Adler & Neilson Iron Work Company architectural drawings
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Date
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
Architectural iron work drawings on trace and waxed trace, from a Queens-based company spanning 70 years. Projects included work on the World Trade Center, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy Airports, International Design Center (IDC) in Long Island City, Brooklyn Army Terminal, Museum of Modern Art, retail and department stores, hospitals, racetracks, theaters, office buildings, private residences, hotels, and more.
Biographical / Historical
Queens, NY-based iron work company incorporated March 1920 by Mr. Adler and Henry C. Neilson, and later run by sons David H. Neilson (d. 2005) and Philip B. Neilson (d. 2014).
Alternate addresses for this company are 51 Clark St., Astoria, NY, (circa 1920), 76 Moultrie St., Brooklyn (circa. 1921-1925), and "Jessie Place near Queens Blvd." (after 1926). "Jessie Place" later became 51st Street, hence the firm's ultimate location at 45-48 51st St, Woodside, NY.
Arrangement
The files in the collection are foldered by project and run in a rough chronological order, with a few exceptions. These files appear to have been given letter designations at some point running in an alphabetical sequence of A-PP (though there are now gaps, especially in the earliest years), but it is not known what specifically that letter designation referred to. The container list presents the boxed content in this letter designation/chronological order. The box numbers assigned by N-YHS do not mirror the alpha sequence because the numbers were assigned to the boxes as found on the shelves as they were prepared for off-site storage.
Scope and Contents
57 boxes of folded architectural iron work drawings on trace and waxed trace, from a Queens-based company spanning 70 years. Local, tri-state and international projects include terminals at John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA), Brooklyn Army Terminal, Museum of Modern Art, retail and department stores, hospitals, racetracks, theaters, office buildings such as Rockefeller Center and the Federal Reserve Bank, private residences, hotels, and most notably, 4 boxes of World Trade Center drawings circa 1969-1973, Towers "A" and "B" and also buildings 5 and 6, floor by floor, staircases, elevators, etc.
Subjects
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Topics
Access Restrictions
Open to qualified researchers by appointment only. To schedule an appointment, contact the Print Room Librarian at printroom@nyhistory.org.
Use Restrictions
Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to 20 exposures of stable, unbound material per day. Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.
Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions
Preferred Citation
The collection should be cited as: Adler and Neilson Company Architectural Drawings, PR 415, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, New-York Historical Society.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The source of the materials is presumed to be the firm itself or one of its principals, but no record of the accession was found when the collection was inventoried in 2020.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The collection is in orderly condition but has not been processed. All drawings remain folded and in labelled folders, perhaps as originally received by N-YHS. In preparing the collection for offsite storage in 2020, reference librarian Jill Reichenbach did a complete inventory of the project folders in each box, which is presented in this finding aid.