Richard M. Candee is an American historian, preservationist, and professor emeritus of American and New England Studies at Boston University. He is known for his extensive work in historic preservation, vernacular architecture, and Industrial archaeology, particularly in New England.
Education.
Candee earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania. He also studied vernacular architecture at the University of York, England, and obtained an M.A. from the Cooperstown Graduate Program (SUNY/Oneonta). His undergraduate degree (B.A.) was from Oberlin College.
Career.
From 1969 to 1976, Candee served as an architectural historian at Old Sturbridge Village, where he conducted a regional survey of New England textile mill village buildings. He later became a professor at Boston University, directing the Preservation Studies Program from 1983 to 2004 and co-directing a joint M.A./J.D. program on Preservation and the Law.
Candee has served as a Trustee of Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England) and the Peabody Essex Museum. He served as President of the Portsmouth Athenæum from 1980 to 1985 and as an Officer of the Portsmouth Historical Society from 2005 to 2023. Additionally, he held leadership roles in professional organizations, serving as President of the Society for Industrial Archeology in 1976 and the Vernacular Architecture Forum in 1992.
Candee co-founded Portsmouth Advocates in 1980 and curated numerous exhibitions. His work led to the publication of "Building Portsmouth: The Neighborhoods and Architecture of New Hampshire’s Oldest City" and other scholarly contributions.
Candee has curated and co-curated numerous historical exhibitions, including those on artists such as Russell Cheney and Thomas P. Moses. He also led a Smithsonian fellowship resulting in a traveling exhibition on 19th-century invention.