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James Duncan Berry was born in Lakewood, Ohio, to nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist James Osmyn Berry (1932-2015) and Heather Aileen Berry (née Duncan; 1934-2014). He is married to Kristen Anne Berry (née Weber). He attended the Landon School for Boys (’78) and the College of Wooster (Honors, ’82) before being named a University Scholar in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Brown University (A.M. ’85, Ph.D. ’89). He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the University of Vienna (Austria) as well as an IREX (now Fulbright) Scholarship at the Technical University of Dresden (former East Germany), and studied in Paris, Zurich, and Munich. He has taught history of art and architecture on the faculties of Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, and Roger Williams University and have published and lectured internationally on the topic of his doctoral dissertation. More recently, he has taught courses on “Semiotics and Neuromarketing” in the graduate program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. 

 

Following an enjoyably brief academic career, Mr. Berry became involved in a high-end import/export business in India and Southeast Asia. After a decade in that field, he launched a consulting practice for consumer-facing Fortune 500 companies, research firms, and design agencies that employs clinical-grade neuroscientific tools to capture and map the biology of consumer response to commercial imagery. 

 

Memberships

  • Order of the Founders and Patriots of America (Governor General, 2026-2028; Massachusetts Society, two-term Governor; New York Society, Secretary)          

  • Society of the Cincinnati (Connecticut Society, Committee on Pretentions)

  • General Society of Colonial Wars (Massachusetts Society, Registrar; Gentleman of the Council; Florida Society, member)

  • Colonial Order of the Acorn

  • General Society Sons of the Revolution (Massachusetts Society, Secretary)

  • Order of Indian Wars of the United States 

  • Jamestowne Society (New England Company)

  • Descendants of Cape Cod and the Islands (Historian General)

  • General Society of Mayflower Descendants (Massachusetts Society)

  • Winthrop Society

  • National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (Cape Cod Chapter, Secretary)

Published In

The New Criterion, Journal of the Cape Cod Genealogical Society (multiple articles over the last ten years) as well as various professional podcasts, blogs, and periodicals.

Authorships

Vison for Harwich (2025) and forthcoming The Semiotic Margin: Image, Affect, and the Experience of Value (2026) as well as scholarship on late-nineteenth century architecture and architectural theory in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, and France written between the late 1980s and early 2000s. 

Other Notes

Somerset Club (Boston, MA); Colonial Society of Massachusetts (Life Member); Planning Board of the Town of Harwich (Chair); Harwich Historical Society (Vice President); Hyannis Yacht Club (Hyannis, MA); former Vestryman at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church (Chatham, MA); former Secretary of Pilgrim Lodge A. F. & A. M. (Harwich, MA), as well as York Rite and 32º Scottish Rite  (Northern Jurisdiction).

With deep roots as a twelfth-generation Cape Codder, Berry and his wife constitute the fifth consecutive generation to live in their family homestead (listed on the National Register of Historic Places); and are delighted to welcome their grandson as the first member of the eighth generation of Berrys to cross its threshold. In fact, within ten minutes of their driveway, they can trace the farms, grave sites, and dwellings (including his sixth and seventh great grandfathers’ homes) of every generation stretching back to the mid-1640s.

An early and abiding professional interest in architecture enabled him to spearhead recent efforts to re-zone his colonial village which, in turn, blossomed into a decade’s service (so far) on the Planning Board of the Town of Harwich. As Chair since the onset of COVID, Berry is currently engaged in a long-term restructuring of the town’s zoning regime to preserve and extend the beauty of nearly four centuries of continuous human habitation. The manifesto behind this work, Vision for Harwich (2025), can be accessed at visionforharwich.org. 

Professionally, he is wrapping up a monograph that synthesizes the logic tools, the neuroscientific principles, and the enduring lessons of the humanities for venture capital and private equity to grasp the biological roots of consumer behavior and the deeper patterns of demand dynamics.

Berry and his wife enjoy travel and are enthusiastic repeat visitors to Vienna for Christmas, New York for high culture, and Florida for family.

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