Nora Pat Small
Architectural Historian
Current Position
Assistant Professor, History Department
Eastern Illinois University
Teach courses in M.A. program in Historical Administration, including Historic
Preservation, American Architectural History, Nineteenth-century Social and
Cultural History. Teach undergraduate American history courses, including the
United States survey and constitution courses.
Education
Ph.D., American and New England Studies
Boston University
Awarded January, 1994. Dissertation title: "Beauty and Convenience: The
Architectural Reordering of Sutton, Massachusetts, 1790-1840."
Fields in nineteenth-century social history, material culture, and American
vernacular architecture.
Master of Architectural History, Certification in Historic Preservation
University of Virginia
Awarded December, 1981. Thesis topic: Lighthouses of the Eastern Seaboard.
B.A., Art History
University of Delaware
Awarded May, 1979. Dean's list. Graduated with honors.
Awards
Eastern Illinois University, College of Arts and Humanities, Research Travel
Award. For research conducted summer, 1996, in Massachusetts and Rhode
Island.
Luce Foundation Fellowship recipient, 1988-1989. Permitted completion of field
work necessary for dissertation research.
Professional experience
Assistant Professor,
History Department, Eastern Illinois University, 1995 to
present.
Nichols College, Undergraduate Instructor. Spring 1995. Course: Post-1945 United
States History. Emphasized the relationship of past social and
political movements and choices to current social and political events.
Co-Director, Field School in Architectural History, Old Sturbridge Village. June-
August 1989. Assisted in all aspects of field school planning and
implementation. The course exposed participants to the interdisciplinary study
of architecture and included three weeks of field work.
Boston Architectural Center. Instructor. Spring, 1989. Taught survey course of
American architecture which emphasized a vernacular studies approach to
buildings great and common.
Research Assistant, Old Sturbridge Village. February 1986-March 1987.
Participated in project partially funded by a National Endowment for the
Humanities grant entitled 'Tradition and Transformation: Rural Economic Life
in Central New England, 1790-1850," as one of two principal architectural
investigators of farm houses in Barre, Massachusetts.
Preservation Consultant, Massachusetts. September 1983-September 1985.
Researched and wrote National Register nominations. Conducted
comprehensive historic architecture surveys for local communities.
Architectural Historian, Historic Preservation Department, Kansas State Historical
Society, Topeka, Kansas. September 1981-August 1983. Primary
responsibilities: Researched, prepared and evaluated National Register
and State Register nominations. Inspected and photographed all properties
proposed for nomination. Created and implemented statewide comprehensive
preservation plan for architectural resources in accordance with federal
guidelines.Supervised federal preservation fund pass-through grants for
survey and planning.
Papers and Publications
"A Building for the Ages: the History and Architecture of Old Main," lecture
delivered Nov. 20,1999 at symposium to commemorate opening of 'The
Architecture of Old Main" at Tarble Arts Center. Exhibit catalogue essay of
same name, January 2000.
'Redefining Farm and Community: The Industrialization of Sutton,
Massachusetts, 1790-1830." Paper presented at the Newbury Seminar in Rural
History, November 22, 1997.
"New England Farmhouses in the Early Republic: Rhetoric and Reality,"
Shaping Communities: Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture VI, Knoxville:
University of Tennessee Press, 1997.
"The Search for a New Rural Order: Farmhouses in Sutton, Massachusetts, 1790
1830," William and Mary Quarterly (January 1996).
'The Virtuous Farmhouse: Rhetoric and Reality.' Presented at the Vernacular
Architecture Forum Conference, Portsmouth, N. H., May 1997.
'Rural Dwellings in Central Massachusetts, 1790-1840." Presented at the Old
Sturbridge Village Colloquium, March 1992.
'Improving the Farm? Building Practice and Rural Reform in Early Nineteenth
Century Worcester County." Presented at the Colloquium on Builders in Rural
Massachusetts, Historic Deerfield, Inc., April 1991.
'Tradition and Transformation: Rural Society and Architectural Change in
Nineteenth-Century Central Massachusetts," with Myron 0. Stachiw,
Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture III, Columbia: University of Missouri
Press, 1989.
Professional memberships
Vernacular Architecture Forum. 2nd Vice President, 1999- ;Abbott Lowell
Cummings Book Prize Committee, 1996 to 1998; Board of Directors, 1989-1992;
Member since 1980.
Society of Architectural Historians
National Trust for Historic Preservation