Laurie Ossman Ph.D

Laurie Ossman co-founded History & Conservation Associates, LLC in 2023.

As Director of Museum Affairs for the Preservation Society of Newport County she oversaw curatorial, conservation, research, and educational initiatives at the Preservation Society’s 11 historic properties-- seven of them National Historic Landmarks-- which range in date from the mid-18th to the early 20th centuries. With a collection of 55,000 objects comprising fine- and decorative arts, photographs, prints and drawings, the Preservation Society’s AAM-accredited house museums provide more than 1,000,000 tours annually, making it one of the largest cultural organizations in New England. 

When Director of Woodlawn Plantation and Frank Lloyd Wright's Pope-Leighey House in Alexandria, Virginia, the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s struggling flagship property, she worked with trustees and National Trust leadership on a strategic plan, leading to a groundbreaking partnership with a local restaurateur to reintroduce agriculture to the historic plantation, not as a “display” but rather in the framework of contemporary discourse on sustainable agriculture, “slow food,” and community engagement.  Prior to that, she served as Deputy Director of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, Florida where she worked on master planning for the 32-acre campus and oversaw extensive post-hurricane restoration projects. As Chief Curator at the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, Florida, she introduced an exhibition program that remains in place today.  In addition, she served as Guest Curator of the Maryland Historical Society’s “Looking for Liberty” state history overview exhibition and Curator and Restoration Project Manager for Cá d’Zan, the Ringling mansion in Sarasota, Florida.   She has held research positions at The Smithsonian Institution, Monticello, The Curator’s Office at The White House and, in 2011, was an affiliated fellow of the National Trust at the American Academy in Rome in historic preservation.

Dr. Ossman graduated with honors from Brown University, earning her Master's degree in Architectural History from the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, followed by her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, also from UVA. She has been an instructor in the history of American architecture and urban planning and has lectured and written extensively on architectural history, design and preservation. She is also the author of several books including Carrere and Hastings: The Masterworks, with Heather Ewing (NY: Rizzoli USA), and Great Houses of the South (NY: Rizzoli USA), as well as a primary contributor to The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects(NY:  Penguin, 2013).  She authored the introduction to Summer Houses by the Sea: the Shingle Style (NY: Rizzoli USA). Her most recent book The Gentleman’s Farm (NY: Rizzoli USA) was released in March 2016 and featured in The New York Times in December 2016. 

Professional Experience 

Principal: History & Conservation Associates, LLC

Interim Director: Dumbarton House, The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, Washington, DC (2020-2021).

Director of Museum Affairs: The Preservation Society of Newport County, Newport, RI. (2013-2017).

Director: Woodlawn and Frank Lloyd Wright's Pope-Leighey House, Historic Sites of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Alexandria, VA (2008-11).                  

Deputy Director for Collections and Curatorial Affairs: Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Miami, FL (2004-07). 

Chief Curator: The Henry Morrison Flagler Museum, Palm Beach, FL (2003-04).

Guest Curator: Looking for Liberty, an Overview of Maryland History,  The Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD (2001-03).

Curator and Restoration Project Manager: Cà d’Zan, The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. FL (1996-2000).

Historian:     Architecture and Material Culture, The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects, for Richard Kurin, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (2012- 2013).

                    Architectural History Scholar, Decatur House, New Perspectives Interpretation Project, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington, DC (2007).

                    Historian, Baltimore’s Commercial and Financial Architecture, HABS/HAER Division, National Park Service, Washington, DC (2001).

                     Research Associate, Old Executive Office Building Preservation Office, Office of Administration, Washington, DC (1985).

Instructor: University of Virginia School of Architecture, History of American Architecture;  Ancient and Medieval Architecture (1994).  Teaching Assistant:  Early American  Architecture;   “Later” American Architecture;  19th and 20th century European Architecture (1991-1993).

Intern:     Monticello, Curatorial Department, The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. (spring semester,1992) 

Assistant:  The White House, Office of the Curator, Washington, DC. (summer1982)

Consultant:  Strategic and Business Planning, Arcadia Center for Sustainable Agriculture,

                    Washington, DC & Alexandria, VA (2012). 

                    Preservation and Strategic Planning, The Edna St. Vincent Millay Society, Austerlitz, NY (2001-2003).

Books

The Gentleman’s Farm: Virginia’s Living Tradition, with Debra A. McClane (Rizzoli USA, spring 2016). 

Carrère and Hastings:  The Masterworks, with Heather Ewing (Rizzoli USA, 2011).

Great Houses of the South (Rizzoli USA, 2009).   

Education

Ph.D.      Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia, 1996.

Double Concentration:  American Architecture, 18th-20th Century European Architecture.

Dissertation:   Reconstructing a National Image:  The State, War & Navy Building and The Politics of Federal Design, 1866-90.

M. Arch. H.  School of Architecture, University of Virginia, 1992.

                    Double Concentration:   American Architecture;  Ancient and Medieval Architecture.

                     Thesis:  660 Fifth Avenue: A Study in Gilded Age Patronage and Design

A.B. (with honors)   Brown University, 1984.

                     Concentration:  Art History.

