John Ely Burchard 1949 Bachrach portrait cropped

John Ely Burchard (December 8, 1898

Marshall, Minnesota Marshall is a city in Lyon County, Minnesota, Lyon County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 13,628 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, and 13,906 as of 2023 estimates. Marshall is a regional center in southwest Minnesota ...

- December 25, 1975

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

) was an American professor and dean at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT). He was a historian and architectural critic. He was President of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

from 1954 to 1957. He attended the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

for two and a half years, served in World War I, and returned to study at MIT, obtaining a bachelor's degree in 1923 and a master's in 1925. Burchard started his career at Bemis Industries as research director, vice president, and director. He was appointed professor at MIT in 1938. From 1940 to 1945, he was affiliated with the National Research Council and the

National Defense Research Committee The National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) was an organization created "to coordinate, supervise, and conduct scientific research on the problems underlying the development, production, and use of mechanisms and devices of warfare" in the U ...

. For his war work, he received a

Medal for Merit The Medal for Merit was the highest civilian decoration of the United States in the gift of the president. Created during World War II, it was awarded by the president of the United States to civilians who "distinguished themselves by exceptiona ...

in 1948. Burchard was the first dean of MIT's School of Humanities and Social Science, serving from 1950 to 1969. The John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities is an

endowed chair A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are ...

named in his honor. MIT holds his papers.

Works

* ''Bernini is dead? Architecture and the Social Purpose'', 1976, * with Albert Bush-Brown, ''The architecture of America; a social and cultural history'', 3rd ed., 1967 * ''The voice of the phoenix; postwar architecture in Germany'', 1966 * with

Oscar Handlin Oscar Handlin (September 29, 1915 – September 20, 2011) was an American historian. As a professor of history at Harvard University for over 50 years, he directed 80 PhD dissertations and helped promote social and ethnic history, virtually inv ...

, ''The Historian and the City'', 1963 *

References

1975 deaths 1898 births People from Marshall, Minnesota Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Architectural historians {{US-historian-stub