Search

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).

The bulk of this collection consists of more than 22,000 black and white photographic negatives and more than 10,600 black and white photographic prints documenting commercial, institutional, religious, and residential architecture throughout the United States, with particular emphasis on sites in the mid-Atlantic region. These images date from the mid-1930s to Molitor's retirement in the mid-1980s, with the great majority of images created between 1946 and 1980. Also included in the collection are images of landscapes, industrial design, portraits, and events of personal significance to Molitor. In some select cases, color prints, color negatives, color transparencies, and 35mm slides are also available in addition to or instead of the black and white negatives and prints. Researchers are also advised that documents in this collection indicate that when faced with a lack of storage space in 1973, Molitor contacted clients to return inactive negatives that they had comissioned before 1955. In at least some cases, those clients declined to accept their negatives and Molitor subsequently destroyed the images. Thus, this collection has lacunae in the negatives series.