I focus upon material culture and decorative arts, especially from the 17th century to the present. My books include Making Furniture in Pre-industrial America: The Social Economy of Newtown and Woodbury, Connecticut (Johns Hopkins Press, 1996), Inventing Boston: Design, Production and Consumption in the Atlantic World, 1680-1720 (Yale University Press, 2019), and Global Objects: Toward a Connected Art History (Princeton University Press, 2022). My work in expanding the field of decorative arts has led to several awards, including the Iris Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Decorative Arts (2010) and College Art Association's Distinguished Teacher of Art History Award (2018). Davenport is part of my family's DNA. My father was Davenport 1941, I was Davenport 1977, my nephew Davenport 1999, my niece Davenport 2002, my son Davenport 2008, and my daughter Davenport 2010. I know Yale, and Davenport, well as an alumnus, professor, and parent. I am an avid sculler and always keen to try my hand at a wide variety of crafts.
I received my Bachelor of Arts in History from Yale College in 1977, my Master of Arts in Early American Culture in the Winterthur Program at the University of Delaware in 1979, and my PhD in American and New England Studies at Boston University in 1983.
