The papers of Southern California architectural historian, critic, and writer Esther McCoy measure 44.4 linear feet and date from 1876 to 1990 (bulk 1938-1989). McCoy was interested in both Italian and Mexican architecture as well as the folk art and crafts of Mexico and South America. The collection documents McCoy's career, as well as her family and personal life through biographical material, extensive correspondence, personal and professional writings, project files, Southern California architects' files, clippings and other printed material, a large collection of photographs and slides, and taped interviews of Southern California modern architects.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of Southern California architectural historian, critic, and writer Esther McCoy measure 44.4 linear feet and date from 1876 to 1990 (bulk 1938-1989). McCoy was interested in both Italian and Mexican architecture as well as the folk art and crafts of Mexico and South America. The collection documents McCoy's career, as well as her family and personal life through biographical material, extensive correspondence, personal and professional writings, project files, Southern California architects' files, clippings and other printed material, a large collection of photographs and slides, and taped interviews of Southern California modern architects.
Biographical and family material consists of awards, resumes, identification documents, and other documentation of McCoy's personal life. Included are a transcript of a 1984 interview of McCoy by Makoto Watanabe and material relating to her friend, Theodore Dreiser.
Correspondence focuses on her personal relationships with family, friends, and lovers, and general correspondence relating primarily to her work as a writer. McCoy's personal correspondence is valuable to researchers who are interested in her personal life, her struggles as a young writer, and the way in which her family, friends, lovers, mentors, and colleagues helped to shape her work and career. As documented in this correspondence, her life offers a glimpse into twentieth-century American social and political history, especially the radical leftist movements of the 1920s and 1930s. Researchers interested in the roots of feminism in the United States should also find these papers useful in documenting the life of a creative and productive woman who was successful in a field then almost entirely dominated by men. Correspondents of note include her husband Berkeley Tobey, lovers Geoffrey Eaton and Albert Robert, writers Ray Bradbury and Theodore Dreiser, and artists and architects, such as Dorothy Grotz, Craig Ellwood, A. Quincy Jones, Hans Hollein, and J. R. Davidson. General correspondence is primarily with researchers, professors, architects, publishers, and professional organizations.
Personal writings include McCoy's diaries, notebooks, and memoirs, and writings by others including friends, lovers, and colleagues. Also included are drafts of McCoy's fictional works, both published and unpublished, including short stories, teleplays, and novels.
The collection contains in-depth documentation of McCoy's pioneering study of the modernist work of twentieth-century architects in Southern California. The bulk of her papers consist of her writing files for books, exhibition catalogs, articles, and lectures on architecture. Because many of the architects about whom McCoy wrote were her contemporaries, she developed personal relationships with several of them through her research and writing. Her writing files include drafts, notes, research material, photographs, and correspondence. McCoy also traveled extensively, particularly in Italy and Mexico, and wrote about architecture, craft, and culture in those countries. Project files document McCoy's other activities related to architectural history, such preservation projects, juries, grants, the Dodge House Preservation Campaign and related film project, her work for the Society of Architectural Historians and the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), and her work at the UCLA School of Architecture and Urban Planning, compiling a slide library and cataloging the Richard Neutra's papers. McCoy also maintained architect files which may contain correspondence, notes, photographs, research material, interview transcripts, about architects and their works. Among these extensive records, the files documenting the careers of R. M. Schindler, Irving Gill, Richard Neutra, and Juan O'Gorman are particularly rich.
Printed material in this collection documents McCoy's career as well as her personal interests. Included are books, clippings, magazines, newsletters, press releases, as well as publications arranged by subject such as architecture, art, Italy, and Mexico. McCoy also collected literary and leftist publications. The small amount of artwork in this collection consists of artwork sent to her by friends, including a drawing of her by Esther Rollo and etchings by various artists including Thomas Worlidge.
There are personal photographs of family and friends and of McCoy at different times in her life, as well as photographs gathered during the course of her research on architecture. Found here are photographs of architects and their works, including a large number depicting the work of Gregory Ain, Luis Barragan, J. R. Davidson, Irving Gill, Bernard Maybeck, Juan O'Gorman, R. M. Schindler, and Raphael Soriano. Many of these photographs were taken by notable architectural photographers Julius Shulman and Marvin Rand. Also found are photographs of architecture designed for the Case Study House program of Arts & Architecture magazine; exhibition photographs, primarily for the exhibition "Ten Italian Architects" in 1967; and other research photographs primarily documenting architecture and craft in other countries and the history of architecture in California. This series also includes approximately 3,600 slides of architecture.
Audio and video recordings include a videocassette of McCoy's 80th birthday party and 55 taped interviews with architects, people associated with architectural projects, and artists.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 10 series:
Series 1: Biographical and Family Material, 1881-1989 (boxes 1, 48; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1896-1989 (boxes 1-6, 4.9 linear feet)
Series 3: Personal Writings, 1919-1989 (boxes 6-14; 8.1 linear feet)
Series 4: Architectural Writings, 1908-1990 (boxes 14-24, 42, 49, 50; 10.2 linear feet)
Series 5: Projects, circa 1953-1988 (boxes 24-26, 47, FC 53-56; 2.5 linear feet)
Series 6: Architect Files, 1912-1990 (boxes 26-28, 42; 2.2 linear feet)
Series 7: Printed Material, circa 1885-1990 (boxes 28-31, 42; 2.9 linear feet)
Series 8: Artwork, 1924-1967, undated (box 31; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 9: Photographs and Slides, circa 1876-1989 (boxes 31-38, 41-46, 51; 8.7 linear feet)
Series 10: Audio and Video Recordings, 1930-1984 (boxes 38-40, 47; 2.5 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Esther McCoy (1904-1989) is remembered best for her pioneering work as an architectural historian, critic, and proponent of Southern California modern architecture of the early to mid-twentieth century. McCoy was interested in both Italian and Mexican architecture as well as the folk art and crafts of Mexico and South America. Although her professional interests ranged from writing fiction to studying the folk architecture and crafts of Mexico, McCoy achieved her most notable success for her numerous articles, books, and exhibitions about Southern California architecture and the architects associated with the modernist movement.
Born in Arkansas in 1904, Esther McCoy grew up in Kansas and attended various schools in the Midwest. In 1926 she left the University of Michigan to launch a writing career in New York, where she moved in avant-garde literary circles and conducted research for Theodore Dreiser. She began writing fiction in New York and continued to write after moving to Los Angeles in 1932, working on short stories, novels, and screenplays. She published numerous short stories between 1929 and 1962, with works appearing in the New Yorker, Harper's Bazaar, and university quarterlies. Her short story, "The Cape," was reprinted in Best Short Stories of 1950. Many of the novels that she wrote from the mid-1960s through the 1980s were related thematically to architects and architecture.
During the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, McCoy participated in the politically radical movements of the period and wrote for leftist publications. Her interest in the lowcost housing projects of modern architects was prompted by one of her articles about slums for Epic News. During World War II she entered a training program for engineering draftsmen at Douglas Aircraft and in 1944 was hired as an architectural draftsman for the architect R.M. Schindler. As she became increasingly interested in modern architecture and design, she combined her two major career interests and began to focus her energies on architectural research, writing, and criticism. Her first article on architecture, "Schindler: Space Architect," was published in 1945 in the journal Direction.
McCoy began writing about architecture in earnest in 1950 as a free-lance contributor to the Los Angeles Times. From then until her death in 1989, she wrote prolifically for Arts & Architecture magazine, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Architectural Record, L'Architectura, Zodiac (Italy), Progressive Architecture, Lotus (Italy), and Architectural Forum. In addition to her numerous articles, McCoy wrote several books on Southern California modern architecture and architects. Her first major work, Five California Architects, published in 1960, is now recognized as a classic work in modern architectural history. It promoted a serious study of modern architecture in Southern California and introduced to the world several leading California architects and their work: Bernard Maybeck, Irving Gill, Charles and Henry Greene, and R.M. Schindler. That same year, she published another important book focusing on the work of the California architect Richard Neutra. Other books by McCoy include Modern California Houses: Case Study Houses (1962), Craig Ellwood (1968), Vienna to Los Angeles: Two Journeys (1979), and The Second Generation (1984).
In addition to these books, McCoy organized and wrote catalogs for several significant exhibitions focusing on contemporary architects. Her first was the R.M. Schindler Retrospective, a 1954 exhibition at the Landau Art Gallery in Los Angeles. Her other exhibitions and accompanying catalogs include Roots of California Contemporary Architecture, 1956, Los Angeles Municipal Art Department; Felix Candela, 1957, University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Irving Gill, 1958, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Juan O'Gorman, 1964, San Fernando Valley State College; and Ten Italian Architects, 1967, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Moreover, McCoy contributed numerous essays to other exhibition catalogs and publications, lectured at the University of Southern California, participated in preservation projects, organized tours for the Society of Architectural Historians, and contributed to a number of documentary films. Her energy and interests also led her to catalog and transcribe Richard Neutra's papers at the University of California Los Angeles Archives.
McCoy received national recognition from the American Institute of Architects for her seminal and prolific work in the field of Southern California modern architectural history and criticism. Her interests, however, were not exclusively bound to California. She traveled the world and was interested in both Italian and Mexican architecture as well as the folk art and crafts of Mexico and South America. She made five extended trips to Italy during the 1950s and 1960s, publishing regularly about the architecture there and curating the exhibition Ten Italian Architects. She was a contributing editor to two Italian journals, Zodiac and Lotus, and was awarded the Star of Order of Solidarity in 1960 by the Republic of Italy for her research and writing.
Esther McCoy died of emphysema on December 30, 1989, at the age of eighty-five. Her last contribution was an essay for the exhibition catalog Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study House. The show opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles one month before her death.
1904 -- Born November 18 in Horatio, Arkansas. Raised in Kansas.
1920 -- Attended preparatory school at Central College for Women, Lexington, Missouri.
1922-1925 -- College education: Baker University, Baldwin City, Kansas; University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri; University of Michigan.
1924 -- Visited Theodore Dreiser in Michigan.
1926-1938 -- Began writing in New York City.
1926-1938 -- Researched and read for Theodore Dreiser.
1926-1938 -- Worked for editorial offices and publishers.
1926-1938 -- Traveled to write in Paris (1928), Key West, Florida (1930), and Los Angeles, California (1932-1935).
1938 -- Moved to Santa Monica, California.
1941 -- Married Berkeley Greene Tobey.
1942-1944 -- Employed as engineering draftsman at Douglas Aircraft.
1944-1947 -- Worked as architectural draftsman for R.M. Schindler.
1945 -- Began architectural writing career.
1950 -- Wrote script for film Architecture West.
1950 -- Joined editorial board of Arts & Architecture.
1950-1968 -- Worked as free-lance writer for the Los Angeles Times.
1951-1955 -- Traveled to, researched, and wrote about Mexico and Mexican art and architecture.
1954 -- R.M. Schindler Retrospective exhibition at the Landau Art Gallery, Los Angeles.
1956 -- Roots of California Contemporary Architecture exhibition, Los Angeles Municipal Art Department.
1957 -- Felix Candela exhibition, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
1958 -- Irving Gill exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Traveled to Italy.
1959-1968 -- Contributing editor to Italian periodicals Zodiac and Lotus.
1960 -- Five California Architects (New York: Reinhold).
1960 -- Richard Neutra (New York: G. Braziller).
1960 -- Awarded Star of Order of Solidarity by the Republic of Italy for reporting on arts and crafts in Italy.
1962 -- Death of Berkeley Greene Tobey.
1962 -- Modern California Houses: Case Study Houses (New York: Reinhold) (reprinted as Case Study Houses, Los Angeles: Hennessey and Ingalls, 1978).
1963 -- Resident Fellow at Huntington Hartford Foundation.
1964 -- Juan O'Gorman exhibition, San Fernando Valley State College, Northridge, Calif.
1965 -- Consultant for the California Arts Commission.
1965-1966 -- Wrote and produced the film Dodge House.
1965-1968 -- Lecturer at University of California at Los Angeles, School of Architecture and Urban Planning.
1966 -- Resident Fellow at MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire.
1967 -- Ten Italian Architects exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
1967 -- Honorary Associate of the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
1967 -- Regents' Lecturer at University of California, Santa Barbara.
1968 -- Craig Ellwood (New York: Walker).
1968 -- Distinguished Service Citation from the California Council of AIA.
1969-1970 -- Lecturer at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
1969-1989 -- Contributing editor of Progressive Architecture.
1971-1978 -- Graham Foundation Grants.
1974 -- Regents' Lecturer at the University of California,Santa Cruz.
1979 -- Vienna to Los Angeles: Two Journeys (Santa Monica, Calif.: Arts & Architecture Press).
1979 -- Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.
1981 -- Los Angeles Chapter Women's Architectural League Honorary Member.
1982 -- Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Modern and Contemporary Art Council Award for Distinguished Achievement.
1983 -- Home Sweet Home: The California Ranch House exhibition at California State University.
1984 -- The Second Generation (Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Books).
1985 -- American Institute of Architects, Institute Honor.
1986 -- High Styles exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
1987 -- Vesta Award for outstanding scholarship.
1989 -- Award from the Historical Society of Southern California.
1989 -- Award from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
1989 -- Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study House exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Died in Santa Monica, California, December 30.
Related Material:
Also in the Archives of American Art are eight sound cassettes of a transcribed interview with Esther McCoy conducted by Joseph Giovannini, June 8-November 14, 1987.
Provenance:
The collection was given to the Archives of American Art by Esther McCoy in 1986. Before her death in 1989, McCoy assisted in the organization and identification of the papers. Original pre-print film elements for Dodge House 1916 were donated to the Archives of American Art by the Academy Film Archive in 2018.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of audiovisual recordings without access copies requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Architectural historians -- California Search this
Esther McCoy papers, circa 1876-1990, bulk 1938-1989. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
The Farber collection documents images of celebrated American buildings by photographer Joseph C. Farber.
Scope and Contents note:
The Farber collection is filled with well-crafted and often very beautiful images of celebrated American buildings. Many of the images, which for the most part take the form of 11" x 14" black-and-white photoprints, explore the European Renaissance origins of American architecture. The collection is also very rich in color transparencies. Nearly all the images are directly related to published projects, specifically photo-essays in the shape of articles , many of which appeared in the magazine Antiques or newspapers. Farber probably would have wished for all of his photographs to have been published. Many were shown in exhibitions, as evidenced by the large proportion of the photoprints that are mounted and also the existence of correspondence files relating to such matters. There are also files related to the processes of conceiving, executing, and publishing his photographic work.
The images for the books are nearly all black-and-white, whereas magazine work, especially the commissions from Antiques, generated the most transparencies. In addition to the images in print and transparency form, and the associated proof sheets and negatives, there is also a great quantity of slides related to travel in the collection, which predate Farber's second career as a professional photographer. A tiny sampling of earlier photographs, mostly with artistic or family-and-personal themes, is also included.
Black-and-white negatives, black-and-white prints, and color transparencies, mostly created for specific book projects, articles in Antiques magazine, etc. Generally, color was used for magazine articles, while black-and-white images were intended for books. Collection also includes photographs of personal or family significance, and some early artistic efforts. Non-pictorial portion consists primarily of material related to Farber's publications: correspondence, galley proofs, reviews, etc.
