Faculty
Thomas J. Schlereth
Professor of American Studies
Professor of History
Field: North American Cultural History;
Sub-fields: History of North American art, architecture, photography, landscape architecture, botany and material culture studies
Profile:
Professor Schlereth did his graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Iowa. He has taught at Notre Dame since 1972 in the Departments of American Studies, History, the School of Architecture and the Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Calgary, University of Hawaii, the Smithsonian Institution and The Newberry Library in Chicago.
He is the author or editor of fourteen books, the most frequently quoted being: Victorian America: Transformations In Everyday Life, 1876-1915 (New York: Harper & Row, 1991). (Selection of National Book-Club-of-America). Cultural History and Material Culture (Ann Arbor: 1990). Awarded Elsie Clews Parsons Prize, Center for Studies in American Culture, 2nd edition, The University of Virginia Press, 1992). Reading the Road (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1997). American Home Life, 1890-1930: A Social History of Spaces and Services, co-edited with Jessica H. Foy (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992, 1994). Sense of Place: American Regional Cultures (Co-author with Barbara Allen (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1990, 1994) (Selected as a publication of the American Folklore Society Library). The Industrial Belt (New York: Garland Publishers, 1987). Material Culture Studies In America (Nashville: American Association For State and Local History: 1982, 1989, 1994). Artifacts and The American Past (Nashville: American Association For State and Local History: 1982). The Notre Dame Main Building: Fact and Symbol, 1879-1979 (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Archives: 1979). The Cosmopolitan Ideal in Enlightenment Thought (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1977). (Andrew W. Mellon Foundation American/Council of Learned Societies Award). The University of Notre Dame, A Portrait of Its History and Campus (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press: 1976, 1979, 1992).
While at Notre Dame, Schlereth’s research has been supported by several awards and fellowships, including the Chanticleer Research Fellowship, 2004-05; Royal Botanical Gardens (Les Jardins Botaniques Royaux) Research Associateship, 2003-04; Corning Research Fellow, The Holden Arboretum, 2002; Minnesota Historical Society Research Grant, 2002; National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship, 2000; Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust Research Grant, 2001; David Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Research Grant, 2001; Henry H. Douglas Distinguished Scholarship Award, 1994; Elsie Crews Parsons Prize, Center for American Culture Studies, 1990; Senior Research Fellow, Smithsonian Institution, 1988; National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship, 1987; "Best Scholarly Article, 1985-1986," The Public Historian, 1986; Humanist-In-Residence, Indiana Committee for the Humanities, 1982-83; Newberry Library Program in State & Community History Fellow, 1978; Henry Francis DuPont Winterthur Museum Scholar, 1977; 1983; National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship, 1977; Lilly Library Scholar-in-Residence, 1976; and National Trust for Historic Preservation Fellow, 1975.
Teaching Specialties:
During his past four decades as a historian in a collegiate classroom, Schlereth has developed courses such as Visual America I & II (history of American art as cultural history); Material America (history, theory and practice in material culture studies); North American Spaces (cultural geography); Building America (cultural history of domestic, commercial, industrial and vernacular North American architecture); Nature in North America (natural history as cultural history). His teaching has been recognized by his appointment as a National Faculty Fellow by the National Faculty Foundation, and by being named the Rodger D Branigin Scholar Teacher of the Year (1987). University of Notre Dame acknowledged his teaching by a President’s Award in 1987 and a Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning Award in 2006.
Academic Publishing:
In professional publishing, Professor Schlereth has had several editorial responsibilities: Contributing Editor, The Journal of American History, Organization of American Historians (1987-1997); Board of Managing Editors, American Quarterly, Smithsonian Institution (1988-89); General Editor, Midwest History and Culture Publication Series, Indiana University Press (1984-); Editor (Material Culture) Annual Bibliography of American Studies, Cambridge University Press (1984-1989); Guest Editor, American Quarterly, “American Studies and American Things,” University of Pennsylvania (Summer: 1983); and the Editorial Boards of the Winterthur Portfolio: A Journal of American Material Culture (1976-1986); Canadian Review of American Studies (1987-); Material History Bulletin (1987-); Material Culture (1983-); American Studies (1989-1995).
Current Research and Writing:
(A) a study in art and architectural history tentatively entitled The Art of American Architecture which analyzes how American painters and photographers have interpreted the United States built-environment;
(B) a two-volume synthesis in the history of botanical science, landscape architecture, and cultural history tentatively entitled Keepers of Trees: A Cultural, Landscape, and Botanical History of North American Arboreta and Arborphilia, 1700-2000. Research Project Website: http://www.nd.edu/~tschlere/Tjschlereth/keepersoftrees.htm.
Contact Information
314 O’Shaughnessy Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Phone: (574) 631-7316
Email: Schlereth.2@nd.edu
Research Leave: Spring Semester 2008
