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Philip Howard photographs of the Racquet and Tennis Club

Call Number

PR 374

Date

2018, inclusive

Creator

Howard, Philip K.

Extent

1.75 Linear feet (one portfolio and one book in an oversize box)

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

A portfolio of twenty-seven 16 x 20-inch archivally printed photographs by Philip Howard of the exterior and interiors of the Racquet and Tennis Club at 370 Park Avenue, a McKim, Mead & White-designed building completed in 1918. Also includes a book containing the same photographs and 14 additional views.

Biographical / Historical

Before moving in 1918 to its current home at 370 Park Avenue, the still males-only Racquet and Tennis Club (organized in 1875 and incorporated in 1890) occupied two previous Manhattan locations: 55 West 26th Street and 27 West 43rd Street. The latter, where it moved in 1891, was designed specifically for the club's purposes ("to encourage all manly sports among its members") by architect Cyrus L.W. Eidlitz. The area, which came to be called the "clubhouse district," included a number of other membership organizations, among them the Century Club, the Harvard Club, and the New York Yacht Club. Construction in 1912 of the 18-story Aeolian Hall on the south side of West 43rd Street blocked sunlight to the courts of the Racquet and Tennis Club, prompting the organization to move once more. In 1916 member Robert K. Goelet proposed building and leasing a new clubhouse to the organization on land he owned on the west side of Park Avenue between West 52nd and West 53rd Streets. The club accepted Goelet's plan, and through him commissioned a neo-Italian Renaissance style palazzo designed by architect William Symmes Richardson (1873–1931) of the prestigious firm of McKim, Mead & White. The building was constructed between 1916 and 1918 and officially occupied by the Racquet and Tennis Club on 15 April 1918. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the exterior structure an official landmark on 8 May 1979. For more on the club's history and its building's design, see the designation report.

Attorney, author, and photographer Philip K. Howard has been a member of the Racquet and Tennis Club since 1983. To mark the centenary of the Club's occupancy of its Park Avenue building in 2018, Howard photographed the building's façade and interiors in color and black-and-white using a circa 1950s Burke & James 8 x 10-inch view camera. His process is more fully described on the final page of Racquet and Tennis Club, 1918-2018 (Volume 1 in the container list, below). For more on Howard, visit his website at philipkhoward.com.

Arrangement

The published volume and portfolio of archivally-printed photographs are housed in a single box.

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of a portfolio of twenty-seven 16 x 20-inch archivally printed photographs by Philip Howard of the exterior and interiors of the Racquet and Tennis Club at 370 Park Avenue, a McKim, Mead & White-designed building constructed 1916-1918. Also included is a book of the same photographs, with 14 additional views—Racquet and Tennis Club, 1918-2018—issued for the centenary of the organization's occupancy of the building.

Conditions Governing Access

Open to qualified researchers.

Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to twenty exposures of stable, unbound material per day. (Researchers may not accrue unused copy amounts from previous days.)

Conditions Governing Use

Permission to reproduce any Print Room holdings through publication must be obtained from: Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 270. Fax: (212) 579-8794.

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as the Philip Howard Photographs of the Racquet and Tennis Club, PR-374, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, The New-York Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Philip Howard, 2018 (accession no. PPAC-2018-038). Credit line: Philip Howard.

Related Materials

The New-York Historical Society's Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections holds specifications for the Racquet and Tennis Club in its McKim, Mead & White Architectural Record Collection, PR-42, Series III, Box III.51, Folder 5, and Box III.52, Folders 1–2.

For more on the club itself, see George M. Rushmore's 1962 Racquet and Tennis Club: Some History and Some Memories (call no. F128 GV997.R2 R8), and the organization's Club Book for scattered years between 1880 and 1975 (call no. F128 GV997.R2 A2).

Collection processed by

Joseph Ditta

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:47:32 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: English

Processing Information

Processed by Joseph Ditta, November 2018.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024