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 collection documents Daniel Dunham's professional career as an architect, consultant, inventor, and educator. It includes numerous photographs, negatives, and slides created by Dunham or his daughter, Katherine, during his time as an educator or consultant in developing nations. It includes work related to his research in solar energy, low-cost housing construction, and worker housing. Professional correspondence and letters written by former students requesting references and assistance to American universities proliferate. Articles and reports written by Dunham are present, as well as sketches and reproductions of his architectural drawings, though, it should be noted, there is limited original architectural drawings for his major projects in East Pakistan/Bangladesh. Syllabi and lecture notes are included. Dunham also created a number of albums or self-bound volumes, which are preserved in their original form and include drafts, letters, sketches, charts, photographs, article clippings, and other content; their respective interior organizations are left to the researcher to decipher.
Series I is composed of records related to Dunham's professional work as an architect, and primarily includes photographs, negatives, slides, and reproductions of architectural drawings. It is organized geographically, with the exception of Subseries 4, which includes material related to a MoMA exhibition.
Dunham's architectural career was primarily concentrated in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) where he was Chief Architect of the local office of Berger Engineers Ltd. (later known as the Louis Berger Group) from 1960-1962. Here, Dunham designed and/or oversaw the construction of Rajshahi University, Mymensingh Agricultural University, Barisal College, various Thana (village) administrative officer housing, and most famously, Kamalapur Railway Station in Dhaka. This station was featured in the Museum of Modern Art's 2022 exhibition The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia. Correspondence and photographs compiled by Dunham's daughter, Katherine D. Dunham, and his biographer, Rafique Islam, related to the exhibition are included in Subseries 4. Also included are various correspondence and articles by architectural organizations (such as DOCOMOMO, the Institute of Architects Bangladesh, and Niklaus Graber) and the MoMA curators, Martino Stierli and Sean Anderson, calling for the preservation of Kamalapur Railway Station after government announcements for its demolition. Included in Subseries 1: East Pakistan, are pages from his portfolio documenting these projects, which he submitted as part of his Wheelwright Prize application (the remaining application can be found in Series V: Personal Papers).
Also included in this series are smaller residential projects in both India and New York, which are represented primarily through sketches, photographs, and small-scale reproductions of architectural drawings.
A gap in this series is original full-scale architectural drawings.
Series II comprises the bulk of the collection as it is concerned with Dunham's long-spanning career as an architectural consultant for projects in developing nations. It spans the "development decades" of the 1960s and 1970s, with smaller consultancies occurring in the 1980s. It includes sketches, field notes and notebooks (some "hand" bound), photographs, numerous slides, negatives, reproductions of architectural drawings, as well as drafts of reports, finalized published reports, and albums/bound volumes compiled by Dunham that include newspaper clippings, charts, calculations, itineraries, maps, as well as the already noted material. Each consultancy groups' related correspondence is located in its respective subseries and is primarily concerned with project logistics and travel information, though some are cursorily personal exchanges between colleagues. The series is organized geographically and then chronologically. It includes work conducted in East Pakistan/Bangladesh, India (with cursory reference to Sri Lanka), Mauritania, Somalia, Djibouti, Jamaica, Nepal, and housing for Afghan refugees in Quetta, Pakistan. Material is primarily in English, with a significant portion in French, and some in Bengali.
The majority of Dunham's consultancy work was concerned with coastal flooding and cyclone relief in both East Pakistan/ Bangladesh and the Caribbean and alternative energy sources in Africa. Dunham worked for a number of different international aid organizations, including, but not limited to: the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Ford Foundation, Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA), Institut Supérieure d'Etudes et de Recherches Scientifiques et Techniques (ISERST), the World Bank, and Save the Children. While formally in these roles, Dunham also engaged in side projects, such as his project for latrines and prototype housing.
Dunham authored or co-authored a number of reports for these organizations, which are included in this series. He also authored a manual, distributed by VITA, on low-cost housing techniques, Manual for Building with Chala Capor in Bangladesh. Also of note are Dunham's design for low-cost precast reinforced concrete latrines for "rapid improvement of sanitation in underdeveloped areas," and the related correspondence with their manufacturer, a Mr. Mukulesh Mitra.
In both Mauritania and Djibouti, Dunham collaborated on alternative energy projects, and he designed an applied energy center and the buildings for the Institut Supérieure d'Etudes et de Recherches Scientifiques et Techniques (ISERST) research. He also designed a community center in Somalia and authored a manual on construction for maritime desert climates. It was in these locations that Dunham's interest in solar energy collided with his role as a consultant.
While in Africa, Dunham designed prototype houses that were named after his local colleagues. The housing was to be built for foreigners and intended for later conversion to local use. They were part of the United States Agency for International Aid (USAID) project at the Sani Oasis. Drawings were likely drafted by Katherine Dunham who lived on site with her father.
Series III is related to Dunham's role as an educator, a role he held throughout the majority of his career. The series includes syllabi, lecture schedules, lecture notes, slides, exams and assignments, bound volumes of course readings, and student and faculty correspondence, the majority of which concern Bangladeshi students requesting advice and references for American universities and jobs. His work as a professor in New York, Bangladesh, and China is represented to varying degrees. His lecture notes for courses at Columbia and CCNY are included, but there is minimal student correspondence. Contrarily, his work in Bangladesh is expressed almost exclusively through student correspondence. Ironically, his shortest teaching position in Yunnan is the most exhaustive collection, including lecture notes, exams, student work, and student correspondence.
Beginning in 1962, Dunham left the Dhaka office of Louis Berger to teach at the newly formed East Pakistan University of Engineering and Technology (EPUET; now BUET) as a professor of architecture. The faculty of architecture was established with aid from Texas A&M, which provided syllabi, resources, and visiting professors. Dunham was a popular professor, attested to by the student correspondence present in Subseries 1, which also includes material related to the faculty's fiftieth anniversary.
After completing his masters in planning at Columbia University, Dunham began teaching courses at Columbia in planning and solar energy. He served as an adjunct professor from 1972-1985. Present in Subseries 2 are lecture notes, syllabi, exams, lecture posters, and correspondence related to his Columbia courses "Solar Energy and the Architect" and "Planning in Developing Nations." Also included are some secondary material published by the Graduate School of Architecture and Planning course bulletin and Magazine of Columbia University April 1982 issue in which Daniel Dunham's course on solar energy is featured in an article by Meg Lavigne. The correspondence related to the solar energy course is primarily with guest lecturers. There is also correspondence with Herbert C. Morse II regarding the use of a grant from the Leighton B. Morse and Daisy Irene Lutz Morse Memorial Fund that provided funding for the course and the purchase of relevant literature for the library.
From 1985 until his retirement, Dunham taught at the City College of New York, where his course on Tropical Architecture was particularly popular. Subseries 3 includes lecture notes, syllabi, assignments and other papers from his time teaching at CUNY. Also included in this series are papers related to his popular "dollar-a-day" assignment.
Subseries 4 documents Dunham's time in teaching in China. In 1987, Dunham was a visiting professor in Yunnan, China, where he taught architectural and planning history. His wife, Mary Frances Dunham, taught English, and their daughter, Katerine D. Dunham served as a teaching assistant. Present are both Daniel and Mary Frances's notes on students, rosters, student assignments, and correspondence to students after they left.
Finally, Subseries 5 includes cursory material on lecturers Dunham gave at other institutions, such as the South Asian Institute, the Asia Society, Carnegie Mellon, Hunter College, Barnard College, and Princeton University.
Series IV: Professional Papers
Series IV is composed of Dunham's publications, workshops, and inventions, all of which are organized topically then chronologically. In the 1980s and 1990s, he attended a number of workshops on bamboo construction and solar energy in Myanmar and Thailand. Subseries 3 is concerned with his inventions related to solar energy and nocturnal radiation. Some of this work was conducted during his tenure at the School of Tropical Architecture (AA) and as a Fulbright Scholar. His research on solar cookers was carried out in partnership with John Duffie (the first director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Solar Energy Lab) and was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Daniel Farrington was a frequent collaborator and correspondent. Included are a patent, research articles, "hand-made" bound volumes of research, United Nations reports on alternative energy, sketches, photographs, and correspondence. Some of this work was conducted during Dunham's consultancies, such as the solar distillers in Mauritania. On a humorous note are sketches for a hot dog cooker that Dunham made with his family on beach trips. Also present are regularly updated curricula vitae, which provide a thorough account of his various roles; as well as lists of his publications, consultancies, and built-works compiled by Mary Frances Dunham.
Series V primarily consists of Dunham's student work, and includes seminar essays for his Master of Planning at Columbia University, his diplomas, and his application for the Wheelwright Prize. Subseries 2 is related to his doctoral dissertation on mess housing in Bangladesh, which he never completed. Present here are manuscripts, the surveys he conducted, binders of his research, and correspondence, primarily between a Mr. Abdul Hamid who conducted the surveys and a Mr. Marshall Bear who coordinated their relationship. Dunham's interest in mess housing among single male workers began during his time as a professor at EPUET. There are surveys and sketches conducted by his students as well as photographs related to mess housing.
Finally, general correspondence includes personal letters, the majority of which are with Bangladeshi acquaintances seeking advice for employment or travel to the United States. Correspondence also includes numerous letters Dunham wrote to manufacturers regarding defective products, from glue to calendars to pressure cookers.
Series VI: Katherine D. Dunham research papers on mess housing
Series VI are Katherine D. Dunham's papers related to her Master of Planning thesis on mess housing, which was a continuation of her father's research. It includes her field notebooks, sketches and maps of mess housing, research material, and surveys similar to those conducted by her father. Katherine's thesis was concerned with female workers' housing, but the surveys present here almost entirely report on males.
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.
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.
Daniel C. Dunham papers, 1955-2021, Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.
Katherien D. Dunham donated other papers related to Daniel Dunham's work to other institutions:
For papers related to Dunham's tenure as professor at EPUET/BUET, contact the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Head of the Faculty of Architecture.
For papers related to Dunham's lobbying efforts during the Bangladesh Liberation War, contact the Bangladesh War Museum.
For papers related to Dunham's work on the Latrine Project in Calcutta, India, contact the Rockefeller Archive Center, which holds the Ford Foundation records.
For papers related to Dunham's student work see the Frances Loeb Library collections at Harvard GSD and the AA Archives.
For researchers interested in Dunham's time in Dacca, see the memoir by Mary Frances Dunham and Katherine Dunham entitled Some Weep, Some Laugh: Memoirs of an American Family in Dacca 1960-1967, which can be found on the website created in honor of Mary Frances Dunham.
This collection was donated by Kate Dunham in 2022 (acq. 2022.004)
Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
This collection was processed by Zachary Torres (Graduate Student Intern) in 2023.
Daniel C. Dunham was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1929. He was adopted. From an early age, he was an avid traveler, hitchhiking back and forth to the East Coast. In 1950, he earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin where he was a dual major in both physics and art. Dunham, who worked as a cleaner to pay for his studies, would tinker in the physics lab during his shifts, which drew the attention of Professor John Duffie. With Duffie and Daniel Farrington, Dunham developed an interest in invention and solar energy, and in 1957, he and Duffie filed a patent for a solar energy cooker. Throughout his career, Dunham would return to the solar cooker, developing a number of variations and related products, such as a solar distiller. However, the solar cooker was never picked up by a manufacturer.
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, he studied at the Ecole americaine des beaux-arts in Fontainebleau, France, where he met his future wife, Mary Frances Raphael, who was enrolled in the music program. Afterwards, he worked odd jobs, and it was while working for an American air base in Morocco when someone suggested Dunham should become an architect. After writing to Harvard University, he was enrolled at the Graduate School of Design where he met Max Bond, Jr. with whom he would have a long professional and personal relationship. During his time at Harvard GSD, Dunham became involved in the Construction Workshop, where he developed a fascination for thin-shelled concrete. This interest would later come to fruition in his work on the Kamalapur Railway Station. He earned his Masters of Architecture in 1959 and then immediately set off for London, where he studied at the School of Tropical Architecture on a Fulbright Scholarship. For his coursework, he returned to Morocco to conduct research in North Africa on temperature regulation in traditional courtyard houses, and this research would inform his later interest in nocturnal radiation and solar energy. His first article, "The Courtyard House as Temperature Regulator," emerged from this work and was published in The New Scientist in 1960.
After graduating from Harvard and the AA, he was hired by Louis Berger to head their new office in Dhaka, Bangladesh–then East Pakistan. Dunham and Berger maintained a life-long personal relationship, even after Dunham left his employment after only two years. Yet, it was during his tenure as Chief Architect that Dunham completed the bulk of his architectural work. He designed master plans and buildings for the Rajshahi University, Mymensingh University, Barisol College, and, most famously, the Kamalapur Railway Station. In 2022, the latter was included in the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition on "decolonial" architecture in South Asia. He also developed numerous designs for rural villages.
