April 11 2022 – Poughkeepsie, NY – The family of the late renowned architectural historian and Vassar Associate Professor of Art Andrew Tallon has donated his research and teaching materials, correspondence, and other materials to the College’s Archives and Special Collections Library. 

Tallon taught at Vassar from 2007 until his death in 2018. The gift was announced by Ronald Patkus, head of Special Collections. “During his life, Andrew had a great impact on students, faculty colleagues, and the general public,” Patkus said. “His work on Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris is especially well known.  We’re happy to add a collection of his papers to the Library and look forward to making them available so that researchers can learn more about his teaching and scholarly contributions.”

Tallon pioneered the use of laser technology and advanced imaging techniques and built a digital model of Notre-Dame Cathedral. When the 800-year-old cathedral was badly damaged by fire on April 15, 2019, many experts in the field said Tallon’s work would play a key role in its restoration. 

Tallon’s work with images captured by the drone-borne, 360-degree spherical cameras he deployed at the cathedral continued until his death. In a publication following his death, the Society of Architectural Historians described Tallon as “esteemed worldwide as an innovative scholar of French Gothic art and architecture, one who introduced new digital techniques to the analysis and re-creation of the spatial archaeology of medieval buildings. In all his work, he was an inspired and generous educator who brought the past to life in vivid and meaningful ways.”

One of Tallon’s longtime colleagues, Professor of Art Brian Lukacher, said Tallon’s materials were a significant addition to the College’s archives. “During the course of his distinguished career at Vassar College, Andrew Tallon marvelously integrated his scholarly passion for Gothic architectural structure, and especially that of Notre-Dame de Paris, with his teaching and instructional techniques,” Lukacher said. “He was renowned worldwide as a leading innovator in the application of laser scanning technology for the study of Gothic cathedrals and for his presentational tools in the teaching of architectural history. These remarkable skills in digital technology were shared in the classrooms of Taylor Hall at all levels of instruction. Professor Tallon’s lectures in Art 105, the Department of Art’s legendary art history survey course, were nothing less than transporting.

“Professor Tallon was a genuine mold breaker in his inventive technical skills, his collegial warmth and scholarly generosity, and his commitment to advancing the preservation of those medieval monuments that he systematically documented and studied,” Lukacher continued. “He powerfully communicated the spiritual, cultural, and civic values embodied by the architecture of the past to fellow scholars, academic colleagues, and to legions of admiring students at Vassar College and beyond.”
The Archives & Special Collections Library has the faculty papers of a number of former members of the Art Department, including Eugene Carroll, Pamela Askew, Agnes Rindge Claflin, and Lewis Rubenstein.

Vassar College is a coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.

Contact Larry Hertz, lahertz@vassar.edu, 845-437-7938, 845-518-3098 (Vassar College)