
Guide to the Philip Howard Photographs
of the Racquet and Tennis Club
2018
PR-374
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024
(212) 873-3400
New-York Historical Society
Collection processed by Joseph Ditta
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on November 19, 2018
English using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Descriptive Summary
Creator: | Howard, Philip K. |
---|---|
Title: | Philip Howard photographs of the Racquet and Tennis Club |
Dates [inclusive]: | 2018 |
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. |
Quantity: | 1.75 Linear feet (one portfolio and one book in an oversize box) |
Call Phrase: | PR-374 |
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.
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.
Arrangement
The published volume and portfolio of archivally-printed photographs are housed in a single box.
Access Points
Document Type
- Photographic prints.
Subject Organizations
- Racquet and Tennis Club (New York, N.Y.)
- McKim, Mead & White
Subject Topics
- Tennis clubs -- New York (State) -- New York
Administrative Information
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.
Processing Information
Processed by Joseph Ditta, November 2018.
Container List
Container 1 | Container 2 | Title | Date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Box: 1 (of 1) | Volume : 1 | Book | Racquet and Tennis Club, 1918-2018
Scope and ContentsCommemorative book issued for the centenary of the Racquet and Tennis Club's building at 370 Park Avenue, with an introduction by Samuel G. White and 41 color and black-and-white photographs by Philip Howard. The book is unpaginated, so, in the list below, the archivist has supplied bracketed numbers that correspond to each photograph-and-caption's position in the volume. [01] | Clubhouse, built 1918 |
2018 | |
Box: 1 (of 1) | Volume : 2 | Portfolio | Archival prints
Scope and ContentsTwenty-seven 16 x 20-inch archival prints of Philip Howard's photographs from the book Racquet and Tennis Club, 1918-2018. None of the prints is identified; the captions in the list below are transcribed from the book. The numbers in brackets correspond to each photograph-and-caption's position in the published volume. [01] | Clubhouse, built 1918 |
2018 | |