Search

The collection includes over 140,000 pages of correspondence, which serves as a core resource for understanding Wright's personal and professional activities, relationships, and ideas. The correspondence also includes project records such as specifications, contracts, supply orders, invoices and receipts. Letters from the 1880s through the 1920s accounts for only 2% of the total correspondence in the collection (approximately 2,000 documents). The bulk of the correspondence is from the 1930s until Wright's death in 1959.

This collection includes over 300 film reels which have been digitized. By format, the collection contains 179 16mm film, 109 8mm film, and 17 35mm film. While the inclusive dates of the collection range from 1922 to 1984, the bulk of the films are from the 1930s into the 1960s. Footage includes home movies of Wright and family, life and events of the Taliesin Fellowship, and informal site and building visits. The collection also includes documentaries on Wright's career and projects, as well as professional produced interviews and talks by Wright and promotional coverage of his built works.

There are over 10,700 photographic items in the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives related to Frank Lloyd Wright's personal life and the Taliesin Fellowship. This collection also includes portraits of Wright and his family members. Contact the department for further information.

Also, correspondence with Norman Bel Geddes, Monroe Biddle, John M. Blair, Harry T. Carman, Carolyn K. Christenson, Joseph S. Clarke, Jr., Thomas H. Creighton, Paul Cret, C.C. Cunningham, F.G. Fassett, Jr., Loring Dowst, John E. Harbeson, Oliver Hall, Jared C. Ingersoll, Gaylord P. Harnwell, William Fontaine Jones, Joseph Judge, William Lescaze, John D. Morse, William F. Paris, Charles E. Peterson, Ruth C. Roberts, Henry Shapiro, Oscar Stonorov, J.J. Sweeney, James M. Willcox, Owen J. Wister, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bruno Zevi, and others. This relates to proposed development of air rights over New York City's Pennsylvania Railroad Station, 1955; architectural projects in Pennsylvania relating to mental health, 1955; proposed new Independence Mall Building in Philadelphia, 1955; the 1954 Boston Art Festival Architectural Exhibit; sculpture committee on the design of the Ella Butt McManus monument, Connecticut, 1954-1955; the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, building designed by Howe & Lescaze (with related memoranda, manuscripts of articles and talks, press releases, and architectural analyses), 1930-1939; and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, St. Louis (with related printed material, clippings, and photograph)

This collection contains materials related to a full range of Blake's personal, professional, and academic lives. The bulk of the collection dates from the 1980s through the early 2000s. His professional and faculty papers document many of his interests, and primarily include published and unpublished lectures and articles. Although Blake delivered his lectures at various architectural schools in the United States and abroad, the specific locations of the lectures are not usually recorded on the documents. In addition, many articles he wrote for publication appear as annotated typescripts. There are also significant papers related to publication of his memoir No Place Like Utopia (Knopf, 1993), including correspondence and some production records. Throughout the professional and faculty papers are also found a large number of reference files relating to modern architecture, art, design, urbanism, technology, and current events, compiled over many decades. The collection also contains correspondence with personal friends, clients, and professional and academic colleagues. There is an especially significant amount of correspondence and clippings related to Patwant Singh, a Sikh writer, commentator, journalist, editor, and publisher, with whom Blake was a close friend. There are also many materials including correspondence, typescripts, and book production records related to Philip Johnson and Paul Rudolph, with whom Blake was also close. Architectural project records include original and reprographic drawings and photographs for 40 residential and institutional designs, located primarily in New York City and the surrounding region. Of particular note are drawings and papers related to Blake's important Pin Wheel House (1954) in Water Mill, New York. In addition, there are drawings related to the American National Exhibition in Moscow (1959). Finally, there is a significant number of drawings, photographs, and correspondence related to the Benjamin Gerson Residence (1999-2003) in Johnsonburg, New Jersey, one of Blake's last architectural projects.