Guide to the Architect & Engineer File1811-1989PR 003Processed by Susan Benz

Guide to the Architect & Engineer File
1811-1989

The New-York Historical Society
Two West 77th Street
New York, NY 10024

Contact: Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections
Phone: (212) 873-3400 ex. 228
Fax: (212) 787-9474

© 2000 All rights reserved.

New York University Libraries, Publisher

Processed by Susan Benz

Machine Readable Finding Aid derived from WordPerfect 8.0 created by Susan Benz December 2000. Description is in English.

2000 Electronic finding aid revised to local application guidelines by Susan Benz. 2001 Electronic finding aid conversion corrections finalized by Maurita Baldock.2003 archeng converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by one2two.xsl.


Descriptive Summary
	Title:	Architect & Engineer File
	Dates:	[1811-1989]
	Abstract:	The Architect & Engineer File is made up of diverse materials such as original drawings, reprographic copies of drawings (i.e. blueprints and lithographs), and photographic prints. Most items are arranged by architect, engineer or artist name; un-attributed work is filed by project name or building type. A large portion of the collection relates to identifiable locations or projects. For more general information see the collection listing in A Guide to Print, Photograph, Architecture & Ephemera Collections at the New-York Historical Society, by Helena Zinkham (1998), available at the Society.
	Quantity:	Over 1,500 drawings and over 1,500 photographs
	Call Phrase:	PR 003

Scope and Content Note

The collection includes more than 1,500 architectural and engineering drawings from 1811-1989. They are in many media, including ink and graphite drawings, renderings, sketches, blueprints, and lithographs; there are also more than 1,500 photographs. Of the approximately 1,400 entries in database, most entries represent one item or a group (less than 10) of related items.

Works by more than 150 locally and nationally prominent architects and engineers are represented. Designers include: Squire Whipple; Charles Bulfinch; Carrère & Hastings; Ernest Flagg; John Haviland; Peabody & Stearns; James Renwick Jr.; Richard Upjohn; Calvert Vaux; Edward Pearce Casey; Delano & Aldrich; Wendel Bollman; and Warren & Wetmore. There are usually fewer than 10 drawings by any one architect or engineer. However, the collection includes over 50 Gilbert Elevated Railway drawings, over 100 reprographic documents and original drawings by Henry P. Davidson, and over 100 residential elevations, floor plans, and ornamental detail sketches made ca. 1850 by Brooklyn architect James W. Martens.

The file also contains photographs taken in the early to mid-1900s of buildings designed by Delano & Aldrich. Architectural photography is arranged by the name of the architect. Photographers include Ray Warrender, J.P. Troy, Gilles, the Wurts Brothers, Mattie Edwards, Drix Duryea, C.G. Rice, Louis H. Dreyer, Samuel H. Gottscho, Stanley Gerad Mason, Thurman Rotan, and G.H. Nelson.

The file contains such diverse material as Interborough Rapid Transit Company subway system drawings; U.S. Capitol drawings by John Trumbull, ca. 1800-1820; engineering schemes for the Gilbert Elevated Railway, ca. 1875; estate landscaping plans by Schermerhorn & Foulks, ca. 1910; and designs for structures on Long Island by Christian F. Rosborg, 1920s-1930s. An 1858 plan for Central Park, drawn by George Waring, is also included.

The bulk of drawings and photographs feature New York architectural or engineering subjects. However, the file also includes drawings and/or photographs of: Memorial Continental Hall of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Alexandria Aqueduct, Walters Art Gallery, Olivet College buildings, the U.S. Chancellery building in Paris, and many churches located in Virginia, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maine, and Connecticut. Important New York subjects include: Castle Williams, Brooklyn Bridge, Astor Residence, American Radiator Building, Armory, Academy of Arts, Bowling Green Park, Battery Park, Carnegie Garden, City Hall, Halls of Justice, Customs House (Merchant Exchange), Union Square station, Manufacturers Trust Company building, Croton Aqueduct, Harlem River Bridge, Chapin School, Fort Diamond, New York Life Insurance Company Building, West Side improvement plans, New York sewers, Manhattan Market, Federal Hall, Apthorp Apartments, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, various residences, subway and transit lines, and commercial and factory buildings.

In 2002, Photographs taken by Raymond Hood and Arthur Jennings were removed from this collection and now constitute PR 135, the Arthur Bates Jennings Photograph Collection, and PR 148, the Raymond Hood Collection.


Arrangement
	These series are based on the name of the architect, engineer and/or artist; un-attributed work is arranged by project name or building type (i.e. churches of Brookline Massachusetts are filed in series number 181, name architect and/or artist is unknown). Related materials within series are grouped into sets. Miscellaneous architecture and engineering drawings are grouped and housed together.
	Hughson Hawley watercolor renderings are cataloged under series 035 with the exception of the renderings of The New-York Historical Society which are cataloged under the architecture firm Renwick, Aspinwall & Russell (series 092). Watercolor renderings of the Armory (Powell C. Karr, architect) and the New-York Life Insurance Company (McKim, Mead & White, architect) are cataloged under series 035. With the exception of the drawing mentioned above, Hughson Hawley renderings that are part of other collections, such as the Cass Gilbert collection or the Post collection, are not described in this database. Series 108 includes forts for which the architect/engineer/artist is unknown, except in the case of drawings by Henry Mehles which are also included in this series (name of fort unknown) and reproductions of miscellaneous fort drawings. Other series numbers are assigned to forts for which the architect/engineer/artist is known (see series 014 and 191). See also series 166 for fortification designs based on French models. Series number order does not correspond to the alphabetical order of names of the architects/engineers/artists.
	The collection is arranged in 232 series, alphabetically by architect, firm, or building.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers, by appointment only.

Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to 30 photocopies per day per person. Suitability of the original for photocopying is at the discretion of the staff. Neither blueprints nor tracings can be copied under any circumstances. Duplication of large-format items will be done by the house photographer. See Print Room guidelines for details.

Use Restrictions

Permission to reproduce any Print Room holdings through publication must be obtained from

Rights and Reproductions
The New-York Historical Society
Two West 77th Street
New York, NY 10024

Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282
Fax: (212) 579-8794

The copyright law of the United States governs the making of photocopies and protects unpublished materials as well as published materials. Unpublished materials created before January 1, 1978 cannot be quoted in publication without permission of the copyright holder.


Access Points

	Subject Names:
		Atterbury, Grosvenor
		Baxter, Charles
		Bollman, W. (Wendel), 1814-1888
		Bulfinch, Charles, 1763-1844
		Casey, Edward Pearce, 1864-1940
		Davidson, Henry P.
		Delano, William Adams, 1874-1960
		Dwight, Benjamin Franklin
		Eckman, Julius, 1805-1874
		Flagg, Ernest, 1857-1947
		Gilbert, Rufus H.
		Harkness, William
		Harrison, Henry G.
		Haviland, John, 1792-1852
		Hawley, Hughson, 1850-1936
		Hindley, William
		Latrobe, Benjamin Henry, 1764-1820
		Lienau, Detlef
		Martens, James W.
		Peck, Howard M.
		Rosborg, Christian F.
		Schermerhorn, Richard Jr.
		Thompson, Martin E.
		Trumbull, John, 1756-1843
		Tudor, Frederic
		Turnbull, Captain W.
		Upjohn, Richard, 1802-1878
		Vaux, Calvert, 1824-1895
		Walker, Joseph Jr.
		Whipple, Squire, 1804-1888
		Wright, Peter M.
	Subject Organizations:
		American Bridge Company
		Buffalo and New York City Railroad
		Carstensen & Gildemeister
		Delano & Aldrich
		Heins & LaFarge
		Interborough Rapid Transit Company
		Ludlow & Valentine
		Peabody & Stearns (Boston, Mass.)
		Skidmore Owings & Merrill
		Warren & Wetmore
		York & Sawyer
	Subject Topics:
		Apartment houses
		Bridges
		Carriage houses
		Churches
		City halls
		Commercial buildings
		Cottages
		Dwellings
		Elevated railroads
		Estates
		Factories
		Fortifications
		Historical societies
		Houses
		Libraries
		Monuments
		Municipal buildings
		Public buildings
		Railroad bridges
		Railroads
		Rapid rail transit systems
		Row houses
		Schools
		Societies' buildings
		Subways
	Subject Places:
		Baltimore, MD.
		Bedford, N.Y.
		Bronx, N.Y.
		Brooklyn, N.Y.
		Charlottesville, VA.
		Clarkesville, IN.
		Connellsville, PA.
		East Orange, N.J.
		Fordham Heights, N.Y.
		London, England
		Long Island, N.Y.
		New Brunswick, N.J.
		New Haven, CT.
		New York, N.Y.
		Newark, N.J.
		North Edisto, N.C.
		Olivet, MI.
		Philadelphia, PA.
		Portland, ME.
		Providence, R.I.
		Queens, N.Y.
		Rome, N.Y.
		South Orange, N.J.
		Staten Island, N.Y.
		Summit, N.J.
		Washington, D.C.
	Document Types:
		Detail drawings
		Lithographs
		Architectural drawings
		Blueprints
		Elevations (drawings)
		Engineering drawings
		Floor plans
		Photographs
		Plans (drawings)
		Renderings
		Technical drawings
		Watercolors
	Occupations
		Architects
		Engineers

