Art, Art History, and Film Faculty

Timothy Orwig

Part-time Faculty, Art History

Photo of Timothy Orwig

Timothy Orwig

Ph.D.

Contact

Devlin Hall 423

Telephone: 617-817-4732

Email: timothy.orwig@bc.edu

ORCID 0000-0003-3707-1323

Education

  • B.A., Morningside College
  • M.A., University of Arkansas
  • M.A., Boston University
  • Ph.D., Boston University

Courses

American Icons: 19th-century Images of National Identity

History of Architecture

Modern Architecture

Nineteenth Century Art

Saltbox to Skyscraper: American Architecture

Research Interests

Origins of the historic preservation movement in New England

Contemporary practitioners of historic preservation and rehabilitation

Poorhouses and the architectural response to poverty

Boston Modernism

Profile

Timothy Orwig is an architectural and social historian with a special interest in historic preservation. In addition to his Ph.D. in American and New England Studies he holds M.A. degrees in Historic Preservation Studies (also from Boston University) and English Language and Literature (University of Arkansas). The courses he has taught at Boston College and other universities in the Boston area include the history of art, architecture, design, and Boston itself.

Professor Orwig is a community preservation activist and co-founded the preservation organization Sioux Landmark in his home state of Iowa. His ongoing preservation consulting work includes successfully nominating more than two dozen sites to the National Register of Historic Places, from an early African-American church in New Hampshire to entire Massachusetts neighborhoods. He served as the Preservation Chair of the New England Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians and a board member of the Vernacular Architecture Forum—New England Chapter.

In his numerous publications, Professor Orwig has investigated and brought to light many of the successes of the historical preservation movement. He is currently working on a book on the subject of his dissertation, Boston architect and preservationist Joseph Everett Chandler. Chandler restored two dozen buildings that are today museums, including the Paul Revere House and the Old State House in Boston, and the House of the Seven Gables in Salem.

Publications

Books

“The Closet, the Secret Staircase, and the Hidden Hearth.” House of the Seven Gables Newsletter Summer 2026: 4-6. Available online. Also published by the House of the Seven Gables as a standalone blog post.

Morningside College at 125 Years: 1894-2019. Sioux City, IA: Morningside College Press, 2019.

Remembering Boston. Nashville, TN: Turner Publishing, 2010.

Articles and Book Chapters

“Remembering Unsung Preservation Architect Henry Charles Dean.” Historic New England Magazine Fall 2018: 22-25. Available online at Historic New England –Fall 2018 | Historic New England

“Building the Cape Cod Canal.” Historic New England Magazine Spring 2014: 26-29. Available online at Historic New England – Spring 2014 | Historic New England

Cape Cod Canal. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Press, 2013. Book written undercontract with Historic New England.

“The Legacy of Farmer Brown.” Historic New England Magazine Summer 2013: 12-15. Available online at Historic New England – Summer 2013 | Historic New England

“Concrete Solutions: Tad Stahl’s Urbanism.” Historic New England Magazine Spring 2012: 16-20. Available online at Historic New England – Spring 2012 | Historic New England

“Joseph Everett Chandler, Architect and Preservationist.” Historic New England Magazine Winter/Spring 2011: 24-29. Available online at: Historic New England –Winter/Spring 2011 | Historic New England

“Addition to the William S. and John T. Spaulding House, Sunset Rock, Prides Crossing, Beverly, Massachusetts.” Drawing Toward Home: Designs for Domestic Architecture from Historic New England. Ed. James F. O’Gorman. Boston: Historic New England, 2010. 126-127.

“‘None Less Changed by Years’: Joseph Everett Chandler and the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House.” Rediscovering the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House. Ed. Michael Kenney and Gavin W. Kleespies. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Historical Society, 2010. 33-34.

Remembering Boston. Nashville, TN: Turner Publishing, 2010.

Historic Photos of Boston. Nashville, TN: Turner Publishing, 2007.

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