William Richmond Dowd

1922 - 2008

ActiveBoston, Massachusetts, USA

BornNewark, New Jersey, USA

BiographyWilliam Richmond Dowd (1922 – 2008) was born in Newark, New Jersey and earned a degree in English literature from Harvard University in 1948. Along with Frank Hubbard (1920 – 1976, born in New York, based in Boston), whom he met during his studies, the two led a second generation of instrument builders who based their practice on historical models rather than modern designs, following in the footsteps of the British builder and early music revival pioneer, Arnold Dolmetsch. Between 1949 and 1958, Dowd and Hubbard held a joint workshop in Boston, with the former focusing on designs built upon the extant works of Pascal Taskin. Between 1958 and 1988, Dowd maintained his own workshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts.