Harley J. McKee (1905–1976)

Mr. McKee graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.A. in Architecture in 1926. In 1929 he received his M.A. in Architecture. He also obtained a Certificate in Architecture from the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York in 1929. He received the Brevet d'histoire de l'art from the Université de Paris, France in 1930. McKee also studied at the Atelier Pontremoli in Paris.

Before Mr. McKee became a professor at Syracuse University in 1946, his career also included positions at the University of Illinois from 1926-28, The Ohio State University from 1928-30, the University of Minnesota from 1930-31, and the University of Cincinnati first as an Assistant Professor and then moving up to Associate Professor, from 1940 to 1946.

From 1959 to 1966 he served as field supervisor of summer teams for the Historic American Buildings Survey, in 1968 compiling his work and that of others into the text Recording Historic Buildings, first publishing in 1970. His 1973 book Introduction to Early American Masonry, Stone, Brick, Mortar, and Plaster, published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, was the first to document the history and technology of those building materials in North America for a preservation audience.