Dr. Daniel Reiff
SUNY Fredonia Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus Daniel D. Reiff is the author of the newly published “Preservationist: News Accounts, 1950-2020.”
The two-volume compilation documenting the historic preservation career of Dr. Reiff was published by the Jacobs Press in Auburn, NY.
Reiff, who holds three degrees in Art History from Harvard University, has been active in architectural historic preservation and documentation from 1964 to the present day.
The 1,344-page compilation includes articles, reports, essays, news accounts and supplemental illustrations that document his and his colleagues’ work in architectural historic preservation at two major locations: Baylor University and Waco, TX, in the 1960s; and SUNY Fredonia and Chautauqua County in the 1970s through the 1990s.
It contains black and white and color illustrations, as well as supplemental color plates.
“In the 1950s and early 1960s, before the passage of the federal Historic Preservation Act of 1966, countless historically important, and artistically valuable, buildings throughout America were wantonly destroyed, due to lack of historical and cultural appreciation of their local and regional importance,” Reiff explained.
“This compilation documents the campaigns that I, and legions of others in those decades, undertook to enlighten the public, and works to ensure the survival and appreciation of our cultural heritage.”
This particular collection documents news articles and information essays on local and regional historic preservation; talks to groups, clubs, school classes, etc. on the same topic; photo essays on architectural issues; battles to preserve various buildings throughout Chautauqua County; and depicts the latest damage inflicted by urban renewal.
Also included is establishing of a regional arts association; several county-wide historic building surveys; news essays on principles of sign control; historic research discoveries; suing the Fredonia Village Board of Trustees; establishing a local downtown historic district; walking tours of notable buildings and talks by visiting experts.
The Save the Village Hall campaign; working with the State Historic Preservation Office; a local preservation referendum; restoration of the Fredonia Opera House; fundraising campaigns; publication of booklets, books, flyers, posters, newsletters, etc. on local and regional historic buildings are also part of the collection.
Friends and colleagues who were involved in these activities are mentioned and depicted throughout.
Reiff has been honored over the years for his work in the field. The Preservation League of New York State presented him with its Architectural Heritage Honor Award; the Victorian Society in America gave him its Ruth Emery Book Award for his book on Fredonia’s historic architecture; and the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Historic Preservation awarded him its Historic Preservation Book Prize for his detailed study Houses from Books (Penn State UP).
Besides work at Baylor; in Waco, TX, and throughout Chautauqua County, Reiff has also been involved in architectural historic preservation in Georgetown, D.C.; Harvard University; Canton, OH; Granville, OH; Cambridge, MA and Newburyport, MA.
Reiff, who is also a professional photographer, has had thousands of his architectural photographs published in books, magazines and periodicals in the United States and abroad beginning in 1956.
While teaching at SUNY Fredonia between 1970 and 2004, his photographs were exhibited at the annual Art Faculty Exhibition in the Michael C. Rockefeller Arts Center Gallery. (In 1959, they were included in the Addison Gallery of American Art). His photographs are in the collections at Wellesley College, Harvard University, MIT, Cambridge Historical Commission and Historic New England.
Reiff and his wife, Janet, have resided in Auburn, NY, since 2019. The compilation is available at the Daniel A. Reed Library at SUNY Fredonia and the Darwin R. Barker Library in Fredonia, as well as the Patterson Library in Westfield, NY; Dunkirk (NY) Historical Society, the McClurg Museum and History Center of the Chautauqua County Historical Society.
