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Annabel J. Wharton

William B. Hamilton Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History
Art, Art History & Visual Studies
Box 90766, Durham, NC 27708
114 South Buchanan Blvd, Smith Warehouse Bay 9, A288A Box 90766, Durham, NC 27708

Overview


ANNABEL WHARTON, William B. Hamilton Professor of Art History, Duke University. She served as the first female Vincent Scully Visiting Professor at the Yale School of Architecture in 2014 and as the Harry Porter Visiting Professor of Architectural History, University of Virginia School of Architecture in 2019. She received her Ph.D. at the Courtauld Institute, London University. Initially her research focused on Late Ancient and Byzantine art and culture (Art of Empire [Penn State] and Refiguring the Post-Classical City [Cambridge]). Then she began to investigate the effects of modernity on ancient landscapes, notably in Building the Cold War: Hilton International Hotels and Modern Architecture (Chicago, 2001). She has combined her interests in the Ancient and the Modern in her last two books: Selling Jerusalem: Relics, Replicas, Theme Parks (Chicago, 2006) and Architectural Agents: The Delusional, Abusive, Addictive Lives of Buildings (Minnesota, 2015). Architectural Agents considers material and digital buildings as agents that both endure pain and inflict it. Her new book, Models and World Making: Buildings, Bodies, Black Boxes (University of Virginia Press) will appear at the end of 2021.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


William B. Hamilton Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History · 2004 - Present Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor of Art, Art History and Visual Studies · 1995 - Present Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

In the News


Published October 29, 2015
Art Historian Annabel Wharton on 'Do Buildings Have Human Qualities?'
Published June 27, 2013
Annabel Wharton comments: Hilton, a midtown hotel built for the future, turns 50

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Recent Publications


Postmortem Architect

Journal Article Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians · December 1, 2024 This article assesses the role of the female cadaver in the design of 16 Great Windmill Street in London, the house/museum/anatomy theater complex built in 1767 by Robert Mylne, student of Piranesi, and William Hunter, man-midwife, physician to the queen o ... Full text Cite

Models and World Making: Bodies, Buildings, Black Boxes

Book · January 1, 2021 From climate change forecasts and pandemic maps to Lego sets and Ancestry algorithms, models encompass our world and our lives. In her thought-provoking new book, Annabel Wharton begins with a definition drawn from the quantitative sciences and the philoso ... Cite

Doll's house/dollhouse: Models and agency

Journal Article Journal of American Studies · February 1, 2019 Models - economic, mathematical, toys, manikins - are ubiquitous. This article probes one model, the Stettheimer doll's house, in order to understand all models better. The Stettheimers, three wealthy unmarried sisters living in New York in the early the t ... Full text Cite
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Education, Training & Certifications


University of London (United Kingdom) · 1975 Ph.D.
The University of Chicago · 1969 M.A.
University of Wisconsin, Madison · 1966 B.S.