Photographs include projects related to Thomas Jefferson (e.g., Monticello), classical architecture, Essex, Connecticut, etc. Buildings photographed include Raleigh's Tavern, Williamsburg, Va.; Independence Hall, Philadelphia; Maison Carree, Nimes, France; St. Paul's Chapel, Boston, Mass.; White House, Washington; New York City landmarks; sites in Springfield and New Salem, Ill., associated with Abraham Lincoln; historic buildings in Boston and Cambridge,Mass.; Hannibal, Mo.; Deerfield, Mass.; New England churches and meetinghouses; and buildings and objects from ancient Greece, which were published with excerpts from Herodotus' History of the Pelopponesian Wars (Farber called this group of images "Herodotus"); and Italian villas designed by Andrea Palladio, such as the Villa Rotunda. Some pictures relating to themes of democracy were inspired by the U.S. Bicentennial celebration.
Arrangement:
Divided into five series.
Series 1: Photographs
Series 2: Photonegatives and Contact Sheets
Series 3: Textual Materials
Series 4: Color Slides and Transparencies
Series 5: Books
Biographical/Historical note:
Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1902, Joseph C. Farber he attended the New York Military Academy, and later Columbia College, where his formal studies included chemistry and art composition. While these were excellent preparation for subsequent employment in the family business, Friedman Blau Farber, Manufacturers of Knitted Outerwear, at Columbia he discovered the true love of his life, the art and craft of photography. He became involved in the New York Camera Club. For the rest of his life he would consider himself a protégé of the Club's resident guru, famed photographer Edward Steichen. Farber's work was first shown in the Fifth Annual Exhibition of Work by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen at the Cleveland Museum of Art in late spring 1923, and he taught photography to summer campers. Later, throughout 39 years of employment in the garment business, he continued to enjoy and practice photography, especially in making portraits of good friends. He married Caroline Feiss, also a Cleveland native and a promising watercolor artist. In 1939 the Farber's moved to New York.
According to his daughter, Dr. Joan Farber, her father purchased a large format Linhof field camera during a 1958 visit with his son Thomas in Germany. The Linhof camera front can be shifted to provide corrections for architectural photography which are not possible with smaller cameras. After Joan headed to college the Farbers had time for increased travel. They were accompanied by their daughter on a trip to Greece in summer 1960 which included photographs of herself, an attractive, sophisticated college coed, stylishly dressed and coifed for the occasion, posed on the steps of the Parthenon. A trip to Spain the following year resulted in many dozens of 35mm color images, part of a large group of travel slides.
This was also the period in Farber's life that a whirlwind round-the-world trip was undertaken, with visits to Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Hawaii, and California. By the end of the next year, the Farbers were renting as a vacation home a converted button factory in Essex, Connecticut, a former shipbuilding town on the Connecticut River, as a vacation home. Within months Farber had retired from his design and executive responsibilities at the Campus Sweater and Sportswear Company in Manhattan to live for a year in Essex. There were also trips more abroad, particularly to Greece and Egypt, while the Farbers continued to maintain an apartment in New York. Climbing a mountain in Greece in summer 1967, Farber suffered a heart attack, from which he fully recovered.
In 1969 his new career was launched by the publication of Portrait of Essex by Barre Publishers. Local historian Marie Moore supplied the text to accompany Farber's evocative photographs of the ships, shops, shores, streets, and historic structures of this seafaring town. His brother-in-law Carl Feiss, F.A.I.A., furnished the Introduction.
In 1971, Farber and Wendell Garrett published his first Jefferson book, The Worlds of Thomas Jefferson followed by their second, Thomas Jefferson Redivivus Garrett, who edited the Adams Papers wrote the text, with the help of excerpts from the writings of Jefferson himself. The following summer one of Farber's Monticello views was featured on the cover of Antiques. In 1973 Farber was credited with three covers and a frontispiece for the magazine, as well as three photographic essays. The subjects ranged from Sculpture at the Boston Atheneum to The Villas of Andrea Palladio to The Architecture of Lavius Fillmore Garrett introduced Farber to Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer who hired Farber as photographer to help illustrate his Prints of Abraham Lincoln, which appeared in the annual presidents' birthday number of Antiques the next year, February 1974. Some Contemporary Paintings of Abraham Lincoln appeared twelve months later. Three more Lincoln-themed articles appeared in February issues of Antiques in 1978, 1979, and 1980: Sculptures of Abraham Lincoln From Life, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and Here Lincoln Lived: New Salem and Springfield, Illinois.
Two more books of Farber's photographs were published in 1975. Democracy's First Struggle was an account of the Peloponnesian Wars in the words of Herodotus, as edited from the Aubrey de Selincourt with translation by Farber. The photographic images dated back to the family trips to Greece in the early 1960s. Native Americans: 500 Years After was published by Thomas J. Crowell in 1975 with text by Michael Dorris. Following Native Americans came a series of exhibitions of photographs from the book including shows at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution), Dartmouth College, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History .
Also in the mid -1970s a cover story in Antiques entitled "The Architectural Heritage of New York City" led to an exhibition at the Abigail Adams Smith House. In the late '70s two more exhibitions were staged, featuring scenes of local color at the dedication of the East Haddam (Connecticut) Historical Society in the summer of 1979 and showing buildings by Palladio at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum (New York City.)
In 1980 Farber's interior view of a basilica, Palladio's Redentore church in Venice, was featured on the cover of Antiques. The photographs became the subject of a book, Palladio's Architecture and Its Influence authored by architectural historian, Henry Hope Reed.
Harold Holzer organized many joint photographic trips revolving around Holzer's career in the public relations department of Channel 13, New York's public television station. Each summer for four years in succession they set off to diverse spots to make publicity shoots for upcoming special programming. First was Missouri to photograph Mark Twain sites for a dramatization of "Life Along the Mississippi". The next summer they headed to the Berkshires to document The Mount, the home of Edith Wharton in Lenox, Massachusetts, around whose life and work a mini-series in three parts was planned. The summer trip of 1982 was a return visit to Massachusetts to photograph The Street, Deerfield's historic thoroughfare, combined with a side trip across the border to the Robert Todd Lincoln home, Hildene, in Manchester, Vermont.
In 1982 Farber was commissioned by Architectural Digest magazine to photograph the Mark Twain residence in Hartford. Farber and Holzer succeeded in the early to mid-1980s in getting Farber's out-takes from their Channel 13 trips published together with his carefully worded scripts in such periodicals as American History Illustrated and in Antiques & The Arts Weekly. Many of Farber's pictures were printed in articles in Antique Trader, to which Holzer was a regular contributor. In 1983, when Farber turned 80, his color images of the interior spaces of the Metropolitan Club of New York were published in a book by the same name, written by Paul Porzelt. In his travels in the last decade of his life he was often accompanied by family friend Ethel Phillips, including a tour of Great Britain in the summer of 1987. With Mrs. Phillips he at one time had contemplated publishing a book on the historic mansions of the Hudson River. Two other unrealized projects, upon his death in 1994 at the age of 91, were books on the classical architecture of New York City and on the history and daily lives of Hispanic Americans in the United States.
Biographical Time Line:
Biographical Time Line for Joseph C. Farber
Biographical Time Line
1903 -- Born Cleveland, Ohio
1910s -- At New York Military Academy
1920s -- At Columbia College, studying chemistry, art composition; studies photography with Edward Steichen in Camera Club; teaches photography as camp counselor
1923 -- Participates in Fifth Annual Exhibition of Work by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen at Cleveland Museum of Art (May 1-June 3)
1926 -- Takes job as "salesman and experimental worker" at Friedman Blau Farber, Mfg. Knitted Outerwear," Cleveland; Marriage to Caroline Feiss, Cleveland native and watercolor artist
1933 -- Son Thomas Feiss born at Cleveland
1936 -- Daughter Joan born
1930s -- Family moves to New York
1958 -- Visit to son in Germany; purchase of Linhof camera; daughter off to college
1960 -- Trip to Greece, daughter along
1961 -- To Spain
1963 -- Death of son in mountaineering accident; to Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Hawaii, California
1964 -- Rents former button factory in Essex, Connecticut as vacation home
1965 -- Retirement from Campus Sweater & Sportswear Company; Living in Essex
1966 -- To Greece
1967 -- To Egypt and Greece; heart attack ; Essex (summer?)
1969 -- Portrait of Essex published, text by Marie Moore; into by Carl Feiss, AIA (Barre)
1970 -- Trip to Bermuda
1971 -- Thomas Jefferson Redivus published, text by Wendell Garrett, Editor of The Magazine Antiques (Barre); Farber introduced to "Jefferson circle"; Vacations in Essex and Florida
1972 -- Monticello images published in Antiques
1973 -- Photographs of sculpture at the Boston Atheneum, the Maison Carree at Nimes (France): the villas of Andrea Palladio in Vicenza and environs (Italy) and the architecture of Lavius Fillmore (Connecticut and Vermont) published in Antiques
1974 -- Images of Abraham Lincoln prints published in Antiques: accompanying article is by Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer; beginning of ten-year collaboration
1975 -- Photographs of Lincoln portraits in Antiques, Holzer text Democracy's First Struggle published, based on Herodotus' Histories of Greece (Crown); Native Americans: 500 Years Afterpublished (Thomas Crowell)
1976 -- Exhibitions of photographs of Native Americans at National Museum of Natural History, Dartmouth College, and Cleveland Museum of Natural History; Images of historic New York City buildings in Antiques, text by Elizabeth Donaghty Garrett; Exhibition of photographs of New York City landmarks at Abigail Adams House, New York City.
1978 -- Photographs of Lincoln sculptures, with Holzer, in Antiques
1979 -- Images of Lincoln and George Washington, sculpture of John Rogers, and sculpture of U.S. Capitol published in Antiques, with Holzer; Exhibition of photographs at East Haddam Historical Society; Exhibition of Palladio photographs at Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York City.
1980 -- Palladio's Architecture and Its Influence published, with Henry Hope Reed (Dover) ; Venice image (church interior) published on Antiques cover; Death of wife; "Caroline Fund" established at Cooper Union; Teaches photography in local high school; To Missouri with Holzer to photograph Mark Twain sites for Channel 13
1981 -- Images of Lincoln sites published in black and white in Antiques with Holzer (should have been in color); Summer trip to Berkshires with Holzer to photograph Edith Wharton home
1982 -- Commissioned to photograph Mark Twain house in Hartford for Architectural Digest; Images of The Mount, Edith Wharton's home in Lenox, Mass., published in American History Illustrated with Holzer; Summer trip to Massachusetts and Vermont with Holzer to photograph "The Street," Deerfield (Channel 13) and Hildene, Robert Todd Lincoln home in Manchester
1983 -- Images of Mark Twain sites in Hannibal, Missouri published in American History Illustrated with Holzer; Summer trip to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia with Holzer (Channel 13); Harper's Ferry images published in Antique Trader with Holzer Deerfield, Massachusetts images published in Antiques & The Arts Weekly with Holzer; The Metropolitan Club of New York published, with Paul Porzelt (Rizzoli)
1984 -- Images of Hildene published in Antique Traderwith Holzer
1985 -- Images of Rebecca Nurse Homestead, Old Salem, Massachusetts published in Antique Traderwith Holzer
1987 -- Tour of Great Britain with Ethel Phillips (summer?)
1994 -- Died, New York City, New York
Related Archival Materials:
Other Materials at the Smithsonian Institution
National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
Joseph C. Farber photographs of American Indian life, circa 1970-1975
Photographs made as part of Joseph C. Farber's project to document modern American Indian everyday life. Represented tribes include the Acoma, Apache, Blackfoot, Chehalis, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chippewa, Cocopa, Dakota, Eskimo, Haida, Kiowa, Kutenai, Lummi, Mohave, Mohawk, Navaho, Northern Athabascan, Onandaga, Pima, Pueblo, Quinalt, Seminole, Taos, Tlingit, and Zuni. Subject coverage is broad and varies from tribe to tribe. Included are portraits, as well as totem poles, carving, weaving, pottery, painitng, landscapes, boats and canoes, ceremonial regalia, camps, classes and vocational training, homes and traditional dwellings, construction projects, rodeos and powwows, dances, industries (including lumber), herding and ranching, agriculture, stores and storefronts, cliff dwellings, parades, crab cleaning, fishing, games, health care, legal processes, music, office work, sewing, vending, and a funeral. There are also photographs of R. C. Gorman (and a letter from Gorman to Farber) and Fritz Shoulder (some in color).
Provenance:
Collection donated by Dr. Joan Farber, 1994.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Photographs published in Joseph C. Farber's books are still under copyright. Reproduction permission from the Joseph C. Farber's estate is required. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Marcel Breuer Associates/Architects and Planners Search this
Extent:
37.6 Linear feet
0.14 Gigabytes
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Gigabytes
Photographs
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1920-1986
Summary:
The Marcel Breuer papers, 1920-1986, contain biographical material, correspondence, business and financial records, interviews, notes, writings, sketches, project files, exhibition files, photographs, and printed material that document the career of architect and designer Marcel Breuer.
Scope and Contents note:
The Marcel Breuer papers span the years 1920 to 1986 and measure 37.6 linear feet and 0.14 gigabytes. They consist of biographical material, correspondence, business and financial records, interviews, notes, writings, sketches, project files, exhibition files, photographs, and printed material that document Breuer's career as an architect and designer. This material reflects the prolificacy and diversity of his creations, from tubular steel chairs to private residences, college campuses, factories, department stores, and international, municipal, and corporate headquarters and complexes.
The Biographical Material Series contains documents that list or certify significant events or associations attained by Breuer during his career, such as résumés, licenses, and certificates. The number of awards contained in this series attest to the esteem in which he was held by his colleagues.
Breuer's Correspondence Series illustrates the interaction of his various colleagues and the operation of his architectural offices in the execution of their projects, many of which were in progress simultaneously. This series includes letters from Joseph Albers, Jean Arp, Herbert Bayer, Alexander Calder, Serge Chermayeff, Naum Gabo, Sigfried Giedion, Walter and Ise Gropius, Louis I. Kahn, György Kepes, László Moholy-Nagy, Henry Moore, Eero Saarinen, and José Luis Sert.
The Business and Financial Records Series contains documents which reflect Breuer's commercial transactions that do not directly relate to one specific project. Two project books pertain to 36 architectural projects and record their basic physical and financial details, such as site measurements and cost projections. There are also miscellaneous invoices and receipts, and one of Breuer's personal income tax returns.
The Interviews Series contains typescripts of interviews. Of particular interest is the audiotape interview of Breuer, who discusses his early years as a student and his first impressions of the Bauhaus. There are also untranscribed audiotape interviews of his colleagues György Kepes and Harry Seidler, and his patrons Mr. A. Elzas, and the Koerfers, who discuss their business relationships with Breuer.
There are address lists of colleagues and patrons and résumés from architects contained within the series on Notes, while the Writings Series contains typescripts of lectures and articles written by Breuer concerning architecture and its history. Writings by others are about Breuer and his work, including typescripts, galleys, and photographs of architectural and design projects used in the publication of the book Marcel Breuer Buildings and Projects, 1921-1961 by Cranston Jones.
The Sketches Series consists of 3 small, hand-drawn depictions of unidentified floor plans.
