Guide to the Howard Saalman and Jeanne Farr Saalman papers , 1868-2000

(bulk 1959-1995)

Salve Regina University Special Collections

Published in 2023

Collection Overview

Title:	Howard Saalman and Jeanne Farr Saalman papers
Date range:	1868-2000, (bulk) 1959-1995
Creator:	Saalman, Howard
Extent:	16 Linear Feet
Abstract:	This collection includes research papers, sources, and personal materials related to the career of architectural historian Dr. Howard Saalman and his wife, Jeanne Farr Saalman.
Repository:	Salve Regina University Special Collections
Collection number:	SP.18

Scope & content

The collection includes materials created or used by Howard Saalman as part of his research in Italian Renaissance architecture and professional academic activity as a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. This documentation ranges from Saalman's studies in the 1960s through his academic career until his death in 1995. Also included are biographical materials, correspondence, and documents related to the Saalman family, including Howard's wife Jeanne Farr Saalman. Materials range from copies of primary sources to correspondence and publication drafts. In addition to manuscript materials, there is a significant amount of graphic material, including architectural drawings, photographic prints and slides, mainly depicting Saalman's work and travels, and architectural drawings. Additionally, the collection also includes Dr. Saalman's divrei Torah and several family heirloom haggadot.

Access Points

Subject Names

• Brunelleschi, Filippo, 1377-1446
• Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472

Geographical Names

• Architecture -- Italy
• Architecture -- Historiography
• Judaism
• San Sebastiano (Church : Mantua, Italy)
• Santa Trinità (Church : Florence, Italy)
• Sant'Andrea in Mantova (Church)

Arrangement

Biographical / Historical Note

Howard Saalman (February 17, 1928-October 19, 1995) was an architectural historian, specializing in Italian medieval and Renaissance architecture, and Andrew Mellon Professor of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University. He and his twin brother Peter (d. 2010) were born in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland) in 1928 to Walter Guenther Saalman (1897-1963) and Gertrude Robert Saalman (1907-1995). As Jews in Nazi Germany, the Saalmans faced persecution and so immigrated to the United States in 1938.

Saalman earned his Bachelor's degree in 1949 from City College and Master's and Ph. D from New York University. A 1952 seminar with Richard Krautheimer sparked his interest in architect Filippo Brunelleschi. Saalman participated in excavations at Santa Trinità in Florence in 1957-1958, which contributed to his doctoral dissertation, completed in 1960. In 1958, he joined the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, eventually becoming the Andrew Mellon Professor of Architecture. During his career he made many research trips to Italy, maintaining a close relationship with Villa I Tatti in Florence, and also taught at other institutions all over the world, including University of California, Berkeley; Harvard University; Jerusalem among them. He received a Kress Fellowship in Florence in 1964-1965 and later a Guggenheim Fellowship in the Humanities in 1984. In 1992, he received the Alexander von Humboldt Prize.

The primary subjects of Saalman's research were the works of architects Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), and Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564). Among the buildings of chief interest for Saalman were Santa Maria del Fiore, Santissma Annunziata, Santa Maria Novella, the Palazzo Medici, the Bigallo, and Santa Trinità in Florence; San Lorenzo and San Andrea in Mantua; and Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. He wrote a two-volume study of Brunelleschi. He was a frequent contributor to the "Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians," "The Art Bulletin," and "Burlington Magazine." A prolific writer, Saalman's books include "The Bigallo: The Oratory and Residence of the Compagnia del Bigallo e della Misericordia in Florence" (1969), "The Church of Santa Trinità in Florence" (1966); "The Life of Brunelleschi" (1970); "Filippo Brunelleschi: The Cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore" (1980); "Brunelleschi: The Buildings" (1993); and several works on medieval cities and architecture. "The Transformation of Buildings and the City in the Renaissance, 1300-1550: A Graphic Introduction" was published posthumously in 1996.

Outside of Italian Renaissance architecture, Saalman also researched and wrote on Jewish culture and archaeology in Israel. Additionally, he published Haussmann: Paris Transformed, on the nineteenth-century development and modernization of Paris, in 1971. Saalman's writings, both professional and personal, encompass a number of languages – English, German, Italian, French, and Hebrew.

Jeanne E. Farr (1928-2015) was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, the daughter of Charles W. and Mary Farr. Her younger siblings were Margaret and Wayne. She was also a New York University student when she met Howard Saalman.

Howard Saalman and Jeanne Farr married in 1954. They had one daughter, Daphne. Saalman retired in 1993 and died in October 1995. He is buried in Middletown, Rhode Island.

