Originally published on September 2, 2020 (Episode 175)
Introduction
Hello, when Nassau Hall was built as the centerpiece of what is now Princeton Univeristy, it was the largest building in colonial America. But anyone walking through it today might have some strange resonance with their own residential college experience. There are some differences, but parts of it look amazingly like a late 20th century dormitory.
Historians are supposed to be chroniclers of change, and sternly against the claim that things are “always that way.” But the American dormitory makes one question historicism. Students are now very, very different than their predecessors of even fifty years ago, let alone three hundred years ago. And yet the residence hall remains, and thrives, often in ways that the young men of the College of New Jersey in 1772 might recognize.
My guest Carla Yanni argues in her new book Living on Campus: An Architectural History of the American Dormitory (University of Minnesota Press, 2019) that this is because physical space is not simply a backdrop for college students. The two act on each other. Or, as the architectural critic Winston Churchill once said, “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”
About the Guest
Carla Yanni is Professor of Art History at Rutgers University, specializing in the social history of architecture in 19th- and 20th-century Britain and the United States. She has also published on the architecture of asylums and museums, examining how built environments embody cultural values and shape human lives.
For Further Investigation
Carla Yanni, Living on Campus: An Architectural History of the American Dormitory
Alan Taylor, Thomas Jefferson’s Education
Frederick Rudolph, The American College and University: A History
J. David Hoeveler, Creating the American Mind: Intellect and Politics in the Colonial Colleges
Listen & Discuss
What do today’s dormitories tell us about the history of American education? Share your thoughts in the comments — and consider sending the episode to a friend.
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