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More than 120 architects from the United States and abroad contributed original drawings to this collection. Most are hand-drawn; some are printed through traditional etching or lithography techniques; a few others are computer-generated prints. Images are primarily related to the architects' projects, although some drawings are travel sketches of other structures. Drawings in this archive were exhibited at the Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery and the Arthur Ross Gallery at Columbia University, Apr. 3-May 4, 1991. At least one drawing from each contributor was published in the accompanying exhibition catalog, CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS (San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1991).

Included are drawings made by Avery while studying under Jules Andre at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and sketchbooks containing sketches made in Paris and on excursions, 1872-1879. Architectural drawings and photographs of architectural drawings for proposed or executed residential and commercial buildings, churches, art galleries, monuments, and other structures, 1880s; competition drawings for public monuments, 1883-1887; experimental studies, 1885, for the pedestal of Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty; and 39 studies and finished drawings, 1888-1890, made for a competition for a memorial for Ulysses S. Grant which he did not win. Also, magazine articles by or about Avery and his work, 1883-1890; obituaries and death announcements, 1890; miscellaneous photographs, certificates, and papers; and invitations, clippings, illustrations, and photographs, circa 1892-1894, relating to the founding of the Avery Architectural Library at Columbia University.