Ronald G. Knapp

Ronald G. Knapp has been carrying out research on the cultural and historical geography of China's countryside since 1965 and more recently in the United States.

Trained in geography and history at Stetson University (BA 1962) and the University of Pittsburgh (PhD 1968), he has analyzed, celebrated, and promoted understanding of China's domestic architectural heritage through his writings and lectures. His early interest in local historical geography has led to three books focusing on regions of the United States.

He is the author, editor, or contributor of more than 20 books, including China's Traditional Rural Architecture: A Cultural Geography of the Common House (1986), which was the first book in English to introduce Chinese vernacular architecture to Western readers. It is remarkable that this pioneering book appeared fully one hundred years after Japanese vernacular architecture was introduced to the English-speaking world.

For more than a decade, he has worked with the well-known photographer A. Chester Ong on a growing family of books published by Periplus/Tuttle that combine fine photography with authoritative texts. Their collaborative work has taken them from China to Southeast Asia where they have documented the little known domestic architecture in the Chinese diaspora.

In recent years, he returned to an early interest in the history of transportation as he has collaborated with Terry Miller and Chester Ong on researching covered bridges throughout North America, a project that took four years of fieldwork throughout the United States and Canada. Their book AMERICA'S COVERED BRIDGES: PRACTICAL CROSSINGS AND NOSTALGIC ICONS was published in 2014.

His THE GUNKS (Shawangunk Mountains) RIDGE AND VALLEY TOWNS THROUGH TIME with Michael Neil O'Donnell is a The and Now book with a range of significant THEN historical photographs--many of which have never been published--they are complemented with NOW photographs contributed by Fred Gerty, Maxine Kamin, Glenn Koehler, Susan Koehler, Susan Lehrer, Michael Neil O’Donnell, Carol Rietsma.

His newest book, co-authored with Terry Miller, is THEODORE BURR AND THE BRIDGING OF EARLY AMERICA: THE MAN, FELLOW BRIDGE BUILDER, AND THEIR FORGOTTEN TIMBER SPANS (September 2023), which is available as an e-book, paperback, and hardback. The book is 517 pages long with more than 225 illustrations, the majority of which have never appeared in print.

Two related articles in BUILT HERITAGE journal are "In Search of America's Covered Bridges" (2021) and "China's Corridor Bridges: Heritage Buildings over Water" (2020).

Knapp taught from 1968 through 2001 in the Department of Geography and Asian Studies Program at the State University of New York, New Paltz. He holds the rank of SUNY Distinguished Professor Emeritus.

He enjoys hiking and 'reading the landscape' whether in the US northeast or in China. Since 1987, he has served on the Board of of Mohonk Preserve, New York's largest not-for-profit nature preserve, and was its President from 2004-2013.

CHINA'S COVERED BRIDGES Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/316273032964704