Howard's brother Peter married Rita Marshall (d. 2020) and they were the parents of two children, Karin Saalman Jones and Daniel Saalman, as well as of Rita's children Marc Paykuss and Jeffrey Paykuss.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	The collection is open for research, with several single-item exceptions with restrictions for FERPA or privacy explained in the collection inventory.
Use of the materials:	Various copying restrictions apply, according to the Archives use policy. Requests for permission to publish material from this collection should be directed to the Archivist. See also the Archive's copyright and publication statement. The University does not hold copyright to any of Dr. Saalman's published works.
Preferred citation:	[Identification of item], in SP 18: Howard Saalman and Jeanne Farr Saalman papers, Box [#], [Folder #], Salve Regina Special Collections, McKillop Library, Salve Regina University, Newport, RI
Contact information:	Salve Regina University Special Collections

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Custodial history:	After Dr. Saalman's death in 1995, his widow Jeanne Saalman moved the papers to her home in Newport. Upon the donation of the materials to the university in March 2015, the papers were retrieved by the University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, Genna Duplisea, and interns. Jeanne Saalman and Daphne Saalman Kaliadjian donated the materials in summer 2015.
Accruals:	Additional accruals are not expected.
Processing information:	Throughout the collection were folder, box, and envelope labels that were illegible due to handwriting style, ink deterioration, or the archivist's unfamiliarity with a language. These have been photocopied and included to preserve the information on them when the handwriting or language rendered the original content illegible. Processing also included preservation photocopying for documents on thermal paper.The folder groupings of materials largely reflects Dr. Saalman's organization and labeling of folders, but the arrangement and groupings of each series was imposed by the archivist. Photographs originally foldered with related textual materials remain in their context. The series of photographs contains prints, negatives, and slides which were stored separately. Relevant textual materials, such as annotations, correspondence, or envelope labels, remain with the photographs.The series of photographs has been organized and inventoried but is not yet described in this finding aid.The collection was processed by University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian Genna Duplisea, who also wrote the finding aid.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Genna Duplisea, University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace and Dreamweaver 2023-01-06 .

Additional Information

Related material:

Special Collections also holds a selection of Dr. Saalman's books, often with notes, inscriptions, or pasted-in materials: The Synagogues of the Lower East Side, Spec Coll BM 225 .N49 F56 1978 A Handbook of Roman London, Spec Coll DA 677.1 Genova, Spec Coll DG 636 .P64 Jüdisches Leben, Spec Coll DS 135 .G4 B459 1985 Uffizi Firenze, Spec Coll N2570 .A78 1968 Giovanni Rucellai ed il suo Zibaldone, Spec Coll N5273.2 .R8 1981 I Commentari del Ghiberti, Spec Coll N 7420 G5 1947 The Gingerbread Age, Spec Coll NA 710 .M3 1957a Luca Fancelli: architetto, Spec Coll NA1123 .F28 A3 1979 Raffaelo e l'Architettura a Firenze, Spec Coll NA1123 .R3 R3 1984 La Sacrestia Vecchia di S. Lorenzo, Spec Coll NA5621 .F62 S23 1986 La 'porta dei sette cieli', numeri e geometrie del portico principale di Sant'Andrea in Mantova, Spec Coll NA5621 .M326 V65 1993 The Pavement of the Siena Cathedral, Spec Coll NA 5621 .S6 P33 1960 Il Palazzo Pazzi a Firenze, Spec Coll NA7856 .F6 M89 1963 Disegni di Fabbriche Brunelleschiane, Spec Coll NC27 .I8 F55 no. 47 Views of Florence and Tuscany, Spec Coll NC 1155.Z6 A7 Italian Sketchbook, Spec Coll ND497 .B677 Y6 Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Spec Coll ND615 B56 1932 Ricami Italiani, Spec Coll NK 9252 .R54 Sonnets from the Portuguese, Spec Coll PR 4189 .A1 1948a Michelangelo Architetto, Spec Coll NA 1123 .B9 P6 Carta's Historical Atlas of Jerusalem, Spec Coll G2239 .J4 B28 1986 Milano Museums, Picture Galleries, Art Collections, Spec Coll N 6921 .M6 M48 Schönes altes Düsseldorf : ein Bildband, Spec Coll DD901.D95 P3 1960 Das Buch der alten Firmen der Stadt und des Handelskammerbezirkes Stettin im Jahre 1931, Spec Coll HF3639.5 .S93 1931 Der karolingische Klosterplan von St. Gallen = Le plan carolingien de l'Abbaye de Saint-Gall = The Carolingian plan of St. Gall Abbey = Delineato Monasterii S. Galli, Spec Coll NA 5851 .S3 K3 map Der St. Galler Klosterplan, Spec Coll NA 5851 .S3 K3

Inventory

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