Marcus Whiffen (4 March 1916 - February 2002) was an English journalist, historian, author and photographer specialising in British and American architecture. He was also a Professor Emeritus in the School of Architecture atArizona State University.
Marcus Whiffen was born inRoss-on-Wye,Herefordshire on 4 March 1916, the son of Thomas Joseph Whiffen and Jessie Anne Hardy.[1]
He graduated fromCambridge University with a bachelor of Arts in 1937, and completed his Masters in 1946.[2]
Following his graduation, he joinedThe Architect and Building News. After the war, in 1946, he joined theArchitectural Review (London) as an assistant editor.[3]
Whiffen moved to the United States in 1952, where he held lecturer positions atMassachusetts Institute of Technology and then at theUniversity of Texas. In 1954, he joinedColonial Williamsburg as an architectural historian.[4] He moved to Arizona State University in 1960 where he held various positions–the final as Professor Emeritus.[3] He corresponded extensively with several other leading architectural historians including SirNikolaus Pevsner,Henry-Russell Hitchcock and SirJohn Summerson, as well as architectsWalter Gropius,Paul Schweikher, andBart Prince.[5]
Whiffen served as Director of theSociety of Architectural Historians (1969-1971, 1975-1978) and Director of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (1963-1968). His awards included the Society of Architectural Historians Annual Book Award forThe Public Buildings ofWilliamsburg (1958) and the Arizona State University Alumni Association Faculty Achievement Award (1979).[5]
Whiffen lived in a house in theArcadia district ofPhoenix, Arizona and designed for him in 1963 by architect (and Arizona State University colleague)Calvin C. Straub.[6][7] He died, aged 85, in Phoenix in February 2002.[3]
Photographs by Marcus Whiffen are held at the Conway Library in theCourtauld, London, and are being digitised.[8]