Hosmer, Charles Bridgham, 1932-

Historian of the historic preservation movement and educator.

Historian, writer; Principia College, Illinois.

Charles Bridgham Hosmer, Jr., (1932-1993) is widely regarded as the foremost historian of the historic preservation movement. Two of his books, Presence of the Past: the History of the Preservation Movement in the United States before Williamsburg (Putnam, 1965) and Preservation Comes of Age: from Williamsburg to the National Trust, 1926-1949 (University Press of Virginia, 1981), have become standard teaching and reference texts in the field of preservation. In Presence of the Past , Hosmer asserted that "the pioneers of the preservation movement prepared the American people to accept the idea of spending money for the seemingly profitless activity of saving a few of the spots that contributed to the study of history or the enjoyment of beauty."

Born in Naples, Italy, on February 23, 1932, Hosmer attended public schools in Washington, D. C. He received a B. A. in history from Principia College, Elsah, Illinois (1953). After a two-year stint in the U. S. Army Signal Corps, Hosmer married Jeralyn Prugh in 1955. The Hosmers had two children, Kathryn and Jonathan. Hosmer served as a public school teacher in South Huntington, New York, from 1956 to 1959, after receiving a M. A. from Teacher's College of Columbia University in 1956. He completed his Ph.D. in history at Columbia in 1961.

Hosmer's lifelong dedication to the preservation movement grew from an interest in early American houses that began in his youth. He became actively involved in the movement after his 1961 return to his undergraduate alma mater where he served on the faculty for more than thirty years, eventually occupying the Jay P. Walker Chair in History. Early in his career at Principia College, Hosmer began to contribute regularly to the college alumni magazine. Those contributions explored the history of the physical development of the campus. Through Hosmer's efforts, the college gained both inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places and recognition as a National Historic Landmark in April 1993.

Hosmer was active in many professional societies, including the American Historical Association, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Eastern National Park and Monument Association, and the American Association for State and Local History. In the 1970s, he served on the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council. Hosmer was also honored by the Eastern National Park and Monument Association as a Distinguished Associate (1981) and by the American Association for State and Local History for Elsah: A Historic Guidebook (1967), written with Paul O. Williams.

Charles Hosmer died in August 1993, a few months after his retirement from teaching at Principia College. At the time of his death, he was at work on a comprehensive biography of Charles E. Peterson, founder of the Historic American Buildings Survey.