A. Berdy (April 2005). "William Craft Brumfield, Campaigner". Passport Moscow magazine.
  10. ^ "The William C. Brumfield Collection - About the Collection". Library of Congress. 2004.
  11. ^ "Travels Across Russia: Murom". National Gallery of Art. Archived from the original on 2019-11-03.
  12. ^ "Featured Photographers and Campaign Organizers". National Gallery of Art. Archived from the original on 2019-07-30.
  13. ^ "William C. Brumfield Collection. Collection Summary". National Gallery of Art. Archived from the original on 2019-07-30.
  14. ^ "Сокуров стал лауреатом премии имени Лихачева". Interfax Russia. 2014.
  15. ^ "Russian architecture expert William Brumfield awarded Likhachev Prize". Russia Beyond the Headlines. 2014.
  16. ^ "Указ Президента Российской Федерации от 26 октября 2019 года № 523 "О награждении государственными наградами Российской Федерации"". Официальный интернет-портал правовой информации. 2019-10-28. Archived from the original on 2019-11-02.
  17. ^ "Президент России наградил американского исследователя русской архитектуры Уильяма Брумфилда орденом Дружбы". Культура в Вологодской области. 2019-11-01. Archived from the original on 2019-11-02.
  18. ^ "The President of Russia has awarded the Order of Friendship to William Brumfield, American historian of Russian architecture". Cultinfo.ru: Culture in Vologda Region. 2019-11-14. Archived from the original on 2019-11-18.
  19. ^ "Lost America: Photographs by William Brumfield | Tulane University". lostamerica.wp.tulane.edu. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  20. ^ "William Brumfield. Lost America (Уильям Брумфилд. Тихая Америка)". muar.ru. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  21. ^ "William Brumfield's new book Lost America has just appeared!". Schusev State Museum of Architecture. February 15, 2024.
  22. ^ Balakhovskaia, Faina (10 September 2001). "Russkii sever otkryt: fotografii amerikanskogo professora pokazany v Muzee arkhitektury".
  23. ^ "Russkii Sever. Svidetel'stvo Uil'iama Brumfilda".

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Craft Brumfield.
  • "Lost America: Photographs by William Brumfield". Tulane University. Archived from the original on July 12, 2023.
  • William Brumfield talks on Russian architecture at U.S. Embassy. Video by Anastasis.me.
  • "William C. Brumfield Collection. Collection Summary". Mercury — NGA Library. Archived from the original on February 12, 2019.
  • "Discovering Russia". Russia Beyond The Headlines. Archived from the original on February 20, 2015.
  • "William C. Brumfield Collection of Jewish Sites". Clemson University Research, TigerPrints. Archived from the original on August 21, 2016.
  • "Audio slide show - William C. Brumfield tells about The Solovetsky Transfiguration Monastery". Archived from the original on August 25, 2013.
  • "The William C. Brumfield Collection". Library of Congress. 2000–2004. (original photographs 1999 to 2003)
  • "William C. Brumfield. Faculty profile, photo collection, publications". Pomor State University. Archived from the original on February 11, 2016.
  • "William C. Brumfield. Publications on the landmarks of Vologda Oblast, video interviews". Archived from the original on February 27, 2015.
  • "William Brumfield: We See Things in Russia We Never Expected to See" (PDF). Russia beyond the Headlines : The RBTH supplement to the New York Times. September 15, 2015. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 17, 2023.
  • "Preserving the Legacy of the Russian North in Photographs" (PDF). Russia beyond the Headlines : The RBTH supplement to The Washington Post. October 7, 2015. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 20, 2016.
  • Zubacheva K. (19 April 2018). "William Brumfield: the American who made Russia's architectural heritage famous abroad". Russia Beyond. Archived from the original on April 19, 2018.
  • My life in Russia: William Brumfield, America's authority on Russian architecture
  • "Q&A with William Craft Brumfield". Duke University Press News. 8 July 2020. Archived from the original on September 12, 2020.
  • Journeys through the Russian Empire (Presentation)
  • "Art, empire and the scholarly record". Tulane News. Archived from the original on September 11, 2020.
  • AMC Online | Public talk with William Craft Brumfield
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