Howard Saalman and Jeanne Farr Saalman papers (SP.18)

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.