This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information and to make an appointment, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
The Charles Over Cornelius papers are in two series. Series I documents his professional life as an architect and associate curator of American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Series II is made up of personal papers. Much of the material is undated, although some catalogs and correspondence are dated 1931-1932, around the time he resigned from The Met in February of 1931. The professional folders include manuscripts of his first book, "Furniture Masterpieces of Duncan Phyfe," and more writings on Phyfe that were possibly used in the exhibition and the catalog. There are architectural drawings from an alteration and a restoration project that Cornelius worked on. There are a few pages of notes in several of his mostly blank, pocket-sized notebooks. The bulk of his papers are photographs, postcards and glass negatives of houses and furniture, some of which he used in his books and others for restoring colonial or pre-Civil War properties for his clients. There are vendor communications and invoices that dealt with his restoration work. In his personal papers, there are almost 90 letters from his sister, mother, and brother-in-law sent mostly between 1921 and 1930.
The Cornelius papers were separated from the donated papers of Arthur C. and Mariam Y. Holden. Arthur C. Holden was a principal in the architectural firm of Holden, McLaughlin & Associates where Cornelius was an architect in the latter part of his career.
1921-1932
This collection is made up of two series: Professional Papers and Personal Papers.
This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information and to make an appointment, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
Columbia University is providing access to the materials in the Library's collections solely for noncommercial educational and research purposes. The unauthorized use, including, but not limited to, publication of the materials without the prior written permission of Columbia University is strictly prohibited. All inquiries regarding permission to publish should be submitted in writing to the Director, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For additional guidance, see Columbia University Libraries' publication policy.
In addition to permission from Columbia University, permission of the copyright owner (if not Columbia University) and/or any holder of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) may also be required for reproduction, publication, distributions, and other uses. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of any item and securing any necessary permissions rests with the persons desiring to publish the item. Columbia University makes no warranties as to the accuracy of the materials or their fitness for a particular purpose.
Charles Over Cornelius papers, 1921-1932, Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.
Source of acquisition--Arthur C. Holden.
Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
This collection was processed by R. Brenessa Rovere (Library Intern) under the supervision of Shelley Hayreh, Avery Archivist, in 2012.
2012-12-18 File created.
2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.
Charles Over Cornelius (1890-1937) was born in Sewickley, PA and died in Irvington-on Hudson, NY. He was an architect who was also an associate curator of American art at The Met. Among his known architectural projects was the renovation of Dey House in Wayne, NJ, which served as Washington's headquarters during 1780. Prior to that project, he received the commission to design a library at Blair House in Washington, D.C. in 1920.
Cornelius received his B.A. from Princeton in 1913, and his B.S. from MIT in 1916. That same year, he entered the architectural practice of Frank A. Colby in New York. In 1917, he was hired by the Metropolitan Museum, and became an Assistant Curator in the Department of Decorative Arts in 1918. In 1925, he was appointed Associate Curator of American Art. While at The Met, he consulted with clients on their private collections. He resigned from The Met in February, 1931, and around that time was an associate in the architectural practice of Holden, McLaughlin & Associates in New York.
In 1922, he curated the first exhibit at The Met to be devoted to one cabinetmaker, in"Furniture from the Workshop of Duncan Phyfe" and he would write"Furniture Masterpieces of Duncan Phyfe." In 1924, R. T. H. Halsey and Cornelius would write"A Handbook of the American Wing" a publication of The Met about the American Wing building which is devoted entirely to American art of the colonial, revolutionary, and early republican periods. In 1926, he would write"Early American Furniture" and contribute to"Mahogany, Antique and Modern: a Study of its History and Use in the Decorative Arts.".
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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Box 1 Folder 1
Chapters 6 & 7 are missing.
Box 1 Folder 2
1922 Met exhibition text includes miscellaneous notes with historical timeline.
Box 1 Folder 3
Summary on Duncan Phyfe.
Box 1 Folder 4
4 blueprints: one each of first floor, second fllor, roof, and elevation.
Box 1 Folder 5
24 blueprints; and 14 drawings of plan, column base and baseboard.
Box 1 Folder 6
2 pencil on trace drawings.
Box 1 Folder 7
2 photographs and 2 pencil and color pencil drawings on trace paper.
Box 1 Folder 8
16 items: 4 notebooks includes drawings, building details, history, house tour notes, decorative arts/porcelain, and 12 miscellaneous notes/drawings.
Box 1 Folder 9
With Vendors and Clients.
Box 1 Folder 10
Box 1 Folder 11
6 items : The Karl Freund Collection (includes letter from Mabel Lindsay Gillespie possibly to furnish her property, Langdon Farm in Sherwood, Maryland, dated May 18, 1932); Charak Furniture; Selections from the Work of Simons and Lapham, Architects (Charleston, South Carolina); MOMA's catalogue, Modern Architecture for Interational Exhibition (1932); Ginsburg & Levy, Inc.'s list, Cabinet-Makers in Colonial and Early Federal America.
Box 2 Folder 01
13 items, most with details of where the paint was used in which section/room of the American Wing of the Met.
Box 2 Folder 02
Some of the silhouettes were used in his "Early American Furniture" book.
Box 2 Folder 03
11 photographs
Box 2 Folder 04
27 photos (including 9 stuck together), 14 negatives, 9 glass negatives (including 1 broken), and Antiquarian Magazine reprint of early American Franklin stoves
Box 2 Folder 05
113 photographs, 38 negatives, 9 postcards of Dey House, Baron Stiegels House, Delaware Bank, Modern House, Jackson House, among others that are unidentified.
Box 2 Folder 06
Haddon Hall photograph album of 16 pictures, and separately, 9 postcards.
Box 2 Folder 07 to 08
102 commerical photographs and 167 postcards.
Box 3 Folder 01 to 02
68 letters from sister, mother, brother-in-law (Thomas King Whipple), Katharine Cornelius (first wife?), Jessie Baxter Black, and Alfred L. Donaldson.
Box 3 Folder 03
Check registers (2), check holder, deposit receipts, professional memberships, invoices, stock purchases
Box 3 Folder 04
Family, friends, boat trip.
Box 3 Folder 05
3 items: phone list [possibly from Holden collection?]; The Architectural Record, Volume 81, Number 5, May 1937; The Texaco Star, July-August 1932 issue.