Herbert Langford Warren
Herbert Langford Warren (29 March 1857 – 27 June 1917) was an English architect who practiced in New England. He is noted for his involvement in the American Arts and Crafts movement, and as the founder of the School of Architecture at Harvard University.
Herbert Langford Warren
29 March 1857
27 June 1917 (aged 60)
Architect
Warren, Smith and Bisco (later Warren & Smith)
Founded the School of Architecture at Harvard University
Charles Wilson Killam (acting)
Arts and Crafts movement[edit]
Warren made a major contribution to the Arts and Crafts movement, which informed both his teaching and practice.[1] A major exhibition devoted to handicrafts was held in Boston in April 1897, inspired by the English Arts and Crafts movement. The exhibition stimulated discussions on forming a society, with Warren in the chair. The Society of Arts and Crafts of Boston was founded in May 1897, with Charles Eliot Norton as president. The Society was based in Boston, but had the aim to become a National organization. The activities of the Society included exhibitions; education, including a library, lectures and drawing classes; a salesroom; and a Magazine, called Handicraft.[10][11][12][13] Warren became President of the Society in 1904 following disagreements over political direction. Under Warren's leadership the American Society would reject the socialism that was an important part of the English movement. An important part of the Society's activities was encouraging close relations between architects and designers on the one hand and craftsmen on the other. One craftsman who had worked closely with H. H. Richardson and continued to collaborate with Warren was the sculptor John Evans. A later development was the formation of the National League of Handicraft Societies in 1907, with Warren as President.[5]: 84–101
Political and social views[edit]
Warren was also involved in broader political and social issues, in particular the movement in support of the Allied cause in the years of U.S. neutrality in World War I. In April 1915 Warren sent a letter to The Nation entitled The English Tradition.[14] He argued that the basis of American society is fundamentally English. He wrote: "like our language, our literature, and our common law, our political and social thought, our whole spiritual and intellectual atmosphere are by inheritance and tradition fundamentally English."
This idea of Englishness informed not only his political thought, and his specific advocacy of involvement on the side of the Allies, but his aesthetic as well, in particular the choice of English and early Anglo-American models for his architectural designs. This did not prevent him from admiring many aspects of German culture, and he was actively involved in a project for a Germanic Museum at Harvard, which was completed after his death.[5]: 144–147
Warren was also an active supporter of the Boston-based Citizen's League, and the American Rights League which it later merged with, and was an author of the Address to the people of the allied nations (April 1916). Signed by 500 prominent Americans, and later known as the Address of the 500 this urged American support for the allies.[5]: 151–152 [15][16] He was also distressed by the destruction of many of the buildings in France that he had studied and drawn thirty years earlier.[3]
He died at his home in Cambridge on 27 June 1917, and was survived by his wife and four children. Some thought that the strain of his campaigning work in addition to his normal workload caused his health to fail.[2][3] Warren's funeral was held 7 July 1917 at Harvard's Appleton Chapel with Richard Clipston Sturgis, Morton Prince, and Charles Wilson Killam as pallbearers. He was buried at Walnut Hills Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts.[17]