Thomas Farnham
Born in Vermont, raised in Massachusetts, and educated at the University of North Carolina, where he received a Ph.D. in 1964, Thomas J. Farnham spent his professional career teaching American history initially at the University of North Carolina and later in the Connecticut State University system. While a professor, he wrote seven books, including a biography of Nathan Hale. His interest in carpets and textiles was ignited by his research into the life of Charles T. Yerkes, one of the so-called Robber Barons of the later nineteenth century. Yerkes was also a major carpet collector, an avocation that seemed out of character for a man who made a fortune watering stock and bribing politicians and an aspect of his personality that Farnham thought required further investigation. The result was a paper about the Yerkes collection that he delivered in 1993 at the Philadelphia International Conference on Oriental Carpets, a paper that was subsequently published in HALI. Since then the provenance of classical carpets, the collectors of classical carpets, and the dealers who have bought and sold them have been his particular interests. Farnham, a Joseph V. McMullan Award recipient, is currently a Trustee and Research Associate at The Textile Museum, a member of the ICOC's Executive Committee, and chair of the ICOC's Publications Committee. He and his wife, Gwen, the parents of five adult children and the grandparents of nine, live in Bloomfield, Connecticut.