Talbot Hamlin

Talbot Faulkner Hamlin (June 16, 1889 – 1956) was an American architect, architectural historian, writer and educator.

Born in New York City, Hamlin was the fourth child of Alfred Dwight Foster Hamlin (1855-1926), a professor of architecture at Columbia University. He attended Amherst College, where he received his BA degree in 1910. He then enrolled at Columbia University, graduating with a degree in architecture in 1914. This was the beginning of a 46 year relationship with the university.

Architectural projects early in his career include Wayland Academy, Hangzhou, China, 1919; Peking University, Peking, China, 1919-1922; and Ginling College, Nanking, China, 1919-1925. The Ginling College campus was to play an important role during the Rape of Nanking in 1937.

Hamlin was hired as a draftsman in the New York architectural firm of Murphy and Dana. He became a partner of the firm in 1920 and the firm's name was changed to Murphy, McGill and Hamlin, following Richard Henry Dana, Jr.'s (1879-1933) departure in 1921. The firm lasted until 1924, when Henry Killam Murphy (1877-1954) withdrew and the firm became known as McGill and Hamlin. This partnership with Henry J. McGill (d. 1953) ended in 1930 when Hamlin began his own firm, which lasted until the Depression, when commissions became scarce.

In 1934, he relinquished his professional practice and accepted the full-time position of Avery Librarian for the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University.

Hamlin was also an active member of the Society of Architectural Historians

Hamlin received the 1956 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for his book on the American architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, (Oxford Univ. Press) He also received the 1955 Alice Davis Hitchcock Award for the book,

Hamlin’s political activities were noted in a report, “Prepared and released by the COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES, U. S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WASHINGTON, D. C. April 19, 1949.
The committee included California congressman Richard Nixon.

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