Barbara Miller Lane

Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emeritus of the Humanities and Professor Emeritus of History
Barbara Miller Lane headshot

Contact

Phone 610-526-5052
Location Old Library Carpenter A-8
Office Hours
By appointment

Biography

Barbara Miller Lane came to Bryn Mawr in the fall of 1962 to teach history. In 1971, she helped to found the Growth and Structure of Cities Program, and served as its director from 1971-1989, and again in 1996-97. Within the Cities Program, she introduced courses in the history of urban form and the history of modern architecture.

Her books include Architecture and Politics in Germany, 1918-1945 (Harvard University Press, 1968, revised edition 1985, Italian edition 1973, German edition 1986); a compilation on Nazi Ideology Before 1933 (ed., with Leila Rupp, University of Texas Press, 1978), National Romanticism and Modern Architecture in Germany and the Scandinavian Countries (Cambridge University Press, 2000), the anthology Housing and Dwelling: Perspectives on Modern Domestic Architecture (Routledge, 2006), and Houses for a New World: Builders and Buyers in American Suburbs 1945-1965 (Princeton University Press, 2015). Shorter publications deal with subjects such as political symbolism in 19th- and 20th-century public buildings, the late 19th-century streetscape, Expressionism and modern architecture, architecture and planning in 20th-century Berlin, and the career and significance of Albert Speer. Current research interests include the evolution of American and European domestic architecture, the development of Swedish design theory from the 1890s through the 1930s, the history of city planning in the later 20th century, and methods of research in architectural history.

Since her retirement from full-time teaching in 1999, she has returned to teach advanced undergraduate and graduate seminars on such subjects as "Medievalism and Modern Architecture," "The Bauhaus and Weimar Culture," and "Housing and Dwelling: Perspectives on Modern Domestic Architecture."

Some of her articles and reviews can be found in the BMC Digital Repository and in Academia.edu.