Honors Thesis: An Interpretation of the Stylistic Development of Berthe Morisot

Awards and Fellowships

2011 (March)   Visiting Scholar, The American Academy in Rome.

1994-1995   University Dissertation Fellowship, University of Virginia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

1992     F.D. Nichols Award, for Outstanding Master's Thesis, University of Virginia School of Architecture.

1991-1992   Dupont Fellowship, University of Virginia. 

1990-1991   Governor's Fellowship, University of Virginia.

1984    Academic Achievement Award, for Outstanding Honors Thesis, Brown University.

Teaching

1994    Instructor:    Survey of American Architectural History and Survey of Ancient and Medieval Architecture: University of Virginia.

1991-1993   Section Leader:   Early and “Later” American Architecture;  European Architecture, 1800-present;   Ancient and Medieval Architecture: all  University of Virginia.

Selected Additional Publications, Presentations and Lectures 

2015             Carrère and Hastings and the American Country House, Cairwood Museum (Bryn Athyn, PA) and The Ringling Museum (Sarasota, FL).   

2014             Great Houses of the South,  Lecture, Historic New Orleans Collection Annual Symposium (New Orleans, LA).

2011            Lectures related to Carrère and Hastings:  The Masterworks in Palm Beach, FL; Greenwich, CT: Newport, RI; Washington, DC;  St. Augustine, FL;  Sarasota, FL; Richmond, VA; Charlottesville, VA/University of Virginia School of Architecture. 

                    Reinventing The House Museum, Keynote Lecture, Historic House Affinity Group, AASLH Annual Meeting, ()Richmond, VA.

                    Sustainable Museums for the 21st Century, Presentation and Panel, National Preservation Conference, (Buffalo, NY).

2010            Lectures related to Great Houses of the South in Washington, DC; Miami, FL; Palm Beach, FL; Richmond, VA.

2007            Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, Guest Co-Host, episode #10/710, GardenSMART, PBS.

                    Philip Johnson at The Kreeger Museum and Drawing Architecture:  David Macaulay at The National Building Museum, Reviews,  Home Miami Sept. 2007 and April 2008.

                     When the Building is the Collection, Presentation. Building Museums Symposium, Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (Washington, DC).

2006            Visions of Vizcaya, Guidebook, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, (Miami, FL).

The Academic, The Archaic and The Avant-Garde:  Outdoor Art at Vizcaya, Lecture, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens (Miami, FL).

Carrère, Hastings and The Invention of St. Augustine's Cultural Identity in The Gilded Age, Lectures and Panel Discussions, Florida Trust for Historic Preservation/Florida Humanities Council, Flagler College (St. Augustine, FL).

2005            Vizcaya, Dade Heritage, Summer 2005.

2004            Curator’s Choice:  The Grand Hall and The Flagler Museum, Antiques and Fine Art,  February/Winter 2004.   

2003            New & Noteworthy, Panel Moderator, Southeast Society of Architectural Historians, annual meeting (Savannah, GA). 

2000            Is Preservation Dead in Sarasota? Sarasota Magazine (Jan. 2000).

1999            John Merven Carrère and John George Stewart, American National Biography (Cary, NC, Oxford, UP, 1999).

1992-1999   Over a dozen lectures on Richard Morris Hunt as architect and various Vanderbilts as patrons, including:  Richard Morris Hunt Symposium, Salve Regina University (Newport, RI); The Victorian Society in America, Metropolitan Chapter (New York, NY); National Building Museum (Washington, DC); Society of Architectural Historians (Asheville, NC).

1997            Between the Bearded Lady and Mrs. Astor:  Reinterpreting Cà d'Zan in the Context of the Ringling Legacy. Virginia Architecture Symposium, University of Virginia(Charlottesville and Richmond, VA).

1996            Moderator, Architecture and National Identity,  Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies, University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA).

1995            Rediscovering Art Deco, USA’ Review in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 54 (September 1995):  362-3.

                    Collecting and Architecture:  The Vanderbilt Houses of Fifth Avenue,  Collectors and Collecting (catalogue of Washington, DC, Antiques  Show).  

1994            Materials and Technology, Moderator, American Collegiate Schools of Architecture Annual Meeting (Montreal, Quebec, Canada).

Exhibitions 

2004     Curator: Gardens of Paradise: Garden Design in Florida’s Gilded Age.   The Flagler  Museum, (Palm Beach, FL).

                   Curator: ‘A Genuine Style’: The Beaux-Arts Architecture of Carrère and Hastings.  The Flagler  Museum, (Palm Beach, FL).

2003       Curator:  Looking for Liberty in Maryland.  State History Overview , including associated interactive program, "Landscapes of Liberty" in association with the Imaging Research Center, (University of Maryland, Baltimore County).

1999-2000   Writer: The Imagined City. collaborative text narrative for exhibition, 1670! The Man with the Wooden Arm, by artist Leslie Lerner (USF Gallery/Tampa, FL;  Palo Alto, CA.Center for the Arts, Palo Alto, CA;  Gallery at Beyer, Blinder, Belle,  NY).

1998          Curator: Deconstruction/Reconstruction: Environment, Materials and The Restoration of Cà d'Zan.  Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL.