Decentering Whiteness in Design History: Resources is a bibliography meant to help instructors of design history decenter whiteness in their classes. It’s a Google Doc and anyone is welcome to use it for non-commercial purposes: i.e., to share it, download it, contribute to it, participate in editing it, copy it, or repurpose it.      Read More →

  The Senses & Interior Design Apart from the recent exhibition and attending catalogue for the 2018 Cooper-Hewitt exhibition, Senses: Design Beyond Vision, which focused on countless objects, and Diana Fuss’ compelling The Sense of an Interior (2004) which explores the specific rooms of four giant literary figures from the nineteenth century, a sustained investigation of the complex relationships between the senses and interior design remains elusive. Yet, despite this absence countless are the examples and vantage points from which to explore a constellation of interior design practices, theories and uses that have taken the five senses (sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing) into consideration.Read More →

Welcome to HIG: The Historic Interiors Affiliate Group.   Since our first round table at the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) meeting in Providence in 2019, HIG has been in formation as a scholarly network. Our mission is to gather teachers, researchers, curators, archivists, librarians, publishers, and practitioners with common interests in research and pedagogy on the history of the interior, broadly defined. Encompassing interior design, furnishings, decorative arts, technology, material culture, anthropology, gender studies and more, the history of the interior is an interdisciplinary endeavor that is still very much under construction. Building on pioneering work done in Great Britain and in the United States at Pratt, Bard, and Parsons, HIG is meant to fosterRead More →

We welcome all those interested in learning and teaching about historic interiors, broadly defined. If you are interested in joining the Historic Interiors Group, please sign up as an affiliate member of the Society of Architectural Historians, as it is required to fully participate in HIG’s activities.  There are two pathways to membership. If you are already a member of SAH, or wish to join the organization, adding HIG membership comes at no additional cost. When renewing or joining, you will be able to indicate on the membership form the Affiliate Group(s) you would like to join. If you are a current SAH member, pleaseRead More →