The largest and most comprehensive series houses the Project Files, which consist of approximately 300 project files containing letters, legal documents, and photographs that record the planning and execution of many of Breuer's most important architectural projects. These include the UNESCO Headquarters Building (Paris, France), St. John's Abbey and University (Collegeville, Minnesota), the IBM Corporation Research Center (La Gaude, France), the HUD Headquarters Building (Washington, D.C.), the De Bijenkorf Department Store (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), and the third power plant and forebay dam for the Grand Coulee Dam (Washington state). The file for the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York contains an interesting set of photographs of Breuer showing Jacqueline Kennedy through the construction site.
Of equal importance are the additional Project Files for the 100 residences designed by Breuer, including prefabricated houses such as Kleinmetalhaus and Yankee Portables, and commissioned residences such as the two Gagarin Houses (Litchfield, Connecticut), the two Harnischmacher Houses (Wiesbaden, Germany), Koerfer House (Moscia, Switzerland), the Neumann House (Croton-on-Hudson, New York), the Saier House (Glanville-Calvados, France), the Staehelin House (Feldmeilen, Switzerland), the Starkey House (Duluth, Minnesota), and the three Rufus Stillman Houses (Litchfield, Connecticut). There are also files concerning the four houses Breuer designed for himself in Lincoln and Wellfleet, Massachusetts, and in New Canaan, Connecticut.
The Project Files for Breuer's furniture designs are not as comprehensive as those for his architectural creations but contain many photographs of his early conceptions for chairs, tables, desks, cabinets, rugs, and tapestries.
The Exhibition Files Series contains primarily photographs of exhibitions in which Breuer participated. The extent of his participation is sometimes difficult to determine, because it ranged from designing a single chair, designing rooms for an apartment or an entire house specifically to be shown in an exhibition, to designing an exhibition building. Breuer was also the subject of a retrospective exhibition sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This traveling exhibition was seen in New York City, Chicago, Paris, and Berlin.
Images contained in the Photographs Series are of Breuer, including one of him in Philip Johnson's house, Breuer family members, and colleagues, including Herbert Bayer, Alexander Calder, Serge Chermayeff, Walter and Ise Gropius, and Matta. Three photograph albums in this series contain more than 1,000 photographs of 59 architectural projects.
The Printed Material Series houses general clippings that concern groups of projects, rather than one specific project. There is also a scrapbook of tearsheets concerning architectural projects, exhibition announcements, and catalogs for others, and miscellaneous press releases and brochures.
Arrangement:
The Marcel Breuer papers are arranged into 11 series, based on type of document. Each series, except Project Files, has been arranged chronologically. The Project Files Series has been divided into 19 subseries of related architectual and design project types. The overall arrangement reflects Breuer's original arrangement. Each subseries or file group within is arranged alphabetically according to the surname of an individual, or a location name of a university. The contents of each project file have been arranged according to material type and a chronology that best reflects the progression of the project toward completion.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1920-1981 (Boxes 1, 36; Reel 5708; 0.4 linear ft.)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1923-1986 (Boxes 1-6, OV 47; Reels 5708-5717; 5.3 linear ft.)
Series 3: Business and Financial Records, 1933-1980 (Box 6; Reels 5717-5718; 0.4 linear ft.)
Series 4: Interviews, 1963-1985 (Boxes 6-7; Reel 5718; 0.4 linear ft., ER01; 0.14 GB)
Series 5: Notes, 1934-1976 (Box 7; Reel 5718; 0.4 linear ft.)
Series 6: Writings, 1923-1981 (Boxes 7-8; Reels 5718-5720; 1.0 linear ft.)
Series 7: Sketches, circa 1920s-circa 1980 (Box 8; Reel 5720; 1 folder)
Series 8: Project Files, 1921-1986 (Boxes 8-23, 36-40, OVs 43-57; Reels 5720-5737; 27.6 linear ft.)
Series 9: Exhibition files, 1922-1974 (Box 34, OV 49; Reels 5737-5738; 0.8 linear ft.)
Series 10: Photographs, 1928-1979 (Boxes 34, 41-42; Reel 5738; 0.3 linear ft.)
Series 11: Printed Material, 1925-1984 (Boxes 35, 42; Reels 5738-5739; 1.0 linear ft.)
Biographical/Historical note:
Marcel Lajos Breuer was born on May 21, 1902, in the Danube valley town of Pécs, Hungary, to Jacques Breuer, a physician, and Franciska (Kan) Breuer. His siblings were Hermina and Alexander. Throughout his life, Breuer used his first name only on official documents and preferred that his friends use his middle name, the Hungarian form of "Louis." The diminutive form of this name was usually spelled "Lajkó" and pronounced "Lye-ko."
In 1920, Breuer graduated from the Magyar Királyi Föreáliskola in Pécs. He had received a scholarship to study art in Vienna but took an immediate dislike to the Art Academy there, so searched elsewhere for training. He started working in the studio of a Viennese architect and soon became interested in training in the cabinetmaking shop of the architect's brother. Breuer was not satisfied with this arrangement either, and, upon hearing about the year-old Bauhaus school in Germany, he departed for Weimar in 1921.
Founded and directed by Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus combined the teaching of the pure arts with training in functional technology. Breuer received a master's degree from the Bauhaus in 1924, then studied architecture in Paris, where he first met Le Corbusier.
In 1925, Gropius enticed Breuer to return to the Bauhaus, now relocated in Dessau, by offering him a post as master of the carpentry workshop and a commission to design the interiors of the new Bauhaus buildings. Inspired by his new bicycle's handlebars, Breuer designed his first tubular steel chair, the Wassily chair, named for his friend Wassily Kandinsky. This chair and dozens of other Breuer designs for furnishings were mass-produced by the Thonet Brothers in Germany.
Two years later, in 1928, Breuer left the Bauhaus to begin a private architecture practice in Berlin, emphasizing prefabricated housing and the use of concrete in building. During this time Breuer worked on a designs for the Potsdamer Platz, Spandau-Haselhorst Housing, and a hospital in Elberfeld, and he completed work on the Lewin House and the Harnischmacher Apartment. Due to the deteriorating economic and political conditions in Germany, Breuer closed his Berlin office in 1931 and traveled to Budapest, Zurich, Morocco, Greece, and Spain. Returning to Germany in the following year, he began designing furniture in aluminum. Breuer established his reputation as an architect upon completion of the Harnischmacher House in Wiesbaden, a house notable for the use of contrasting materials and distinctive interiors.
The Nazis closed the Bauhaus in 1933. The following year, Breuer designed the Dolderthal Apartments in Zurich for the Swiss architectural historian Sigfried Giedion. From 1935 to 1937, Breuer settled in London, and became partners with F. R. S. Yorke. During this time he designed for the Isokon ("isometric unit construction") Control Company laminated plywood furniture that became widely imitated.
In 1937, Breuer accepted an invitation from Walter Gropius to join the faculty of the School of Design at Harvard University to teach architecture, and he moved to the United States. Among his students were Edward Larrabee Barnes, Ulrich Franzen, Philip Johnson, I. M. Pei, and Paul Rudolph. Breuer formed a partnership with Gropius in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1937 to 1941. Their firm was engaged primarily in the design of private homes.
In 1946, Breuer moved to New York City, where he established an office in an East 88th Street townhouse. The number of his commissions began to grow slowly, and it was during this time he constructed his own notable residence in New Canaan, Connecticut. He developed the bi-nuclear, or "two-center" house, which was designed to meet the living requirements of modern families by creating functional areas for separate activities.
Breuer's architectural reputation was greatly enhanced when, in 1953, he was commissioned to design, in collaboration with Pier Luigi Nervi and Bernard Zehrfuss, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Headquarters in Paris. During this year, he also began work on a series of innovative buildings for St. John's Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota.
Between 1963 and 1964, Breuer began work on what is perhaps his best-known project, the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York City. He also established an office with the name Marcel Breuer Architecte, in Paris, to better orchestrate his European projects. Also during this time, Herbert Beckhard, Murray Emslie, Hamilton Smith, and Robert F. Gatje became partners in Marcel Breuer and Associates. When Murray Emslie left a year later, he was replaced by Tician Papachristou, who had been recommended by Breuer's former student, I. M. Pei.
After several moves to increasingly larger office space in New York, Breuer established his largest office at 635 Madison Avenue and 59th Street in 1965. After suffering the first of a series of heart attacks, Breuer reduced his travel to Europe, eventually leaving the management of the Paris office in the hands of Mario Jossa.
Between 1965 and 1973, Marcel Breuer and Associates continued to receive many diverse and important commissions, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development Headquarters Building (Washington, D.C.), showrooms for Scarves by Vera (New York City), the IBM Corporation (La Gaude, France), the Baldegg Convent (Lucerne, Switzerland), Bryn Mawr School for Girls (Baltimore, Maryland), a third power plant for the Grand Coulee Dam, the Australian Embassy (Paris, France), the Armstrong Rubber Company (New Haven, Connecticut), and the State University of New York Engineering Complex (Buffalo). Breuer also designed residences including a second Gagarin House (Litchfield, Connecticut), the Saier House (Glanville-Calvados, France), the Soriano House (Greenwich, Connecticut), and a third Rufus Stillman House (Litchfield, Connecticut).
Due to failing health in 1972, Breuer sold his New Canaan house and moved into Manhattan so he could more easily commute to the office. By 1976, Breuer's health had declined further, and he retired from practice. The name of his firm was subtly changed from Marcel Breuer and Associates to Marcel Breuer Associates, and later to MBA/Architects and Planners.
Marcel Breuer died on July 1, 1981, in New York City.
This chronology below is based on evidence found within the Marcel Breuer Papers. The dating of projects reflects the range of dates encompassed by the files for each project, not the project's actual construction time. Most architectural projects have several equally significant dates from which it is difficult to assign a single date. Significant dates for a building may include the date of groundbreaking, the laying of the cornerstone, or the first opening day. When a project's dates are unknown or uncertain, a question mark in brackets appears at the end of the entry.
1902 -- Marcel Lajos Breuer is born on May 21 in Pécs, Hungary.
1920 -- Breuer graduates from Magyar Királyi Föreáliskola (high school) in Pécs. Breuer travels to Vienna to study art.
1921 -- Breuer enrolls at the Bauhaus, Wiemar, Germany. Furniture designs: tea table; wooden cabinet.
1923 -- Architectural project: apartment house (multistory duplex with continuous terrace gardens). Furniture designs: miscellaneous bureaus.
1924 -- Breuer earns a master's degree from the Bauhaus. Breuer studies architecture in Paris, where he meets Le Corbusier. Furniture designs: desk and bookcase.
1925 -- Breuer returns to the Bauhaus, now located in Dessau, and takes post of master of the carpentry workshop. Architectural projects: Canteen, Bauhaus-Dessau, Germany; Kleinmetallhaus (prefabricated house in steel); Gropius House, Dessau, Germany; Wissinger Apartment, Berlin, Germany [1925?]. Furniture designs: Wassily chair; Rückenlehnstuhl ("back-leaning chair"); tubular steel stool; modular system for cabinets.
1926 -- Breuer marries Martha Erps. Architectural projects: Gröte Residence, Dessau, Germany; Moholy-Nagy Apartment and Studio, Berlin, Germany; Muche House, Dessau, Germany; Piscator Apartment, Berlin, Germany; Thost House, Hamburg, Germany. Furniture designs:(modular) system for unit furniture; dining room chair; tubular steel chair; office chair; storage wall unit. Exhibition: Bauhaus Exhibition, Dessau, Germany; table for Kandinsky's Master's Studio.
1930 -- Breuer meets György Kepes in Berlin. Architectural project: Boroschek Apartment, Berlin, Germany. Exhibitions: Bauhaus Exhibition, Berlin-Germany, House for a Sportsman, Cork Industry Display; Paris Werkbund Exhibition, Paris, France, Wohn Hotel, Vitrine and Cabinets, and Klubraum Gropius.
1931 -- Breuer closes the Berlin office and travels in Europe and North Africa. Architectural project: Reidemeister Residence, Berlin, Germany. Furniture design: bookcase. Exhibition: Bauausstellung Exhibition, Berlin, Germany, Mitarbeiter Hassenpflug Apartment.
1932 -- Breuer returns to Germany.
1933 -- Nazis close the Bauhaus. Architectural project: Harnischmacher House I, Wiesbaden, Germany. Furniture designs: aluminum chairs; aluminum tables.
1934 -- Breuer divorces Martha Erps. Architectural project: Dolderthal Apartments, Zurich, Switzerland. Exhibition Building Competition, Budapest Spring Fair, Budapest, Hungary.
1935 -- Breuer moves to London and forms partnership with F. R. S. Yorke. Furniture designs: Isokon chairs; plywood nesting tables; plywood dining table. Exhibition: Heal's "Seven Architects" Exhibition, London, England; Designs for two chairs.
1936 -- Architectural projects: Motley Fashion Shop, London, England; London Theatre Studio, London, England; Clifton House (Crofton Gane House), Bristol, England; Sea Lane House, Angmering-on-Sea, Sussex, England; Ventris Apartment, London, England. Exhibitions: Royal Show, Bristol, England, Gane's Pavilion; British Cement and Concrete Association Exhibition, London, England, Garden City of the Future (civic center).
1937 -- Breuer and Yorke dissolve their partnership. Breuer moves to the United States to teach at Harvard. Breuer and Walter Gropius establish Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, Associated Architects. Architectural project: Obergurgl Ski Lodge, Obergurgl, Austria.
1938 -- Architectural projects: Wheaton College Competition, Art Center, Norton, Massachusetts; Fischer House and Studio, Newtown, Pennsylvania; Gropius House, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Haggerty House, Cohasset, Massachusetts; Margolius House, Palm Springs, California. Furniture design: cabinet with hinged drawers. Exhibition: "Marcel Breuer and the American Tradition in Architecture," Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1939 -- Architectural projects: Black Mountain College, Black Mountain, North Carolina; Breuer House, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Ford House, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Frank House, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Exhibition: New York World's Fair, Flushing Meadows, New York; Pennsylvania Pavilion.
1943 -- Architectural projects: South Boston Redevelopment Project, Boston, Massachusetts; Stuyvesant Six (housing development), New York, New York; Wellfleet Housing Development, Bi-Nuclear "H" House, Wellfleet, Massachusetts.
1944 -- Architectural projects: Van Leer Vatenfabrieken N.V., Office Building, Amstelveen, The Netherlands; 1200 Square Foot House, Florida; Geller House I, Lawrence, Long Island, New York; East River Apartments, New York, New York; Long Beach Nurses' Residence, Long Beach, Long Island, New York.
1945 -- Architectural projects: Eastern Airlines Ticket Office, Boston, Massachusetts; Smith College Competition, Dormitories, Northampton, Massachusetts; Unidentified Memorial, [location unknown]; Cambridge War Memorial, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Florida House, Miami Heights, Florida; Tompkins House, Hewlett Harbor Village, Long Island, New York.
1946 -- Breuer and family move to New York City. Breuer establishes an office on East 88th Street. Architectural projects: Small House Competition; Martine House, Stamford, Connecticut; Preston Robinson House, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
1947 -- Architectural projects: Breuer House I, New Canaan, Connecticut; Scott House, Dennis, Massachusetts; Thompson House, Ligonier, Pennsylvania.
