Rediscovering Ogden Codman, Jr.: Queer Life in the Gilded Age

Ogden Codman Jr. was an influential American architect and interior decorator who designed Kykuit’s interiors in 1909. He is most well known for coauthoring the seminal design manual The Decoration of Houses (1897) with Edith Wharton. 

Throughout his prestigious career working with the upper echelons of society, Codman was active in the gay subculture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His unapologetic self-understanding and connection with a community of queer men were distinguishing features of his life and work. At this year’s Pocantico Spring Forum, Dr. David D. Doyle Jr. will provide a compelling overview of Codman’s life as a gay man in the Gilded Age. Dr. Doyle also will explore the parallels and divergences between Codman’s nineteenth-century sexual identity and modern concepts of sexuality and gender. 

The lecture will be followed by a reception with special access to the DR Center gallery, currently showing Portraits of Process.