author
Clarence Ward
1884–1973
A pioneering art historian and museum builder, this writer helped shape how medieval architecture was studied and taught in the United States. He is best known for clear, engaging works on church vaulting and great buildings of the world.
2 Audiobooks
The Mentor: Beautiful Buildings of the World, Serial no. 33
by Clarence Ward
Mediaeval Church Vaulting
by Clarence Ward
About the author
Born on March 11, 1884, Clarence Ward became an American architectural historian, architect, and teacher whose work centered on medieval architecture. He studied at Columbia University and later at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, building the strong visual and historical approach that marked his writing.
Ward spent much of his career at Oberlin College, where he was a professor of art history and played a leading role in founding the college's art museum, later known as the Allen Memorial Art Museum. His scholarship focused especially on medieval church architecture, and his best-known book, Mediaeval Church Vaulting (1915), remained an important study in its field.
Alongside his academic work, he wrote in a way that could reach general readers as well as specialists. That mix of expertise and accessibility helped make his books appealing to anyone curious about architecture, art, and the history behind famous buildings. He died in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1973.