1948 -- Architectural projects: Ariston Club, Mar del Plata, Argentina; Breuer Cottage, Wellfleet, Massachusetts; Kniffin House, New Canaan, Connecticut; Witalis House, Saddle Rock, Kings Point, New York; Wise Cottage, Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Exhibition: Low Cost Furniture Competition, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Cutout plywood chair.
1949 -- Publication of book, Marcel Breuer: Architect and Designer, by Peter Blake. Architectural projects: United States Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); Headquarters, Paris, France; Clark House, Orange, Connecticut; Herrick House, Canajoharie, New York; Hooper Residence Additions, Baltimore, Maryland; Marshad House, Croton-on-Hudson, New York; Smith House, Aspen, Colorado; Tilley House, Middletown, New Jersey; Wolfson Trailer House, Pleasant Valley, New York. Exhibition: Museum of Modern Art Exhibition, New York, New York, House in museum garden.
1950 -- Breuer moves his office to East 37th Street, New York. Architectural projects: Alaska Air Terminal, Anchorage, Alaska [1950?]; Sarah Lawrence College, Arts Center, Bronxville, New York; Vassar College, Dwight Ferry House (a cooperative dormitory), Poughkeepsie, New York; Aspen House, Aspen, Colorado; Englund House, Pleasantville, New York; Hanson House, Lloyd Harbor, Huntington, Long Island, New York; Lauck House, Princeton, New Jersey; McComb House, Poughkeepsie, New York; Mills House, New Canaan, Connecticut; Pack House, Scarsdale, New York; Rufus Stillman House I, Litchfield, Connecticut.
1951 -- Architectural projects: Grosse Pointe Public Library, Grosse Pointe, Michigan; Aufricht House Addition, Mamaroneck, New York; Breuer House II, New Canaan, Connecticut; Caesar House, Lakeville, Connecticut. Furniture design: Canaan desk.
1952 -- Architectural projects: Scarves by Vera, Showroom, New York, New York; Levy House, Princeton, New Jersey; George Robinson House, Redding Ridge, Connecticut; Tibby House, Port Washington, New York.
1953 -- Architectural projects: Bantam Elementary School, Litchfield, Connecticut; Litchfield High School, Litchfield, Connecticut; Northfield Elementary School, Litchfield, Connecticut; St. John's Abbey and University, Monastery Wing, Abbey Church and Bell Banner, Collegeville, Minnesota; Torrington Manufacturing Company, Oakville, Ontario, Canada; De Bijenkorf Department Store and Garage, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Calabi House, Lagrangeville, New York; Crall House, Gates Mills, Ohio; Gagarin House I, Litchfield, Connecticut; Neumann House, Croton-on-Hudson, New York; Snower House, Kansas City, Missouri; Edgar Stillman House, Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Exhibition: Tile Council of America Exhibition, New York, New York, Patio-Bathroom.
1954 -- Architectural projects: New London Railroad Station, New London, Connecticut; Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey; Grieco House, Andover, Massachusetts; Harnischmacher House II, Wiesbaden, Germany; Karsten House, Owings Mills, Maryland; Starkey House (formerly Alworth House), Duluth, Minnesota.
1955 -- Publication of book, Sun and Shadow: The Philosophy of an Architect, edited by Peter Blake. Architectural projects: New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, Train "X," Budd "Hot Rod," Budd "Flying Cloud," and ACF Talgo Locomotives and Passenger Cars, Rye Railroad Station, Rye, New York [1955?]; Connecticut Junior Republic Association Dormitory, Litchfield, Connecticut; Torrington High School, Torrington, Connecticut; Hunter College, Library, Classrooms, and Administration Building, Bronx, New York; Annunciation Priory, Bismarck, North Dakota; O. E. McIntyre, Inc. Plant, Westbury, Long Island, New York; Laaff House, Andover, Massachusetts; McGinnis Apartment, Biltmore, New York, New York; McGinnis House, Charlmont, Massachusetts. Exhibition: Good Design Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, Hyperbolic Paraboloid.
1956 -- Breuer moves his office to Third Avenue and 57th Street, New York. Breuer is the first recipient of La Rinascente's Compasso d'Oro Prize. Architectural projects: U.S. Embassy, The Hague, The Netherlands; Boston and Maine Railroad, North Station Industrial Building; Boston and Maine Railroad, Fairbanks Morse Locomotive and Passenger Cars; New Haven Railroad Station, New Haven, Connecticut; New York University, University Heights Campus, Bronx, New York; Torrington Manufacturing Company, Van Nuys, California; Wohnbedarf Furniture Showroom, Zurich, Switzerland; Hooper House, Baltimore, Maryland; Krieger House, Bethesda, Maryland; Staehelin House, Feldmeilen, Switzerland.
1957 -- Breuer receives an honorary doctorate from the University of Budapest. Architectural project: Westchester Reform Temple, Scarsdale, New York. Exhibitions: International Autumn Fair, Vienna, Austria, U.S. Pavilion; "Amerika Baut" ("America Builds"), Marshall House, Berlin, Germany.
1958 -- Breuer becomes a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Architectural projects: El Recreo Urban Center, Caracas, Venezuela; St. John's Abbey and University, St. Thomas Aquinas Residence Hall, Collegeville, Minnesota; Halvorson House, Dryberry Lake Area, Kenora, Ontario, Canada; Recreational Apartments, Tanaguarena, Venezuela. Exhibitions: "Ars Sacra" Exhibition, Louvain, France; Concrete Industries Exposition, Cleveland, Ohio, The Pavilion.
1959 -- Architectural projects: Whitby Elementary School, Greenwich, Connecticut; Ustinov House, Vevey, Switzerland. Exhibitions: "U.S. Architecture in Moscow," Moscow, U.S.S.R.; "1960 National Gold Medal Exhibition of the Building Arts," Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, New York, Photographic Displays of Various Breuer Projects; "Form Givers at Mid-Century" (traveling exhibition), Photographic Displays of Various Breuer Projects.
1960 -- Architectural projects: Flaine Ski Resort Town, Haute-Savoie, France; St. John's Abbey and University, Library, Collegeville, Minnesota; Brookhaven National Laboratory (for Nuclear Research), Upton, Long Island, New York; Torrington Manufacturing Company, Rochester, Indiana; Abraham & Straus Department Store, Facade, Hempstead, Long Island, New York; McMullen Beach House, Mantoloking, New Jersey.
1961 -- Architectural projects: St. Francis de Sales Church, Church and Rectory, Muskegon, Michigan; Temple B'Nai Jeshurun, Short Hills, Millburn Township, New Jersey; One Charles Center, Baltimore, Maryland; International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), Research Center, La Gaude, France; Fairview Heights Apartments, Ithaca, New York. Exhibitions: "Bauhaus" [location unknown]; "New Forms in Concrete," American Federation of Arts (traveling exhibition).
1962 -- Publication of book, Marcel Breuer Buildings and Projects, 1921-1961, by Cranston Jones. Architectural projects: Torrington Manufacturing Company, Machine Division, Torrington, Connecticut; Scarves by Vera, Showroom, Los Angeles, California; Kacmarcik House, St. Paul, Minnesota. Exhibition: "Fourth Biennale of Present-Day Christian Art," Salzburg Dome, Salzburg, Austria.
1963 -- Herbert Beckhard, Murray Emslie, and Hamilton Smith become partners in Marcel Breuer and Associates. Architectural projects: Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Headquarters Building, Washington, D.C.; Hoboken Terminal Building, Hoboken, New Jersey; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; Grand Central Air Rights Building, 175 Park Avenue, New York, New York; Torrington Manufacturing Company, Nivelles, Belgium; Koerfer House, Moscia, Tessin, Switzerland; Van der Wal House, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Exhibitions: "Recent American Synagogue Architecture," The Jewish Museum, New York, New York; "Churches and Temples: Postwar Architecture," American Institute of Architects, Pepsi Cola Gallery, New York, New York; "On Campus: Recent Buildings," American Federation of Arts (traveling exhibition).
1964 -- Breuer establishes an office near the Parc des Expositions, Paris, France. Robert F. Gatje becomes a partner in Marcel Breuer and Associates. Murray Emslie leaves, and Tician Papachristou joins Marcel Breuer and Associates. Architectural projects: Boston Redevelopment Parcel 8 Competition, Boston, Massachusetts; ZUP (Zone à Urbaniser par Priorité/"Zone Designated for Priority Urbanization") Community, Bayonne, France; New York University, University Heights Campus, Technology Building II, Bronx, New York; St. John's Abbey and University, Science Hall, and Auditorium, Collegeville, Minnesota; Yale University, Becton Center for Engineering and Applied Science, New Haven, Connecticut; St. Luke's Church, Fairport, New York; Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Washington, D.C.; Scarves by Vera, Showroom and Offices, 417 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York; De Gunzburg Houses, Megève, Haute-Savoie, France; Rufus Stillman House II, Litchfield, Connecticut. Exhibition: "Art in the United States" Part III, ("Architecture in the U.S.A."), Brearley School, New York, New York.
1965 -- Breuer's Paris office (Marcel Breuer Architecte) moves to 48 rue Chapon in the third arrondissement. Breuer's New York office moves to 635 Madison Avenue and 59th Street. Breuer suffers the first of a series of heart attacks while in New York in August. Architectural projects: Interama (Community for Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay), Miami, Fla.; Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) Headquarters, Washington, D.C.; State School for the Mentally Retarded, Nassau County, New York; Cardinal Stritch College (Tri-Arts Center), Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Mary College, Bismarck, North Dakota; University of Massachusetts, Murray Lincoln Campus Center and Parking Structure, Amherst, Massachusetts; Laboratoires Sarget, Corporate Headquarters and Pharmaceutical Plant, Bordeaux, France; Purdue Frederick Company, Corporate Headquarters, Bordeaux, France; Torrington Manufacturing Company, Swindon, England; Torrington Manufacturing Company, Administration Building, Torrington, Connecticut. Exhibition: "Architecture of Industry," Architectural League of New York, (traveling exhibition).
1966 -- Breuer and Robert F. Gatje move back to the New York office. Eric Cercler and Mario Jossa are left in charge of the Paris office. Architectural projects: Sports Park, Corona-Flushing Meadow Park, Queens, New York; Charlotte Hungersford Hospital, Torrington, Connecticut; Stables Competition, Central Park, New York, New York; St. John's Abbey and University, Student Residence Hall II and Student Center and Swimming Pavilion, Collegeville, Minnesota. Furniture design: Tapestries. Exhibitions: Svoboda & Company Furniture Exhibition," Selection 66," Vienna, Austria; School of Architecture Exhibition, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma; "Rugs," Stephen Radich Gallery, New York, New York; "Bauhaus: A Teaching Idea," Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1967 -- Architectural projects: Campus High School, Secondary Education Complex, Madison Park Urban Renewal Area, Boston, Massachusetts; Kent School, Girls' Chapel, Kent, Connecticut; St. John's Abbey and University, Ecumenical and Cultural Research Center, Collegeville, Minnesota; Cleveland Museum of Art, Education Wing, Cleveland, Ohio; Baldegg Convent, Mother House Institute, near Lucerne, Switzerland; Cleveland Trust Company, Bank and Office Building, Cleveland, Ohio; Grand Coulee Dam, Columbia Basin Project Third Power Plant and Forebay Dam, Douglas County, Washington; Geller House II, Lawrence, Long Island, New York; Kreizel House Addition, [location unknown]; Soriano House, Greenwich, Connecticut.
1968 -- Breuer is awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects. Breuer is awarded the Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture from the University of Virginia. Architectural projects: Olgiata Parish Church, Rome, Italy; Harrison-State Development Corporation, Office Building, Bristol Center, Syracuse, New York; Armstrong Rubber Company, New Haven, Connecticut; International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), Expansion of Headquarters Facility, Armonk, New York; International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), Offices, Laboratories, and Manufacturing Facility, Boca Raton, Florida; Scarves by Vera, Showroom, 1411 Broadway, New York, New York; Rosenberg House, [location unknown].
1969 -- Mario Jossa is made sole director of the Paris office. Architectural projects: West Queens High School, Long Island City, Queens, New York; Harvard University, Bio-Chemistry Building, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Boston Office Building, 60 State Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Exhibition: "Le Bauhaus: 1919-1969," Musée National d'Art Moderne et Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France.
1970 -- Breuer receives an honorary doctorate from Harvard University. Publication of book, Marcel Breuer New Buildings and Projects, by Tician Papachristou. Architectural projects: Australian Embassy, Paris, France; Bryn Mawr School for Girls, Baltimore, Maryland; State University of New York at Buffalo, Engineering and Applied Science Complex, Buffalo, New York; University of Virginia, Physics Building, Charlottesville, Virginia. Exhibition: ["Marcel Breuer"?], Szépmuvészeti Múzeum (Museum of Fine Arts), Budapest, Hungary.
1971 -- Architectural projects: Acquitaine Coast Resort, Port Contis, France; Atlanta Central Library, Atlanta, Georgia; Pine Ridge High School, Pine Ridge, South Dakota; Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, New York; European Investment Bank, Kirchberg Plateau, Luxembourg; Torin Corporation, Tech Center, Building 1, Torrington, Connecticut.
1972 -- Breuer suffers another heart attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. Breuer sells his house in New Canaan and moves to 63rd Street, New York. Architectural projects: Clarksburg Public Library, Clarksburg, West Virginia; Southern New England Telephone Company (SNET), Traffic Service Position; Systems Building, Torrington, Connecticut; American Press Institute, Conference Center, Reston, Virginia; Afghanistan Hotels, Kabul and Bamyan, Afghanistan; Picker House, Lake Carmel, New York; Saier House, Glanville-Calvados, France. Exhibitions: "Breuer en France," Knoll International, Paris, France; "Marcel Breuer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art" (traveling exhibition), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York.
1973 -- Architectural projects: Heckscher Museum, Expansion Project, Huntington, New York; Defendon Pharma, Limburg an der Lahn, Germany; Torin Corporation, Sculpture, Torrington, Connecticut; Torin Corporation, Assembly Plant, Lawton, Oklahoma; Gagarin House II, Litchfield, Connecticut; Rufus Stillman House III, Litchfield, Connecticut. Exhibition: "Marcel Breuer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art" (traveling exhibition), Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois.
1974 -- Architectural projects: Strom Thurmond Courthouse and Federal Office Building, Columbia, South Carolina; Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, Red Line Subway Expansion, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Exhibitions: "The Flowering of American Folk Art," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, Installation designed by Breuer and Hamilton Smith; "Marcel Breuer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art" (traveling exhibition), Centre de Création Industrielle, Pavillon de Marsan, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France.
1975 -- Architectural projects: Lawton Community, Lawton, Oklahoma; Mundipharma, Limburg, Germany; Andrew Geller Shoes, Inc., Showroom, New York, New York; Mt. Tochal Hotel, Tehran, Iran. Exhibition: "Marcel Breuer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art" (traveling exhibition), Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin-Charlottenburg, Germany.
