Clifton Ellis, Ph.D.

Research Interests

Clifton Ellis a cultural historian whose research focuses on the architecture and material culture of the colonial and antebellum South. His research draws from the fields of architectural and social history and material culture to explain how human relationships are mediated and maintained through architecture.  Dr. Ellis uses a broad interdisciplinary approach to interpret plantation society.  All his work is rooted in the analysis and interpretation of hard data. Probate inventories, plantation records, census data, and rare tax lists such as the 1785 Virginia Structures Tax, the Federal Direct Tax of 1798, and the 1815 Personal Property Tax for Virginia give Dr. Ellis' work a solid grounding in traditional historical method.  Dr. Ellis seeks to understand architecture as an active force that reveals the intentions of its builders even as it shapes the social dynamics of a given time and place.

Key Intellectual Products

Berry Hill Plantation: Architecture, Landscape, & Slavery in Antebellum Virginia, University of Tennessee Press (manuscript in progress, with contract)

Slavery in the City: Architecture and Landscapes of Urban Slavery in North America, Clifton Ellis and Rebecca Ginsburg, eds., University of Virginia Press, 2017

Cabin, Quarter, Plantation: Landscapes and Architecture of North American Slavery, Clifton Ellis and Rebecca Ginsburg, eds., Yale University Press, 2010

“Visual Culture and Ideology: The Gothic Revival in Antebellum Charleston's Backlot,” The Southern Quarterly, 44, no. 4 (Summer, 2007): 9-40.

“The Mansion House at Berry Hill Plantation: Architecture and the Changing Nature of Slavery in Antebellum Virginia” Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, Fall 2006, (no. 1): 22-48. Best Essay Award 2006 Southeast Society of Architectural Historians

Funded Projects

2007: Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago, Illinois, Project Title:  Slave Spaces:  Landscapes of North American Slavery Project co-authors:  Clifton Ellis and Rebecca Ginsburg Amount requested:  $10,000; approved:  $10,000 This grant resulted in the publication of Cabin, Quarter, Plantation: Landscapes and Architecture of North American Slavery, Clifton Ellis and Rebecca Ginsburg, eds., Yale University Press, 2010, and a second volume titled Slaves in the City: Landscapes and Architecture of Urban Slavery in North America, University of Virginia Press, 2017, Clifton Ellis and Rebecca Ginsburg, eds.

2006: Architecture Research Center, College of Architecture, Texas Tech University, Project Title: Web-based Relational Database of Virginia's 1815 Personal Property Tax Amount requested: $2,600; approved: $2,600