While in Dhaka, Dunham, his wife, Mary Frances, and daughter, Katherine, lived like locals, eschewing the foreigners' housing complexes. His designs were likewise sensitive to the needs of vernacular traditions and he involved his students in prototyping. Shaheen Choudhury Westcombe described Dunham's architecture as "simple, practical, and environmentally friendly and respected the local traditions." Dunham and his family also became fluent in Bengali. He also wrote for local newspapers in Dhaka to instruct construction professionals on best practices.
In 1961, Dunham was invited to help establish the first faculty of architecture at the nascent East Pakistan University of Engineering and Technology (EPUET; now BUET), in collaboration with the US Technical Assistance Program and Texas A&M University, which provided the curriculum and visiting professors. Dunham worked with Richard Edwin Vrooman (first dean of BUET) and James C. Walden to teach architecture history and studios. Other Texas A&M University professors who were at BUET at the time include Jack Yardley and Samuel T. Lanford. According to Da Hyung Jeong, who wrote the catalog essay for the MoMA show, Dunham was "convinced that a sound architectural education was of paramount importance to the nation's future" and he "played a paramount role in training the subsequent generation of architects." Indeed, Dunham would maintain correspondence with his students–and their students–for years to come. During the Bangladesh Liberation War, Dunham lobbied the United States Congress against supplying military aid to West Pakistan, and his latrine project for Calcutta was related to the large influx of Bangladeshi refugees into the city. Katherine Dunham donated material related to this lobbying effort to the Bangladesh War Museum. In 2013, the Government of Bangladesh honored Daniel Dunham (posthumously) and Mary Frances Dunham for their contribution to the 1971 War of Liberation.
While holding this role until 1967, he began consulting for organizations like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Ford Foundation. It was during this consulting work that he developed an interest in planning. Thus it was in 1967 that Dunham and his family returned to the United States so he could complete a Masters of Planning at Columbia University. During this time, he continued as a consultant for various organizations, such as the Ford Foundation, Save the Children, USAID, and the United Nations. Upon earning his masters in 1971, he became an adjunct professor and taught courses on urban planning for developing nations, environmental design and solar energy. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Dunham extensively traveled back to Bangladesh, Mauritania, Somalia, Djibouti, the Caribbean, and other nations. He worked for Volunteers in Technical Assistance, Save the Children, and USAID on alternative energy projects and flood disaster relief and was known as "USAID's cyclone man." Letters from his Somalia project praise Dunham's quick work, good work, and friendly attitude to everyone involved, including "domestic help," and his attention to local details. In other correspondence, he is referred to as the leading expert on developing nations' planning needs.
All the while, he continued teaching and iterating on solar cookers and solar distillers. In 1987, as part of an exchange program between Columbia GSAPP and Yunnan Institute of Technology, Dunham and his family relocated to China where he served as a visiting professor for three months. He taught four courses on the history of city planning, while Mary Frances taught English and Katherine served as a teaching assistant.
Throughout the early 1970s, Dunham also pursued a doctorate degree in planning at Columbia. His well-documented research was concerned with "mess" housing for single male workers in Bangladesh–a topic he initially became interested in while teaching at EPUET. Though he completed a manuscript, he never completed the doctorate as he was actively engaged in teaching and preferred the "real-world" work of his consultancy projects to academic writing.
In 1985, Dunham followed Max Bond to the City College of New York's School of Architecture and Environmental Studies (now the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture). Dunham taught courses on tropical architecture.
In the 1990s, Dunham also became interested in bamboo construction techniques and attended workshops in Myanmar and Thailand–though, photographs from his time in Dhaka indicate that this was a longer-term interest.
Daniel C. Dunham died in New York City on 19 December 2000.
Sources:
Islam, Rafique. Daniel Dunham: Pioneer of Modern Architecture in Bangladesh. Scottsdale, AZ: The Book Patch, 2013.
Jeong, Da Hyung. "Kamalapur Railway Station." In The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947-1985, curated and edited by Martino Stierli, Anoma Pieris, and Sean Anderson, 202. New York City: The Museum of Modern Art, 2022.
Westcombe, Shaheen Choudhury, MBE and Mary Frances Dunham. "The Legacy of Architect Daniel C. Dunham's Teaching in Bangladesh." Daniel C. Dunham Papers, Box 2, Folder 15, Fiftieth Anniversary International Seminar on Architecture: Education, Practice and Research, Dept. of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.
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