1976 -- Breuer retires from practice. Marcel Breuer and Associates becomes Marcel Breuer Associates and later MBA/Architects and Planners. Architectural projects: Sadat City Ministries Complex, Cairo, Egypt; National Museum of American Amusement, [location unknown]; Torin Corporation, Penrith, Australia; Mideast Market (fish, meat, and vegetable market), Kuwait; Cairo Airport Hotel, Cairo, Egypt; Bratti House, New Canaan, Connecticut.
1977 -- Mario Jossa becomes a partner in MBA/Architects and Planners. Architectural projects: BAFO Warehouse, Springfield, Virginia; ITT Palm Coast Condominiums, Flagler Beach, Florida. Exhibition: "Art and Contemporary Architecture," David Findlay Galleries, New York, New York.
1978 -- Breuer receives the Grand Médaille d'Or from the Academy of Architecture, France. Architectural projects: Litchfield County Courthouse, Litchfield, Connecticut; Grand Coulee Dam, Columbia River Basin Project, Visitors Arrival Center, Douglas County, Washington.
1979 -- Architectural project: Boyarsky House, Lawrence, New York.
1980 -- Breuer receives an honorary doctorate from the Parsons School of Design. MBA/Architects and Planners moves to 26th Street, New York. MBA/Architects and Planners sells the Paris practice to Mario Jossa. Architectural projects: Pall Corporation, Headquarters and Parking Structure, Glen Cove, New York; Philip Morris, Inc., Manufacturing Facility, Cabarrus County, North Carolina; Pittsburgh Convention Center Hotel, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1981 -- Marcel Breuer dies on July 1 in New York City. Architectural projects: N F & M Corporation, Jericho, New York; Garces House, Cali, Colombia.
1982 -- Herbert Beckhard leaves the partnership in November. Architectural projects: Xerox Corporation, [location unknown]; General Electric Company, Waldorf Towers Apartment, New York, New York; General Electric Company, Chairman's Office Competition, New York, New York; General Electric Company, Corporate Guest Facility and Helipad, Lewisboro, New York.
1983 -- Partnership now called Gatje Papachristou Smith, and is located in offices on lower Fifth Avenue, New York. Architectural project: 44th Street Precinct House, Bronx, New York.
1986 -- Partnership of Gatje Papachristou Smith dissolved.
Related Archival Materials note:
Additional blueprints and drawings by Breuer are located at Syracuse University.
A presentation book for the IBM Research Center in La Gaude, France, is located in the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the Archives of American Art in five installments, 1985-1999, by Constance Breuer, widow of Marcel Breuer.
Restrictions:
The microfilm for this collection has been digitized and is available online via the Archives of American Art website.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Marcel Breuer papers, 1920-1986. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the microfilming of this collection was provided by the Gerta Charitable Trust. Funding for the digitization of the microfilm was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
An interview of Esther McCoy conducted 1987 June 7-Nov. 14, by Joseph Giovannini, for the Archives of American Art.
McCoy speaks of her childhood and early education; moving to New York in the 1920s; meeting and getting to know various writers including Theodore Dreiser; beginning her own writing career; her involvement in radical politics; the beginning of her interest in architecture; working as a free-lance writer; working with the builder, Tim Robert, as a draftsman; writing a novel about architecture; southern California's role in the development of modernism; writing for magazines in the 1940s; writing several books on architecture, including one on Richard Neutra; current trends in architecture.
Biographical / Historical:
Esther McCoy (1904-1989) was an architectural historian from Santa Monica, Calif.
General:
Originally recorded on 8 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 15 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hrs., 22 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
Occupation:
Architectural historians -- California -- Interviews Search this
Woman's Building (Los Angeles, Calif.) Search this
Container:
Box 10, Folder 11
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1975
Collection Citation:
Woman's Building records, 1970-1992. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Getty Foundation. Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by The Walton Family Foundation and Joyce F. Menschel, Vital Projects Fund, Inc.
An interview with James Ackerman conducted 1991 January 2, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Ackerman talks about his childhood in San Francisco in a wealthy family of German-Jewish descent; travels with his family in Europe; early exposure to art and art history; education at the Cate School, California; education at Yale University, 1938-41, including recollections of teachers and curriculum, especially the charismatic teaching of Henri Focillon; graduate work at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1941 and 1945-52, including curriculum and teachers such as Karl Lehmann, Richard Krautheimer, and Erwin Panofsky; World War II experience in signal intelligence; early publications and their fortunate effect on his career, and contrast of those who solely pursued facts and those who also have ideas.
Biographical / Historical:
James Ackerman (1919-2016) was an art and architecture historian from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hrs., 47 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Occupation:
Art historians -- Massachusetts -- Cambridge -- Interviews Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Sponsor:
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
New York University. Institute of Fine Arts Search this
Extent:
0.6 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
circa 1942-2011
Scope and Contents:
Teaching material, correspondence, writings, and photographs.
Teaching material includes lecture notes, lecture outlines, and writings from Ackerman's graduate student years at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts, ca. 1942-1950. Included are notes from courses given by Henry Russell Hitchcock, R. Krautheimer, Erwin Panofsky, Meyer Shapiro, Dimitri Tselos, and Martin Weinberger, mimeographed lecture outlines of various courses, and a 1 p. Christmas skit by graduates of the Institute.
Correspondence is with friends and includes emails. Writings include a notebook of commentary on works of art and architecture kept by Ackerman while he traveled in France and Italy in 1948, other travel notes and excerpts from diaries. Also included is a copy of "Shooting Palladio," Ackerman's account of the filming of "Palladio: the Architect and his Influence in America," based on a diary kept from 1977-1980, and a list created by Ackerman of drawings by Andrew Jackson Davis at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photographs are of works of art and one photograph is of Ackerman with others.
Biographical / Historical:
James S. Ackerman (1919- 2016) was an architectural historian in Cambridge, Mass. Ackerman was born in San Francisco and received his undergraduate training at Yale, and his M.A. (1947) and Ph.D. (1952) at NYU's Institute of Fine Arts. His studies were interrupted by his Army service in Italy during WWII, where he volunteered for the Monuments and Fine Arts service recovering the archives of the palace of Milan, which led to his Ph.D. study of Milanese Renaissance architecture. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley, 1952-1960, and at Harvard from 1961.
Related Materials:
Papers of James S. Ackerman, 1963-1975, are also located at Harvard University Archives.
Provenance:
Donated 1990, 1996 and 2011 by James Ackerman.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
This subseries documents McCoy's membership in the Society of Architectural Historians. Included are drafts of three presentations that McCoy gave at annual meetings, her correspondence with the organization, and documentation for two meetings in England, including program schedules, tour notes, and printed material. Also found are general organizational records for the society including reports, newsletters, minutes, and member lists. McCoy was a member of the SAH Tour Committee, and found here are several tour itineraries for the Southern California region.
Arrangement note:
Files are arranged alphabetically.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of audiovisual recordings without access copies requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Esther McCoy papers, circa 1876-1990, bulk 1938-1989. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Files consist of Henry-Russell Hitchcock's personal and professional correspondence, as well as subject files relating to academic research, teaching, curatorial interests, and professional associations. Subject files are comprised mainly of correspondence and printed material, with a small number of photographs that mostly relate to exhibitions and writings. After 1932, copies of Hitchcock's outgoing letters are almost always included, making the files from 1932-1987 almost complete.
The correspondence includes large numbers of letters from prominent architectural historians, architects, artists, preservationists, museum directors and curators. Also included is correspondence with students, friends, relatives, publishers, and representatives of organizations and institutions.
Among the correspondents of note are: Bernard Berenson, Eugene Berman, Leonid Berman, Lyonel Feininger, Brendan Gill, Robert Goldwater, George Howe, Lincoln Kirstein, J. J. P. Oud, Erwin Panofsky, Kingsley Porter, Paul J. Sachs, R. M. Schindler, Theodore Sizer, E. Baldwin Smith, Peter van der Meulen Smith, James Soby, Victor Spark, Harold Sterner, John Summerson, Virgil Thomson, Paul Vanderbilt, Theo Van Doesburg, Helmut von Erffa, and Gordon Washburn. Other important correspondents represented in a decade or more of correspondence include: Jere Abbott, Winslow Ames, Everett A. (Chick) Austin, Alfred H. Barr, Agnes Rindge Claflin, John Coddington, Walter Cook, John Coolidge, Henry (Harry) Sayles Francis, George Heard Hamilton, Ada Louise Huxtable, Philip C. Johnson, William Jordy, George N. Kates, Edgar Kauffmann, Jr., Richard Krautheimer, Phyllis W. Lehmann, Thomas J. McCormick, Agnes Mongan, Lewis Mumford, Nikolaus Pevsner, A. Kinglsey Porter, Willebald Sauerlander, Vincent Scully, Helen Searing, James Thrall Soby, Dorothy Stroud, John Summerson, Virgil Thomson, Emily Tremaine, Paul Vanderbilt, Rudolph Wittkower, and Frank Lloyd Wright.
See Appendix for a list of individuals, organizations, and subjects in Series 2
Arrangement note:
Files are arranged with a single alphabet for each year.
Appendix: Individuals, Organizations, and Subjects in Series 2:
Below is an index to individuals, institutions, organizations, and a small number of subject files, found in Series 2: Alphabetical Files. The index indicates the name and the alphabet year(s) in which each can be found.
Hitchcock did not follow strict alphabetical schema when organizing his files and filing eccentricities for the letters D, M, N, and V are explained below. The original arrangement has been left in place due to the difficulties and time involved in re-arranging the material within multiple alphabets.
Note on filing order for D's: Names beginning with the prefix "de" (e.g. De Cordova) are all filed before names beginning with the letters "de" e.g. Deerfield Academy.
Note on filing order for M's: Names beginning with the prefix "Mac" and "Mc" are all filed after names beginning with Ma. They are interfiled according to the first and subsequent letters following the prefix e.g. McIntyre, Mackay, McKean, MacLaren.
Note on filing order for N's: Proper names beginning with the word "new" (e.g. New American Library) are all filed before names incorporating the syllable "new" e.g. Newark Public Library.
Note on filing order for V's: Names beginning with the prefix "van" (e.g. Van Derpool) are all filed before names beginning with the syllable "van" e.g. Vancouver Hotel.
Ackerman, James S. (1948, 1952-1955, 1960, 1964, 1966)
Ackworth, Angus (1945)
Adams, Anthony (1960)
Adams, Florence B. (1948)
Adams, Frances S. (1965)
Adams, Frederick (1949)
Adams, Henry (1974)
Adams, Nicholas (1976-1978)
Adams, Philip R. (1952)
Addis, Reid M. (1974-1975)
Addison Gallery of American Art (1953-1954)
Addison, John (1982, 1984)
Adler, David (1928)
Agtmaal, J. G. van (1958)
African Studies, International Congress of (1978)
Ahda Artzt Gallery (1964)
Air Ministry (1946)
Aitken, Dott and Son (1946-1947)
Akron (1948)
Alabama Polytechnic Institute (1955)
Aladdin Office Services (1957)
Albany Institute of History and Art (1966, 1969)
Albers, Joseph (1946)
Albrecht, Otto (1927)
Albright Art Gallery (1947)
Albright-Knox Art Gallery (1962)
Aldrich, Frances T. (1948)
Alexander, Robert L. (1951, 1956-1958, 1960-1961, 1963-1965, 1967-1968, 1975-1977, 1986)
Alexander, Dr. and Mrs. Samuel Allen (1958)
Alexander, William (1968)
Alfa (1958)
Alfieri, Bruno (1959, 1964-1965, 1968-1969)
Alfonsin, Anthony (1983)
Alford, John (1946, 1955)
Alford, Roberta (1961)
Alinari (1958)
Allen, Mr. and Mrs. Eliot D. (1953)
Allen, F. P. (1961)
Allen, W.G. Russell (1945, 1947, 1952-1953, 1956)
Allen and Unvin, Ltd. (1978, 1980)
Allert de Lange, C. V. (1956)
Allison, George E. (1948)
Allstate Insurance (1948)
Altree, Guy (1975)
Altschul, Frank (1952)
Alumnae Association [Smith College] (1952) ( -- see also -- : Smith College Alumnae Association)
Ambassadeurs Club (1946)
America-Italy Society (1958)
American Academy in Rome (1950, 1958-1959, 1983)
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1953-1954, 1957-1958, 1961-1963, 1965, 1970, 1973, 1976, 1981)
American Antiquarian Society (1935, 1939, 1947, 1952, 1955)
