Rexford G. Newcomb (April 24, 1886 – March 16, 1968) was an American architectural historian.

Biography

Newcomb was born in Independence, Kansas, on April 24, 1886. After undergraduate study at the University of Kansas, he earned both a second bachelor's degree in architecture and a master's in architecture at the University of Illinois, and a master of arts at the University of Southern California.^[1] He married Ruth Bergen on October 24, 1911 in Wichita, Kansas; they had three children.^[2]

After stints teaching at the Long Beach Polytechnic High School and Long Beach Evening High School, University of Southern California and Texas A&M University,^[1] Newcomb returned to the University of Illinois as a faculty member in 1918. He remained there until 1954. He served as dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts from 1932 to 1954.^[3][4] He was also the second president of the Society of Architectural Historians.^[5]

Newcomb died on March 16, 1968, at Princeton, Illinois.^[6]

Recognition

Newcomb was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1940,^[7] and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1928.^[8] His book Architecture of the Old Northwest Territory was the 1950 winner of the Alice Davis Hitchcock Award.^[9]

Newcomb's collected papers are held by the University of Illinois library system.^[3]

Selected books

• Newcomb, Rexford (1916). The Franciscan Mission Architecture of Alta California. New York: Architectural Book Publishing Co. Reprinted by Dover Publications in 1973, ISBN 0-486-21740-X.
• Newcomb, Rexford (1922). Outline of the History of Architecture. University of Illinois.. Republished as Outlines of the History of Architecture in four separate volumes by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1931–1939.^[10]
• Newcomb, Rexford (1925). The Old Mission Churches and Historic Houses of California: Their History, Architecture, Lore. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company.^[11]
• Newcomb, Rexford (1927). Hispanic Architecture: The Spanish House For America. Its Design, Furnishing and Garden. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company.^[12]
• Newcomb, Rexford (1928). In the Lincoln Country: Journeys to the Lincoln Shrines of Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Other States. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company.^[13]
• Newcomb, Rexford (1928). Mediterranean Domestic Architecture in the United States. Acanthus Press LLC. ISBN 0-926494-13-9.
• Newcomb, Rexford; Foster, William A. (1932). Home Architecture: A Textbook for Schools and Colleges, a Manual for the Home Builder and Home Owner. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.^[14]
• Newcomb, Rexford (1937). Spanish-Colonial Architecture in the United States. New York: JJ Augustin. ISBN 978-0-486-26263-5. Reprinted by Dover Publications in 1990.
• Newcomb, Rexford (1947). Ceramic Whitewares: History, Technology and Applications. New York: Pitman.
• Newcomb, Rexford (1950). Architecture of the Old Northwest Territory: A Study of Early Architecture in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Part of Minnesota. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.^[15]
• Newcomb, Rexford (1953). Architecture in Old Kentucky. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.^[16]