Related Material

Works of Alexander Davis, Cass Gilbert, John McComb, Calvin Pollard, Emery Roth, Emery Roth & Sons, McKim, Mead & White, George B. Post, and John B. Snook are distinct collections. For drawings of N-YHS see both the Architect and Engineer File and the New-York Historical Society Pictorial Archive, as there is some overlap between the two collections. For William Strickland watercolors, see the N-YHS museum collection (American Landscape and Genre Paintings in the New York Historical Society). For John Haviland's drawings of the Doctor Wilson's Church, Washington Square Philadelphia, see the McComb sketch book on plans for altering steeple of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York, part of the N-YHS Manuscript Department. Naval architecture blueprints of Hudson River steamboats are in the Subject File. Architect's papers and some sketches are also in the Manuscript Department. Building renderings are also in the Department of Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts.

Abert, James William (See Warren, Gouverneur Kemble), (PR-003-196)

American Bridge Company (See Gilbert Elevated R.R.) (PR-003-24)

Baldwin Locomotive Works (See Gilbert Elevated R.R.) (PR-003-24)

City of NY Dept. of Parks Arsenal, Central Park, 3 items (PR-003-202)

Gilbert, Rufus H. (see Gilbert Elevated Railway), (PR-003-24)

Heins & LaFarge (see Interborough Rapid Transit), 6 items (PR-003-86)

Interborough Rapid Transit R.R. (IRT), 14 items (PR-003-86)

Latrobe, Benjamin Henry (See Bulfinch, Charles), (PR-003-66)

Lentze: Ernst und Korn [Publishing], 22 items (PR-003-104)

Lowell, Guy (see Schermerhorn, Richard Jr.), (PR-003-216)

New York City, Department of Parks, 2 items (PR-003-202)

Arlen Realty & Development Corp., 8 items (PR-003-206)

Atterbury, Grosvenor, ca. 152 items (PR-003-01)

Auchmuty & Ludlow, 1 item (PR-003-02)

Bancker, Gerard, 1 item (PR-003-191)

New York City Railroad (see also PR-003-175 & 178), (PR-003-218)

New York Department of Docks and Ferries, 1 item (PR-003-185)

New York World's Fair, Department of Constr., 13 items (PR-003-209)

N.Y.C.R.R., Buffalo & East Main Line, Syracuse Div. (see also PR-003-086), (PR-003-218)

Pratt & Tudor (see Gilbert Elevated Railway), (PR-003-24)

Pratt, T. Willis (see Gilbert Elevated Railway), (PR-003-24)

Public Service Commission 1st District (see NY Public Service Commission), (PR-003-86)

Schermerhorn & Foulks (see Schermerhorn, Richard Jr.), (PR-003-216)

Stokes, I.N. Phelps (Isaac Newton Phelps), 1 item (PR-003-72)

Transit Construction Commissioner, NY State (see RTRRR Commission), (PR-003-86)