American Architectural Books (1937, 1945, 1961)
American Association for State and Local History (1963)
American Association of Architectural Bibliographers (1958-1959, 1961, 1963-1964, 1966, 1970)
American Association of Museums (1952, 1955, 1962)
American Association of Schools of Architecture (1982)
American Association of University Professors (1948, 1981-1982)
American Association of University Women (1948, 1958)
American Automobile Association (1962)
American Collector -- (1947)
American Committee on Renaissance Studies (1954)
American Council of Learned Societies (1950, 1961, 1963, 1980)
American Embassy, London (1962)
American Express (1952, 1955)
American Federation of Arts (1942, 1947-1948, 1952, 1955, 1958, 1962, 1974)
American Friends Service Committee (1951)
American Historical Association (1942)
American Historical Review -- (1943, 1952)
American Institute of Architects (1942, 1945, 1948, 1950, 1952-1955, 1957, 1959, 1961-1962, 1964, 1969-1970, 1972-1973, 1978, 1980)
American Institute of Planners (1945)
American Life Foundation (1972)
American Museum in Britain (1961)
American National Theatre and Academy (1952)
American Peoples Encyclopedia -- (1953)
American Philosophical Society (1943)
American Quarterly -- (1949, 1952-1953, 1955)
American Science and History Preservation Society (1981)
American Scholar -- (1948, 1982)
American Society of Architectural Historians (1945-1947)
American Society of Planners and Architects (1946)
American State Capitols Research Project, Victorian Society in America ( -- see -- : Victorian Society in America, American State Capitols Research Project)
Burnham Library, Art Institute of Chicago (1945, 1971) ( -- see also -- : Ryerson and Burnham Libraries; Art Institute of Chicago; Chicago, Art Institute of)
Burns, Howard (1968)
Burns, John (1952, 1983)
Burroughs, T.H.B. (1967)
Burton, Christopher (1963)
Burton, Emily (1952)
Burton, Michael (1953, 1956)
Bush, Lucile (1965)
Bush, Martin H. (1963)
Bush-Brown, Albert (1952, 1956-1958, 1977)
Bush-Brown, Harold (1954, 1965)
Butler, Jeanne F. (1972)
Butler, L. D. (1967)
Butler, Ruth (1957)
Butterfield, Victor (1945, 1947)
Butterick, George F. (1978)
Cabral, Edward (1980)
Cadbury-Brown, John (1955)
Cadbury-Brown, H. T. (Jim) (1956, 1958)
Cahill, Fred V. (1957)
Cahn, Elizabeth (1977)
Calder, Sandy (1938, 1955-1956)
Caldwell, Ian (1975-1976)
Calendars (see: B.1955)
California (1965)
California Institute of Technology (1948-1949)
California Palace of the Legion of Honor (1950)
California, San Jose State University (1979)
California, University of (1951-1952, 1961, 1964, 1966-1967, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1980)
Callisen, Sterling A. (1941)
Callisen, Sterling A. and Sally (1945)
Cambridge [Mass.] Historical Society (1967)
Cambridge University (1962, 1964, 1966)
Campagnie Francaise d'Aeronautiques (1956)
Campanella, Gaspare (1970)
Campbell, Colin G. (1978)
Campbell, Malcolm (1975)
Canada, Atomic Energy Commission of (1973)
Canada Council (1971)
Canada, National Archives of (1956)
Canada, National Gallery of (1926, 1960)
Canada, Royal Architectural Institute of (1960)
Canfield, Abigail and Cass (1975)
Canner and Co. (1949)
Caples, Sara Elizabeth (1969-1970)
Car (European) (1965)
Car (1966)
Cardiff Public Library (1946)
Carey, Jane F. (1973)
Carey T. (1973)
Carlhian, Jean Paul (1952-1953, 1966, 1971, 1973)
Carling, E .B. (1947-1948)
Carlisle, Anna (1956)
Carlson, Ralph (1979)
Carnegie Book Shop (1952)
Carnegie Institute (1955, 1985)
Carnegie Institute of Technology (1947, 1954)
Carpenter, G. R. (1946)
Carpenters Company of Philadelphia (1973)
Carr, Gerald (1968)
Carre Gallerie (1947-1949)
Carrington, Robert (1953, 1970)
Carroll, Martha 1975
Carrott, Richard G. (1955-1956, 1959-1963, 1965, 1967-1969, 1971-1979, 1981-1986)
Carter, Amon E. (1960)
Carter Foundation (1961)
Carter, Lady Bonham (1956)
Carter, Edward C. (Bobby) (1926, 1944-1948, 1960)
Carter, Ernestine (1947, 1952, 1962-1963, 1968, 1978-1979, 1983) ( -- see also -- : Carter, John and Ernestine)
Carter, Gwendolyn (1952)
Carter, John 1941, (1946, 1948, 1952, 1954, 1959)
Carter, John and Ernestine (1936, 1945) ( -- see also -- : Carter, Ernestine)
Carter, Norman F. (1952, 1954, 1959)
Casabella-Continuita (1961, 1965)
Casanelles, Enric (1959)
Cascieri, Arcangelo (1954)
Case Western Reserve University (1972-1973)
Cassidy, Victor M. (1974)
Cassilly, Carolyn (1974)
Casson, Hugh (1948, 1955)
Cassy, Edmund J. (1964)
Cast Iron Architecture, Friends of (1970, 1973-1974)
Castano Galleries (1963)
Castro, Dicken (1955-1957, 1960-1961)
Catholic University of America (1963)
Catlin, Stanton L. (1952, 1956)
Catsoulis, Evangelos (1981, 1983)
Causey, Andrew (1983)
Cavanagh, Tom R. (1949)
Cement and Concrete Association (1954)
Center for Inter-American Relations (1969)
Central Corporate Library (1960)
Central Council for the Care of Churches (1955)
Central National Bank of Middletown (1946)
Central Office of Information (1955-1956)
Centrum (1963)
Century Association (1972-1973, 1975-1977, 1979-1980, 1982, 1984)
Chelmsford and District Chapter, Society of Architects (1962)
Cheltham, Charles (1962, 1964)
Chermayeff, Serge (1939, 1946-1948, 1950, 1954)
Chernow, Barbara (1982)
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Co. (1948)
Chevojon Freres (1956, 1958)
Chicago Architectural Landmarks, Commission on (1964)
Chicago Architectural Photographing Co. (1956, 1958, 1966)
Chicago, Art Institute of (1937, 1944, 1945, 1951, 1960, 1978) ( -- see also -- : Art Institute of Chicago; Burnham Library Ryerson; Burnham Libraries)
Chicago, Arts Club of (1951-1952)
Chicago Committee on Architectural Landmarks (1960)
Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks, Commission on (1969-1970, 1973, 1975)
Chicago School of Architecture Foundation (1967)
Chicago, University of (1947, 1953, 1957, 1961-1962, 1973, 1986) ( -- see also -- : University of Chicago)
Chickering, A. H. (1954)
Childs, Charles D. (1951-1952, 1955)
Childs, Maurice F. (1952, 1955)
Chittenden, A. J. (1947)
Christian Science Monitor -- (1948)
Christiansen, Erwin O. (1946)
Christmas Cards (1952, 1983, undated)
Church, Robert M. (1951-1952, 1954-1955)
Churchill, Agnes (1948)
Cincinnati (1969)
Cincinnati Art Museum (1955-1956, 1960-1961)
Cincinnati Astronomical Society (1935)
Cincinnati Modern Art Society (1948)
Cincinnati, University of (1966)
Cistercian Order (1958)
City Art Museum of St. Louis ( -- see -- : St. Louis, City Art Museum of)
City University of New York (1970, 1974-1976, 1978)
City [of Springfield, Mass.] Library Association (1954)
Ciucci, Giorgio (1970)
Claflin, Agnes Rindge (1948-1949, 1952, 1956, 1959, 1961, 1966, 1973, 1977-1978) ( -- see also -- : Rindge, Agnes)
Clapp, Verner W. (1953)
Clark Art Institute (1973, 1986)
Clark, G. R. (1946)
Clark, James (1973)
Clark, Orton Loring (1952)
Clark, Robert J. (1960, 1963-1971, 1974-1975, 1980)
Clark, Ronald W. (1956)
Clark, Susan (1975)
Clark, Willene B. (1976)
Clarke, M. L. (1962)
Clarke, Marian (1947-1948, 1950)
Clarke, Peter (1946)
Clausen, Meredith (1987)
Clayton, B. D. (1971-1972)
Clayton, Barry (1965)
Clerehan, Neil (1953)
Clews, Mrs. Henry (1955)
Clifton-Raymond Associates (1968)
Clifton-Taylor, Alec (1984)
Clinton [Conn.] Historical Society (1947)
Close, Elizabeth (1960)
Clough, R. T. (1959)
Club of Odd Volumes (1948-1950, 1952-1957, 1961-1965, 1968-1970)
Coddington, John (1945-1949, 1951, 1956-1957, 1959, 1961-1962, 1968-1970, 1977, undated)
Coe, Bill (1958)
Coe, R. E. (Ted) (1962)
Coe, Ralph T. (1953, 1955, 1974)
Coffin, David R. (1965, 1968, 1973)
Cogswell, Dorothy (1951, 1959, 1962)
Cohen, Alfred (1946)
Cohen, Joan L. (1954-1957, 1960, 1963-1965)
Cohn, David N. (1984)
Cohn, Suzanne (1968)
Colby College (1968)
Cole, Dorothy (1958)
Cole, Harry (1957)
Coletti, Joseph (1961)
Coletti, Paul (1957)
Colgate University (1976, 1978)
Colibris Editora Ltda. (1962, 1964-1965, 1967)
Colin, Mrs. Ralph F. ( 1955)
Collaborazione Culturale, Instituto per la (1962)
College Art Association (1940, 1946-1953, 1955-1959, 1961-1964, 1966, 1969-1971, 1973-1979)
Colliers Encyclopedia -- (1947-1949, 1958-1959)
Collins, Cecil (1956)
Collins, Colin (1955)
Collins, Elizabeth (1959)
Collins, George R. (1960-1961, 1964, 1968, 1975-1976, 1979, 1983)
Collins, Peter (1964-1965, 1967-1968)
Colonial Travel Bureau (1955)
Columbia Historical Society (1982)
Columbia University 1937, 1939-1941, 1945, 1947-1948, 1954-1956, 1958-1959, 1961, 1964-1969, 1971, 1973-1977, 1979-1983, 1985-1986 ( -- see also -- : Avery Library; Avery Study Center, Columbia University)
Columbia University, Temple Hoyle Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture (1984)
Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (1948-1949)
Colvin, Howard M. (1959)
Colwell, Miriam (1976)
Combs, Tom (1975)
Comite Francais D'Historie de L'Art (1967)
Commercial Credit Corporation (1947)
Committee for the Centennial Exhibition of New England Architecture (1957)
Committee for the Preservation of Architectural Records (1979)
Committee on Education and Labor, U. S. Congress (1954)
Committee on Government and Art (see: Government and Art, Committee on)
Community Arts Center (1945)
Community Chest (1958)
Comparative Studies in Society and History -- (1958)
Conant, Kenneth G. (1946-1947, 1952, 1973)
Concrete Quarterly -- (1955)
Condit, Carl W. (1963)
Condolence Letters [on death of mother] (1952)
Conference Board of Associated Research Councils (1948, 1951)
Congress on the History of Art, Twentieth International (1960-1961)
Conlon, Kathleen M. (1969)
Connaissance des Artes -- (1959)
Connecticut Automobile Assigned Risk Plan (1946-1947)
Connecticut College (1938-1942, 1944, 1947, 1953, 1956, 1963, undated)
Connecticut Commission on the Arts (1968)
Connecticut, Department of Agriculture (1937)
Connecticut State Department of Consumer Protection (1986)
Haskell, Douglas (1945, 1951-1952, 1954-1955, 1958)
Haskell, Henry C. (1946)
Haskell, Rosamund (1966)
Hasler, Charles (1962)
Hasselmann, Dorothy S. (1945)
Hatch, J. D. (1948-1949)
Hatchards Booksellers (1963-1964)
Hatje, Gerd (1959-1965, 1980)
Hattis, Phyllis (1966)
Hauf, Harold (1951)
Haupt, Otto (1963)
Hausen, Marika (1965-1966)
Haverkamp-Bergman, Egbert (1971, 1973)
Havinden, Ashley (1948, 1952, 1961)
Havinden, Margaret 1946, 1953
Havinden, Margaret and Ashley (1950)
Hawksmoor Committee (1962)
Hawthorne Books (1979)
Haydon, Harold (1961)
Hayes, Bartlett (1954)
Hayes, Marian (1954-1955, 1959, 1962, 1968, 1970)
Heath and Co. (1961)
Heaton, E. W. (1959)
Hecht, Jean (1956)
Hecht, Lynn S. (1962-1964, 1966)
Heckel, Louise (1960)
Hecksher, Morrison (1970, 1973-1974)
Hedge, Alice Payne (1948, 1953-1954, 1956, undated)
Hedge, E. Russell (1959-1963)
Hedge, Henry R. (1954, 1956-1958)
Hedge, Mrs. Henry R. (1953)
Hedge, Mrs. William R. (1947, 1953)
Hedrich, E. T. (1956)
Hedrich, J. O. (1969)
Heil, Bernard (1958)
Heilkamp, Detlef (1971)
Heimsath, Clovis B. (1952)
Heine, Georgette (1970)
Heintzelman, Arthur W. (1956)
Heinz, Thomas A. (1978-1981)
Heinzel, Brigitte (1967, 1969)
Heiser, Bruce E. (1953-1954)
Heisner, Beverly F. (1967)
Held, Mr. and Mrs. Julius (1965)
Heleniak, Kathryn Moore (1975)
Helm, Francis and Mary (1948)
Hemmenway, Mary (1948-1950, 1954)
Henderson, Pat Milne (1957, 1964) ( -- see also -- : Milne-Henderson, Pat)
Henderson, M. (1958)
Hendricks, Gordon (1967)
Henley, Helen B. (1941)
Hennessey, William J. (1975-1977)
Hennings, John (1955)
Henry (1973)
Henry, Anne Wythe (1972, 1975)
Henry, Barklie [Buzz] (1959)
Hentrich, Helmut (1957, 1959-1960, 1963-1976, 1978-1981, 1985)
Hentschel, Walter (1969)
Herald Tribune -- (1945)
Herbert, Gilbert (1970)
Herget, John T. (1960)
Hergert, Elizabeth (1963)
Heron, Patrick (1952-1954, 1956, 1979)
Herrmann, George (1960)
Herschman, Judith (1979)
Hersey, George L. (1959-1963, 1967-1968, 1971-1972, 1975
Hershberger, Howard (1960, 1961, 1963)
Herve, Lucien (1956-1957)
Herzog, Marion Rawles (1967, 1970)
Hesketh, Peter Fleetwood (1969)
Hesse (1956)
Hessler, Herman (1971)
Heyl, Bernard (1959-1963)
Hibbard, Don J. (1976)
Hibbard, Howard (1962, 1968)
Highest, Gilbert (1954)
Hill, Draper (1960)
Hill, Frederick and May (1968)
Hill, Oliver (1946, 1949, 1955)
Hiner, Walter (1946)
Hines, Thomas S. (1967, 1972, 1981)
Hirschl and Adler Galleries (1968)
Historic American Buildings Survey (1973)
Historical Society of Pennsylvania ( -- see -- : Pennsylvania, Historical Society of) -- History News -- (1963)
Hitchcock, Alice Davis [mother, Mrs. Henry Russell] (1925, 1940, 1942-1943, 1946-1950)
Hitchcock, Mr. and Mrs. Carl (1955)
Hitchcock, Charles D. (1940, 1971)
Hitchcock, Harriet (1963)
Hitchcock, Dr. and Mrs. Henry Russell [parents] (1928-1929, undated)
Hitchcock, June (1979-1980)
Hitchcock, Mrs. Peter S. (1964)
Hoag, John D. (1952, 1955-1956, 1959, 1961-1965, 1967-1968, 1970-1971, 1976)
Hochman, Elaine S. (1973, 1976)
Hodge, Alan (1957)
Hodge, Philip G. (1951)
Hodgkinson, Ianthe (1966)
Hofer, Philip (1945-1947, 1949, 1951-1952, 1959, 1961, 1968)
Hoffman, Donald L. (1964, 1969-1970, 1978)
Hoffmann, Werner (1956)
Hofstra College (1952)
Hogan, Austin (1940)
Hojer, Gerhard (1967, 1970, 1973)
Holcomb, Donald M. 1956
Holderbaum, James (1962, 1964, 1966, 1968)
Holdet, L. A. (1946)
Holdin, Harrison (1976)
Holiday Inn (1972)
Holland (1964, 1967)
Holland-America Line (1958, 1971)
Holman, William G. (1981)
Holmegaards Glasvaerk (1960)
Holmes, J. P. (1953)
Holser, Clifford B. (1952)
Holt, Rinehart and Winston (1972)
Holzbog, Tom (1967)
Homolka, Larry J. (1965-1967)
Hooker, Arthur (1952)
Honour, Hugh (1966)
Hood, Graham (1971)
Hooker, John (1953)
Hooper, S. C. (1954)
Hoover, Donald (1952)
Hoover, Kathleen O'Donnell (1948-1949, 1951)
Hope, Henry R. (1943, 1945-1950, 1954, 1957, 1959, 1962)
Hopping, D.M.C. (1955-1956)
Hordczak, Theodore (1956)
Horn, Estelle (1950)
Horn, Milton (1946, 1949, 1951-1952)
Horn, Walter (1958)
Horne, Mr. and Mrs. Bernard S. (1955)
Hornsey, Borough of (1946)
Horsburgh, Patrick (1952-1955)
Horta Committee (1960)
Hosken, Franziska Porges (1963)
Hotel Grande Bretagne (1961)
