Dr. Kenneth Hafertepe
Department Chair Professor in Museum Studies
Education
B.A., Georgetown University
M.A., University of Texas
Ph.D., University of Texas
Academic and Professional Interests
Kenneth Hafertepe is a professor of museum studies at Baylor University and an award-winning author on American and Texas architecture and material culture. In particular he has written on historic houses and churches, painting and sculpture, furniture, and gravestones.
He did his doctoral work at the University of Texas, studying with William H. Goetzmann, the Pulitzer Prize winning historian of the American West, and Drury Blakeley Alexander, the dean of Texas architectural historians.
His subjects have included the Smithsonian Castle, the French Legation and Governor’s Mansion in Austin, Ashton Villa in Galveston, the Spanish Governor’s Palace in San Antonio, and the historic buildings of Fredericksburg, San Antonio, and Waco. He has also written an essay for the catalogue The Art of Texas: 250 Years, which accompanied the exhibit at the Witte Museum, and two biographical essays for Making the Unknown Known: Women in Early Texas Art, 1860s-1960s.
His book on The Material Culture of German Texans won the Ron Tyler Award from the Texas State Historical Association as well as awards from the Victorian Society in America, the Philosophical Society of Texas, and the Conservation Society of San Antonio. Historic Homes of Waco, Texas, also won the Ron Tyler Award from TSHA.
He has spoken at many museums, including the Alamo, the Amon Carter Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Witte Museum.
Selected Publications
Recent Books
More Historic Homes of Waco, Texas (2024).
Historic Buildings of Waco, Texas (2023).
Historic Homes of Waco, Texas (2019).
The Material Culture of German Texans (2016).
A Guide to the Historic Buildings of Fredericksburg and Gillespie County (2015).
All published by Texas A&M University Press.
Articles
“Restoration, Reconstruction, or Romance? The Case of the Spanish Governor’s Palace in Hispanic-Era San Antonio, Texas,” in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (2008).
“The Romantic Rhetoric of the Spanish Governor’s Palace.” Southwestern Historical Quarterly, (2003).
“Banking Houses in the United States: The First Generation, 1781-1811,” in Winterthur Portfolio (2000).
“An Inquiry into Thomas Jefferson’s Ideas of Beauty,” in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (2000).
“Asher Benjamin Begins: The Samuel and Dorothy Hinckley House, Northampton,” in Old-Time New England (1999).
Book Chapters
“Louise Heuser Wüste” and “Elisabet Ney” in Making the Unknown Known: Women in Early Texas Art, 1860s, edited by Victoria H. Cummins and Light T. Cummins (2024).
Several chapters in The Vernacular Buildings and Cultural Landscapes of San Antonio and Central Texas, edited by Brent R. Fortenberry (2021).
"European Immigrant Artists and Their Contribution to Nineteenth Century Texas Art," in The Art of Texas: 250 Years, edited by Ron Tyler (2019).
“Urban Sites of Slavery in Antebellum Texas,” in Slavery in the City: Architecture and Landscapes of Urban Slavery in North America, edited by Clifton Ellis and Rebecca Ginsburg (2017).
“The Paintings of Hermann Lungkwitz as a Type of Texas Material Culture,” in Traditions in Transition: Change and Material Culture in 19th-Century Texas, the Lower South, and the Southwest, The David B. Warren Symposium, Volume 6 (2017).
“The Country Builder’s Assistant: Text and Context,” in American Architects and Their Books to 1848, edited by Kenneth Hafertepe and James F. O’Gorman, (2001).
Research in Progress
The Material Culture of Texas, 1820-1880.
Pioneer Marble Men of Texas: The Artisans Who Transformed Early Texas Cemeteries.
The History of Historic Preservation in Texas (College Station: Texas A&M University Press for the Witte Museum) – editor.
What is Your Favorite Museum?
My first historic site was the Alamo (in first grade) and my first museum was what was then called the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (in high school). During college I discovered a quaint little museum called the Smithsonian Institution. At the end of graduate school I worked as a tour guide at the French Legation Museum, now a state historic site. I lived for three years at the Neill-Cochran House Museum in Austin. I worked for ten years in western Massachusetts at Historic Deerfield, a museum of New England history and art, and enjoyed the experience. And back in Texas I have a soft spot for the Bayou Bend Collection, part of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Winedale Historical Center near Round Top, which were both founded by Miss Ima Hogg and have wonderful collections.
Primary courses taught
- Introduction to Material Culture (U)
- Introduction to American Decorative Arts (U)
- The Museum: History, Philosophy Prospects (G)
- American Material Culture (G)
- American Decorative Arts (G)