2004 Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion
The Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion for 2004 was awarded by the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain to Kathryn Morrison for her book English Shops and Shopping: An Architectural History, published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press in 2003.
Kathryn Morrison's book describes the architectural development of shops in England from the medieval market to the contemporary post-modern mall. The adjudicating committee was impressed by the depth of its scholarship across so wide a chronological period but also that the scholarship was lightly worn, resulting in an eminently readable narrative. This was all the more commendable, given that the origins of the book lay in a field survey of English retail buildings begun by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England and continued by English Heritage. The adjudicating committee also praised Kathryn Morrison for work that reflects recent developments in the discipline itself, notably the happy integration of architectural and social history. Whilst it stands as a serious work of scholarship -- indeed as the text on its subject that is likely to remain definitive for the foreseeable future -- the book was also admired by the committee for its wider public appeal. In fact its sales are approaching 3000 copies to date. The successful public dissemination of such high-quality architectural history is, by its nature, a significant contribution to our discipline and to the objectives of the Society. It was especially important that this should have been the case with a study of a building type that holds relevance for everyone. The adjudicating committee would like to reinforce what Kathryn Morrison says in her own in acknowledgements about the roles played in the genesis, writing and production of the book by the RCHM and English Heritage colleagues with whom she worked, and by the team who undertook the new photography and other graphic work. The Committee praised the excellent standard of design of English Shops and Shopping, noting that this was the fourth book awarded the Medallion since 2001 to have been produced by Gillian Malpass of Yale University Press, whose role in forwarding the interests of architectural history in this country and overseas it thereby recognises. The handsomeness of the book is certainly one of its many qualities, but there is also great pleasure to be had in actually reading it. Many readers will find, as did all members of the adjudicating committee, familiar or even favourite examples of shops in this book -- just as they will enjoy the contextualising discussion of those that are unfamiliar. |
Awards
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