Hotel Inghilterra (1961)
Housend, Brian (1956)
House Beautiful -- (1928)
Housing (1945)
Houston (1959, 1967)
Houston, University of (1953-1954)
Howard, Charles (1956)
Howard, Tom (1945)
Howard University (1961-1962)
Howarth, Thomas (1953-1957, 1959-1960, 1962-1963, 1966)
Howe, George (1945, 1949, 1951, 1953)
Howe, Hester (1954, 1956)
Howe, Lawrence (1955)
Howe, Mrs. Lawrence (1945)
Howe, Stewart S. (1954)
Howe, Thomas C. (1953, 1954)
Howlett, D. Roger (1965)
Howland, Richard H. (1952-1954, 1959, 1961)
Hoyle, Henry D. (1969)
Hoyt, Deming (1960)
Hoyt, Natalie (1947, 1949-1951, 1956, 1959, 1963)
Hoyt, Nelly (1968)
Hubbard, L. Kent (1937)
Hubbard, R. J. (1959)
Hubbard, Ray (1978)
Hubbard, Russell (1949)
Huber, Erna (1963-1964, 1966, 1970-1971)
Huber, Erna and Charlie (1983)
Hudnut, Claire (1948)
Hudnut, Helen (1947-1948)
Hudnut, Joseph (1945, 1951)
Hudson River Conservancy Society, Inc. (1945)
Huemer, Frances (1955)
Huff, William S. (1958, 1965)
Hughenden Manor (1950)
Hughes, Richard (1953-1954)
Hughes, Talmadge C. (1945)
[Hugnet?], Georges (undated)
Hulst, Roger d' (1973)
Hulton Press (1957)
Hundertmark, Dieter (1960)
Hunn, Robert (1970)
Hunter, Anna C. (1955)
Hunter, Bob (1954)
Huntington, C. (1955)
Huntington, Constant (1952)
Huntington, David C. (1961, 1963-1965, 1967-1968, 1971)
Huntington, J. D. (1951)
Huntington, James L. (1954-1955, 1957-1959, 1963-1965)
Huntington, John (1955)
Huntington, Trudy (1952)
Huse, Norbert (1975)
Hussey, Alfred R. (1949)
Hussey, Mary (1954, 1962)
Huxley Brothers (1951, 1954)
Huxtable, Ada Louise (1947, 1950, 1957-1958, 1961-1962, 1969, 1971, 1982-1983)
Hyams, N. (1948)
Hyde Hall, Inc., Friends of (1965)
Hyman, Isabelle (1977)
Iber, Howard John (1972, 1974)
Illinois Institute of Technology (1950, 1954)
Illinois, University of (1947, 1949, 1965, 1979)
Ilmanen, William (1954, 1956)
Imperial Institute (1956)
Inaya, Beata (1956)
In the Nature of Materials -- (1968-1969) ( -- see also -- : Wright, Frank Lloyd)
Income Tax (1956-1957, 1972)
India International Center (1964-1965)
Indiana University (1948, 1953, 1966)
Indiana, University of (1945, 1961)
Indianapolis, Art Association of (1948)
Information Agency, U.S. (1955)
Information Service, U.S. (1961)
Inghilterra Hotel (1960)
Inglis, F. C. (1954)
Ingraham, David (1941)
Ingraham, Henry A. (1945, 1947)
Innendekoration (1963)
Inspector of Foreign Dividends (1956)
Inscoe, Eva Jane (1983)
Institute for Advanced Studies (1963)
Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (1975)
Institute of Contemporary Art (1948-1949, 1953-1954, 1956, 1961, 1963-1964, 1976)
Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (1949, 1956-1957, 1960, 1967) ( -- see also -- : New York University)
Institute of International Education (1955)
Institute of Landscape Architects (1952)
Instituto di Storia dell'Arte (1961)
Instituto Italiano di Cultura (1958)
Instituto per la Collaborazione Culturale (1965) ( -- see also -- : Collaborazione Culturale, Instituto per la)
Insurance (1970)
Insurance Company of America (1963)
Intercultural Publications, Inc. (1953)
International Architecture Students Conference (1949)
International Congress of African Studies (see: African Studies, International Congress of)
International Encyclopedia of Architecture, Engineering, and Urban Planning -- (1976-1977)
International Design Conference (1955)
International Information Administration (1952)
International Publications, Inc. (1954)
International Union of Architects, Sixth Congress (1960)
International University of Art (1970)
Ireland, Royal Institute of Architects of (1962)
Irving, Robert Grant (1968)
Irvy, Benjamin (1981)
Isham, Gyles (1954)
Isis -- (1961, 1964)
Isley, Natelle (1956)
Italian Institute (1956)
Ivins, William M. (1936)
Jack, William A. Park (1936)
Jackson, Esther (1953)
Jacobi, Frank (1952)
Jacobs Antiques (1948-1949)
Jacobs, Robert A. (1965)
Jacobs, Stephen (1966)
Jacobus, John [Jake] (1957-1962, 1964-1966, 1969-1971, 1980-1981)
Jacobus, John [Jake] and Marion (1963)
Jaffe, Michael (1952-1956, 1958-1964, 1966, 1968, 1973, 1977, 1986)
Jaffe, Ronald (1952)
James, Evan (1946)
James, George (1952)
James, Philip (1952, 1958)
Jamieson, K. I. (1953)
Janis Gallery (1949)
Janis, Sidney (1950)
Jansen, Dick (1953-1954, 1961-1962)
Jansen, Dick and Ellen (1955)
Janson, H. W. (1959-1962, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1983)
Janson, Peter (1978, 1982)
Jarrett, James (1958-1959, 1981)
Jeannert, Marie-Louise (1982)
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (1947)
Jemma, Manuela (1965)
Jenkins, Frank I. (1955-1956, 1958, 1960-1961, 1964-1967)
Jennings, Nancy Gillespie (1970)
Jerome Hotel (1955)
Jerome, T. T. (1947)
Jersey City, N. J. (1981)
Jewell, Jim (1953, 1956)
Joedicke, Jurgen (1963)
Johanneson, Eric (1969)
John, Dorothy (1954)
Johns Hopkins University (1952, 1965, 1967-1971, 1973-1975)
Johnson Art Collection (1926-1927)
Johnson, Buffie (1948)
Johnson, Donald Leslie (1977)
Johnson Gallery, Museum of Modern Art (1984)
Johnson, J. R. (1969)
Johnson, J. Stewart (1968, 1976)
Johnson, James R. (1946-1951, 1953-1954, 1958-1959, 1966, 1978, 1983)
Johnson, Laura (1945)
Johnson, Margaret (1952)
Johnson, Peter 1977, 1979
Johnson, Philip C. (1934, 1945-1967, 1969, 1973, 1975, 1978-1979, 1981-1983, undated) ( -- see also -- : -- Nineteenth Century American Architects -- [with Philip Johnson])
Neutra, Richard (1928, 1940-1941, 1954, 1969, undated)
Neville, Elizabeth (1964)
Neville, Richard G. (1958)
Neville, Harriett Elizabeth (1966)
New American Library (1952)
New Amsterdam Casualty Co. (1948)
New England Antiquities, Society for the Preservation of (1972-1973) ( -- see also -- : Preservation of New England Antiquities, Society for the; Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities)
New England Architecture, Committee for the Centennial Exhibition of (1957)
New England Quarterly -- (1955)
New Gallery (1963)
New Haven Festival of Arts (1959)
New Haven Preservation Trust (1964, 1966-1969)
New Jersey Historical Society (1962)
New Jersey Society of Architects (1957)
New Liberty (1952)
New London (1976)
New Mexico, University of (1957)
New Watson Hotel (1955)
New York Central Railway (1956)
New York City (1972)
New York City, Art Commission of (1983)
New York City Planning Commission (1972)
New York Graphic Society (1970
New York Herald Tribune -- (1947)
New-York Historical Society (1950-1951, 1961-1962, 1969)
New York State Association of Architects (1949)
New York State, Temporary Commission on the Restoration of the Capitol (1980-1981)
New York, State University of (1952)
New York Times -- (1947-1948, 1957, 1960-1961)
New York University (1945-1949, 1951-1954, 1958, 1960-1961, 1968-1986) ( -- see also -- : Gray Art Gallery; Institute of Fine Arts) New York University Seminar (1977, 1980)
Porter-Phelps-Huntington House, Inc. (1953, 1955-1957)
Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation (1962-1964, 1967)
Portnoy, Martin (1986)
Portsmouth Priory (1949)
Posener, Julius (1964-1966, 1968-1969)
Postmaster, Western District, London (1956)
Potter, Brooks ( 1956)
Potter, Inc. (1969)
Powell, Herbert ( 1963)
Powell, Philip (1952)
Powell, Philip and Moya (1954)
Praeger, Inc. (1962-1963, 1967-1971, 1973)
Prairie School Press (1963, 1966, 1968, 1970)
Prakapas, Eugene J. (1974, 1985)
Prats, Joan (1956)
Pratt and Whitney Aircraft (1945)
Praz, Mario (1955-1956)
Prentice-Hall, Inc. (1962)
Pre-Raphaelite Decorative Arts Exhibition (1971)
Preservation League of New York (1981)
Preservation of New England Antiquities, Society for the (1956, 1963, 1966) ( -- see also -- : New England Antiquities, Society for the Preservation of; Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities)
Preservation Society of Newport Co. [Rhode Island] (1948, 1955) ( -- see also -- : Newport Co. [Rhode Island], Preservation Society of)
Prestel Verlag (1975)
Preston, James (1963)
Preusser, Robert (1957)
Prey, Pierre du (1968-1969)
Preziosi, Donald (1981)
Price, Eric J. (1946)
Price, Paton (1949)
Priest, Allen (undated)
Primex Trading Co. (1950)
Prince, Charlotte (1969)
Princeton University (1945-1947, 1951-1952, 1955, 1957-1958, 1963, 1972, 1974-1978, 1985)
Prior, Harris K. (1947-1949, 1951, 1954-1956, 1962)
Reinhardt, Phyllis A. (1953-1955, 1960-1961, 1967-1968)
Reinhold Books (1957, 1959)
Reinhold Publishing Co. (1954)
Reinink, A. W. (1964, 1966-1967, 1969-1972)
Renaissance Conference (1945)
Renaissance Quarterly -- (1970)
Renaissance Society of America (1954, 1956-1958, 1961)
Renascence (1955)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1947, 1986)
Research Publications (1970-1971)
Residenz Verlag (1968)
Revista de Occidente Argentinia -- (1949)
Rewald, John (1977)
Rewald, S. (1976)
Rheinisches Museum (1958)
Rheinland Landschaftsverband (1956)
Rhode Island (1968)
Rhode Island Architecture -- (1939, 1968)
Rhode Island School of Design (1949-1950, 1952, 1956, 1982-1983)
Rhoads, William B. (1969)
Ribner, Jonathan (1979)
Rice, Davis and and Daley (1946-1949)
Rice Institute (1958)
Rice, Norman (1966)
Rich, Daniel Catton (1981)
Rich, Frances (1966)
Richards, Brian (1955)
Richards, Charles R. (1928)
Richards, Jim (1950, 1956)
Richards, Jim and Kit (1955)
Richards, John M. (1946, 1947, 1952, 1954, 1965)
Richardson (1956)
Richardson, A. E. (1945, 1954)
Richardson, Douglas (1971-1972, 1974-1976)
Richardson, Douglas Scott (1966)
Richardson, E. P. (Ted) (1953, 1955)
Richardson, H. H. (1974, 1978, 1982)
Richardson, Joseph P. (1973)
Richmond (1947, 1965)
Ricketson, John H. (1963)
Rickey, George W. (1961)
Rider, Fremont (1950)
Rietveld (1963)
Rijksmuseum (1956)
Rindge, Agnes (1930, 1945, 1947) ( -- see also -- : Claflin, Agnes Rindge)
Ringling Museum of Art (1948-1949, 1952)
Riopelle, Chris (1979-1982, 1984)
Ripley, Dillon (1958)
Ritter, John C. (1962)
Riverside, University of California at (1966)
Robb, David M. (1945, 1953, 1959)
Roberts, Abby B. (1941)
Roberts, Laurance (1959)
Robertson, Jacques (1955)
Robertson, Nancy (1959)
Robie House, Committee for the Preservation of the (1962-1965, 1967)
Robinson and Cleaver (1960-1961)
Robinson, Cervin (1962)
Robinson, Franklin W. (1981)
Roche, Kevin (1966, 1974-1975)
Rochester (1967)
Rochester Memorial Art Gallery (1949)
Rochester, Print Club of (1949-1950)
Rochester, University of (1970)
Rockefeller, Mr. and Mrs. David (1967)
Rockefeller, Mr. and Mrs. John D., 3rd (1955)
Rockefeller, Winston (1957)
Rococo Architecture in Southern Germany -- (1967-1968)
Rodman, Selden (1949)
Roe, Albert S. (1961)
Rollins, Clara B. (1950)
Romaine, Lawrence B. (1941, 1946-1953, 1955, 1958, 1961)
Rome (1959)
Roop, Ellen (1967)
Roos, Frank J. (1938, 1947)
Roosevelt University (1957-1958)
Rorimer, James J. (1955)
Roscoe, Field (1952)
Rose, Francis (1947, 1949-1954, 1956, 1964, undated)
Rose, Frederica (1955)
Rose, Laura (1976)
Rosebery, Earl of (1952)
Rosenberg, Arthur M. (1951)
Rosenberg, Eugene (1956)
Rosenberg, George (1976)
Rosenberg, Jim (1954)
Rosenblum, Robert H. (1952-1953, 1956-1969, 1972, 1982)
Rosenthal, Julius (1948)
Rosenwald, Lessing J. (1948)
Rosett, Francis (1957-1958)
Rosever, Kenneth M. (1952)
Ross, Marian Dean (1941, 1947, 1952-1954, 1956, 1960-1962, undated)
Ross, Marvin C. (1957, 1962)
Ross, Robert W. (1925, undated)
Roth, Leland (1970, 1973-1974, 1976, 1978, 1982)
Rothenberg, Jacob (1952)
Rowaan, H. (1963)
Rowe, Barbara C. (1958)
Rowe, Brian and Colin (1952)
Rowe, Colin (1953-1956, 1960-1961, 1964, 1977)
Rowland, Browse and Delbanco (1952)
Rox, Henry (1953, 1945)
Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (1955)
Royal Architectural Institute of Canada ( -- see -- : Canada, Royal Architectural Institute of)
Royal Automobile Club (1956)
Royal College of Art (1953)
Royal Institute of British Architects (1936, 1946-1957, 1959, 1962, 1968, 1970, 1975, 1981,1986)
Royal Society of Arts (1950, 1953, 1955-1956, 1959-1962, 1964, 1966-1967, 1969-1970, 1972, 1975-1976, 1978-1980, 1983, 1985-1986)
Royal Vangorcum Ltd. 1965
Rub, Timothy (1978-1982, 1986-1987)
Rubin, Don (1970)
Rubin, Joan Carpenter (1980)
Rudd, J. William (1961, 1963, 1966)
Rudisill, Richard (1964)
Rudolph, Paul (1950, 1952-1954, 1963-1964, undated)
Rueger, Charles (1954)
Rufford Travel (1954-1955)
Ruggie Agency (1949-1950, 1952-1955, 1961)
Rusch, Basil (1955)
Rusk, W. S. (1935)
Ruskin Society of America (1951, 1953)
Russell, A. LeBaron (1947)
Russell, Beverly (1975)
Russell, Christopher A. (1953)
Russell, Gordon (1956)
Russell, Mr. and Mrs. William G. (1954)
Russian Review -- (1955)
Rutgers University (1955, 1972-1973, 1982, 1985)
Rutledge, Anna Wells (1951, 1955, 1957, 1962, 1966)
Ryan Studios (1958)
Ryder, Arthur (1949)
Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, Art Institute of Chicago (1949) ( -- see also -- : Burnham Library; Art Institute of Chicago; Chicago, Art Institute of)
Saarinen, Aline B. (1962)
Saarinen, Eero (1957, 1963-1964)
Sabin Coal Co. (1954-1955)
Sachs, Paul J. (1925-1926, 1928, 1951-1952, 1955)
Saint, Andrew (1982, 1986)
St. George's Gallery Books (1959, 1964-1965, 1968, 1970, 1977-1978)
St. James Press (1978)
St. John's University (1961)
St. Louis, City Art Museum of (1961, 1966)
Salmon and Son (1954)
Salto Liberia (1962)
Saltonstall, Gladys (1928)
Saltonstall, Leverett (1953)
Salzberg Seminar in American Studies (1959)
Salzburg (1953)
Samoset Garage (1946)
Samson, Miles D. (1984)
Samuel, Godfrey (1948, 1952, 1956, 1959)
San Antonio Fine Arts Forum (1958)
Sanborn, Herbert J. (1960)
San Jose State University ( -- see -- : California, San Jose State University)
Smith, Alexander Mackay (1949) ( -- see also -- : Mackay-Smith, Alexander)
Smith and Sons (1953)
Smith, Anna L. (undated)
Smith, Betty (1928-1929)
Smith College (1946-1964, 1966-1973, 1975-1976, 1978, 1981-1982) ( -- see also -- : Department; Kennedy Fund)
Smith College Alumnae Association (1954) ( -- see also -- : Alumnae Association)
Smith, E. Baldwin (1946-1947, 1953)
Smtih, Edith (1928-1929)
Smith, Fred S. (1928)
Smith, Mrs. Frederick (1945)
Smith, G. E. Kidder (1957, 1961, 1963, 1965)
Smith, George Walter Vincent Museum (1961)
Smith, Gertrude D. (1972)
Smith, Hinchman and Grulls Associates, Inc. (1976)
Smith, Kathryn (1976-1980, 1983, 1986)
Smith, Linn (1947)
Smith, Meg (1972, 1974)
Smith, Patricia Anne (1950)
Smith, Peter van der Meulen (1927-1928)
Smith, Robert C. (1950-1952, 1956)
Smith, Sidney (1947)
Smith, Vincent (1971)
Smith, William and Son (1949)
Smithson, Peter (1966)
Smithsonian Associates (1975)
Smithsonian Institution (1967, 1976, 1979)
Smyser, H. M. (1965)
Smyth, Craig Hugh (1951-1952, 1956, 1983)
Snow, Florence (1955)
Snow, Wilbert (1945)
Snowden, Ernest (1927-1928)
Snyder, John (1974)
Soby, James Thrall (1945-1950, 1954-1955, 1957-1958, 1960-1961, 1968, 1977, 1979)
Soby, Nellie (1951-1953)
Societe Editions de France (1958)
Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities ( -- see -- : Long Island Antiquities, Society for the Preservation of)
Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (1948, 1972, 1975) ( -- see also -- : New England Antiquities, Society for the Preservation of; Preservation of New England Antiquities, Society for the)
Society of Architectural Historians (1949-1985, 1987)
Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (1958-1980, 1983-1986)
Society of Mayflower Descendants ( -- see -- : Mayflower Descendants, Society of)
Solomon, Arthur and Marny (1975)
Solomon, Pringle (1948)
Somerset Co. [N.J.] Park Commission (1970)
Somerwil, J. (1962)
Sommer, Clifford C. (1958)
Sommer, Frank (1970)
Sonne, Fi (1955-1956)
Sonnenberg, Benjamin (1972)
Sorem, Lucia (1961)
Soria, Martin (1958)
Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc. (1971, 1982)
Southern California, University of (1966, 1968)
Southern Regional Education Board (1966)
Spaeth, John W. (1945-1946)
Spark, Victor (1948, 1971)
Spear, Dorothea (1955)
Speed Art Museum ( -- see -- : Louisville, J. B. Speed Art Museum)
Speed, Herbert (1946)
Speirs, Bruce (1982)
Spence, Basil (1963-1964)
Spence, Eleanor (1954)
Spencer, Brian (1973-1974)
Spencer, Stephen (1956)
Spencer, Walter L. (1975-1976, 1978)
Sperling, Harry G. (1955)
Speyer, Darthea (1952)
Spokes, P. S. (1955)
Sprague, Joan Forrester (1960)
Sprague, Paul (1973, 1980, 1983)
Springarn, J. E. (1938)
Springfield [Mass.] (1980-1981)
Springfield [Mass.] City Planning Department (1971)
Springfield [Mass.] Museum of Fine Arts (1949, 1954)
Springfield [Mass.] Republican (1944-1945)
Springfield [Miss.] Art Museum (1949)
Staatsarchiv (1966)
Stabile, Elizabeth (1963)
Stadt Koln (1957)
Stahl, Frederick A. (Tod) (1969-1970)
Staib, Hermann (1966, 1968-1969, 1974)
Staley, Karl A. (1953)
Stamm, Gunther (1979)
Stamp, Gavin (1978, 1985)
Stanford University (1985)
Stanton, Phoebe B. (1952-1954, 1958, 1965, 1968, 1970)
Staples Press (1950)
Starr, Mrs. Nathan C. (1952)
State Department, U. S. (1955, 1956, 1958) ( -- see also -- : Department of State; United States Department of State)
State Department, U.S. Information Agency (1957)
State Historical Society of Wisconsin ( -- see -- : Wisconsin, State Historical Society of)
Stebbins, Theodore E. (1965-1969, 1972-1973, 1977-1978)
Wright, Frank Lloyd, Home and Studio Foundation (1977, 1984)
Wright, Frank Lloyd, and -- In the Nature of Materials -- (1941)
Wright, John Lloyd (1968)
Wriston, Barbara (1952-1953, 1956, 1960, 1962, 1967)
Wurm, Heinrich (1966)
Wurster, William W. (1943-1944, 1946,-1948, 1950, 1951-1957, 1959, 1961)
Wurster, William W. and Catherine 1945
Wyoming, University of (1975)
Xenakis, Jason (1958)
Yale Review -- (1966-1968, 1970)
Yale University (1947-1960, 1962-1963, 1965-1979, 1982, 1986)
Yardley, Michael (1975-1978)
Yeon, John (1954)
York City Art Gallery (1958)
York Institute of Architectural Study (1957-1959, 1961)
York, University of (1962, 1970)
Yorke, R.F.S. (1952)
Youell, William (1948)
Young, E. A. (1947)
Young, Elaine (1962)
Young, Elizabeth (1961)
Young, Paul E. (1949)
Young, Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred B. (1954-1955)
Youritzin, Glenda Green (1974)
Zacchwatowicz, Jim (1963)
Zador, Anna (1970, 1972)
Zarnecki, George (1953)
Zaroff, Anne T. (1975)
Zawisa, Bernard J. (1952-1953, 1956)
Zenith Corp. (1969-1970)
Zenobi Sarto (1963)
Zerkowitz, A. (1957)
Zevi, Bruno (1952)
Zewicher, Mrs. Victor K. (1950)
Zimmerman Brothers (1963-1966, 1969)
Zimmerman, Mrs. Isadore (1952)
Zodiac Revue -- (1959-1969)
Zorn, Kate (1979)
Zubarec, Michael (1956-1957)
Zwemmer, A. (1946-1948, 1955, 1959)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Henry-Russell Hitchcock papers, 1919-1987. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art
The papers of C. Malcolm Watkins provide comprehensive documentation of his professional career from 1934 to 1980. The collection documents his interest in early American
culture; his research on ceramics, historic archeology, and early California history; his curatorial and administrative activities in the Department of Anthropology, USNM,
and the Departments of Civil and Cultural History, NMHT; exhibits planning; and his role in professional societies
Series 1 consists of correspondence written and received by Watkins between 1941 and 1978. This large correspondence file documents his career at the Smithsonian, particularly
his interest in American material culture, especially ceramics, glass, and artificial lighting; historic archeology; teaching; and his role in professional societies. Correspondence
also documents exhibitions; restoration and identification of historic material; acquisitions; and museum administration. Correspondence files include magazine and newspaper
articles, booklets, photographs, graphic illustrations, and brochures.
Series 2 contains subject files, 1949-1979, documenting his research, exhibits planning, and professional society activities including his role in founding the Society
for Historical Archeology. These research files and those found in Series 5, 6, 7, and 8 document Watkins' work on early American culture, including the Marlborough and Jamestown,
Virginia, excavations; California early history and California Kitchen projects; North Devon pottery; Yorktown pottery; decorative arts; and American imports. Research files
include notes, correspondence, graphic illustrations, articles, photographs, site drawings, seminar and conference literature, and exhibit scripts.
Series 2 also contains information compiled by Watkins on historic sites, institutions dedicated to historic preservation and historic archeology, museums, and museum practices.
Museology files in Series 3 contain correspondence, brochures and pamphlets, newsclippings, and articles, reports, procedures manuals, proposals, and lecture notes.
Throughout his years at the USNM and NMHT, Watkins amassed a variety of material on the Smithsonian. The files in Series 4 document administrative policies; acquisitions;
ideas for departmental reorganization and future planning; Smithsonian Council meetings; the Smithson Bicentennial; exhibits including "Everyday Life in the American Past,"
"Artificial Lighting in America," and "A Nation of Nations"; symposia and seminars; Watkins' sabbatical; and general information on travel, teaching, and the Smithsonian Research
Foundation. Smithsonian files include memoranda, copies of reports, correspondence, notes, scripts, proposals, newsclippings, name and address lists, and articles. Series
9 documents his work on the "A Nation of Nations" exhibit.
The collection also includes a Series (10) on historical archeology mainly comprising the files of Marilyn Sara Cohen, a museum specialist working on the Historical Archeology
Project in the Division of Cultural History. It contains conference information, an interview with Watkins, correspondence, research notes, memoranda, and reports.
Historical Note:
C. Malcolm Watkins (1911- ) was born in Malden, Massachusetts, and developed an interest in early American material culture at a young age through the work of his parents
and grandfather. His mother, Lura Woodside Watkins, collected glass and pottery and published Cambridge Glass, 1818-1888 on the history of the New England Glass Company.
She later donated her extensive collection of kiln site pottery to the Smithsonian. Watkins' father, Charles H. Watkins, was interested in pottery as well. He participated
in the excavation of a site at Newburyport, Massachusetts, and collected potsherds. In addition, the inheritance of his grandfather's collection of lighting devices served
as an impetus for Watkins' research in artificial lighting techniques.
Watkins received his B.S. from Harvard College in 1934 and began his museum career as curator for the Wells Historical Museum (Southbridge, Massachusetts), the predecessor
of Old Sturbridge village (Sturbridge, Massachusetts). Watkins was its first curator, working there from 1936 to 1948, except for a leave of absence from 1942-1946 to serve
in the United States Air Force during World War II. In 1949, he began his career at the Smithsonian as an associate curator in the Division of Ethnology, Department of Anthropology,
United States National Museum (USNM). Watkins was responsible for the collections of American technology and decorative arts. When a separate Museum of History and Technology
was created in 1958, Watkins assumed responsibility for the new Division of Cultural History in the Department of Civil History, as curator (1958, 1960-1966) and supervisor
and curator (1967-1968). In this position, Watkins developed the national collections of American material culture, especially ceramics and glass. He also built the staff
of the Division and in 1969 achieved departmental status for Cultural History. He was appointed its first chairman, in addition to his duties as curator of Pre-Industrial
History and Ethnic and Western History. In 1973, he became senior curator of the Department of Cultural History, the position he held until his retirement in 1980. He continued
research as curator emeritus until 1984.
Watkins' wife, Joan Pearson Watkins, collaborated with him. From 1964 to 1977, she held the position of honorary curator, and from 1978 to 1979 she was an honorary research
associate. In 1980, she became a collaborator in the Division of Ceramics and Glass, a position she held until 1983.
During his career at the Smithsonian, Watkins worked on numerous exhibits. In 1955, he prepared an exhibition on "Folk Pottery of Early New England," which contained the
redware and stoneware from his mother's collection. The first large exhibition hall devoted to the history of everyday life in colonial and federal America was developed by
Watkins and opened in 1957 as part of the Exhibits Modernization Program. In 1964, a revised version of the hall opened in the new History and Technology Building as the "Hall
of Everyday Life in the American Past." Watkins was also involved in the construction of the "Growth of the United States" exhibit in the new museum, which represented the
material culture of the developing nation. The California Kitchen, found by Watkins and Pearson Watkins, was added to the exhibits in the History and Technology Building in
1965. In celebration of the Bicentennial of the American Revolution, Watkins contributed to the colonial section of the exhibition, "A Nation of Nations," which opened in
1976.
In addition to working on exhibits, Watkins spent much of his time acquiring and developing collections. His most important acquisition was the Arthur and Edna Greenwood
Collection of some 2,000 objects of Americana documenting everyday life in colonial America. Other major acquisitions during his tenure included the Remensnyder Collection
of American Stoneware and the Morgenstern Collection of early American material culture.
In addition to his curatorial duties, Watkins devoted much of his time to lecturing and writing scholarly and popular articles. His major publications include The Cultural
History of Marlborough, Virginia, North Devon Pottery and its Export to America in the 17th Century, and The "Poor Potter" of Yorktown, which he wrote with
Ivor Noel Hume.
Watkins was a pioneer in the field of historic archeology. He began his excavations of a colonial plantation at Marlborough, Virginia, with Frank M. Setzler in 1953 and
continued through 1969. Watkins also began excavations at the Jamestown, Virginia, site in 1955. In addition, he wrote and lectured extensively on historic archeology, served
as a consultant to numerous historic archeology projects, and was an active member of the Society for Historic Archeology, which he helped found.
In 1960, Watkins began his research on North Devon pottery imported to the United States in the 17th century, which led to a monograph on that topic. In 1965, he and Pearson
Watkins collaborated on an oral history project in Moore County, North Carolina, researching folk pottery traditions. In addition to Watkins' interest in ceramics, he also
spent considerable time researching early California history. Publications on this topic include James Johnston's White House in Half Moon Bay: An Example of Early Anglo-American
Reminiscent Architecture in California and New England in El Dorado: The Letters and Narrative Accounts of Robert and Caroline Batchelder Thompson, California Pioneers.
Watkins was active in numerous associations and societies including the Early American Industries Association, the Society of Architectural Historians, the National Trust
for Historic Preservation, the Western History Association, the California Historical Society, and the American Association of Museums. During the 1960s, Watkins also taught
for the American Studies Program at George Washington University.
For additional information on Watkins, see Record Unit 331, Department of Cultural History, 1954-1979, and undated, Records, and the C. Malcolm Watkins Interviews in the
Smithsonian Archives.
Chronology:
1911 -- Born in Malden, Massachusetts
1934 -- Bachelor of Science, Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts
1934-1935 -- Self employed as a free-lance writer on antiques
