Archives to Avery Library/ Columbia University

[Tom]

Wondering what the mechanism might be for Avery to make their images accessible on WrightChat.
I'd think money would have something to do with it.
Wondering if online WrightChat access to those images could somehow be restricted to Conservancy members and Avery be paid a % of each membership fee.
I would certainly join the Conservancy in that case.
... and I think that would cause membership to jump considerably.

Some administrator with clout in the Conservancy needs to get on board
and help us here.

[Tom]

Oops
I didn't consider legal fees.
Oh well

[g.dorn]

Im wondering if anyone else has received any archive drawings, and if so what do you think of them.

I ask as the ones I have received- seem to me to not included a full set of construction drawings - but various working out of parts of the construction and early preliminary design studies.

Im kinda disappointed in that - I was expecting to see full set of construction drawings, and the various revisions as issued.

When I was at Taliesin West in 1994, Bruce allowed me to enter the "vault" and look at the archive drawings of my choosing. I can remember seeing full working drawings sets - fascinating stuff - I inparticular seeked out Jacobs II hemicycle.

[Matt2]

I'm sure copyright has something to do with the Avery's distribution of images. More accurately the copyright on Wright's drawings, but the lack of copyright on his architectural designs. It's confusing, but in Wright's era, drawings were protects but buildings weren't. So you could build a Wright design as long as you didn't copy his drawings (maybe just take the measurements from the drawings and create a new set of drawings). I still can't figure out why no architect has set up a "Wright Design" business and just offer Wright designs to customers.

[DRN]

A fellow FLWBC board member shared this with me:
The Avery Library has scanned and uploaded the black and white photos of many of the Wright drawings to Artstor in the Public Collections:

https://library.artstor.org/#/collection/100116947

Because of copyright, the images cannot be downloaded but they can be enlarged.

If you get lost on Artstor, go to Browse the collections and select the Public Collections.

Caution! This can be addictive...please remember to eat and use the bathroom occasionally.

Happy New Year!

[SDR]

Before I even go there, thanks DRN ! Happy New Year to you, and to all . . .

S

[Roderick Grant]

I got stuck on Number 1. I shall have to find an open 48 hours.

[jay]

Just....wow.
What a resource.
Thanks DRN...!

[SDR]

FYI, the search function works. I typed "Wright Walker" and selected "Search within results," and 31 sheets of the Mrs Clinton Walker project appeared.

S

[DRN]

Indeed it does...I typed Wright Hageman and found preliminary sketches and final CD’s for the unbuilt 1948 Arthur Hageman house. Hageman was the first version of the plan type Wright used for the Sweeton house...Schaberg was derived from this plan type as well, but the as built Schaberg version evolved to be significantly larger and more elaborate than Hageman or Sweeton.

I was interested to see Hageman’s site was similar to the Sweeton’s...a large flat portion with a steep drop toward the rear of the lot. I’m led to wonder if the similarities of the site caused Wright to choose this plan to offer the Sweetons. The fenestration was simplified and reoriented from the Peoria site to accommodate the sun angles at the NJ site, copper and stone became roll roofing and CMU, and two bedrooms became three.
Reuse of an unbuilt idea also allowed Wright’s studio to reduce design and engineering time and apply the effort to the CD’s for a relatively low budget house.

[SDR]

Notice on the site, for the record:

"This collection [19925 items] presents the majority of Wright's projects from 1895 through 1959, as captured through black and white reference photography originally produced by the Archives of the History of Art, the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities. A significant number of the original drawings, once owned by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and represented in this photography collection, are today housed in the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library (Columbia University) and co-owned by the Avery and The Museum of Modern Art."

S

[Matt2]

So are these new scans of the drawings, or simply scans of the photos the Getty took of the drawings decades ago. I've always wondered why the Getty hasn't put their drawings on line, but I assume copyright is still an issue. Does the Avery/Moma now own copyright to the drawings? Or did the Foundation keep that and continues to make money from the reproduction of such drawings?

[SDR]

Most of your questions are answered in the previous post, either directly or by inference. It's good to have some clarity on the issues.

S

[DRN]

The images in the link are photographs of the drawings taken at the FLW Foundation Archives years ago and saved as microfilm/microfiche at the Getty. These are the images one would receive in printed form from the Getty or the FLW Foundation when requesting copies of project drawings.

The Avery has scanned the images and posted them at the link. These are to my knowledge NOT new images of the 19,000-some drawings photographed earlier by the FLW Foundation & Getty. The posting of these images is however a revelation in that it is the first time a very large percentage of the Wright Archive is readily available for searching and viewing by the general public...the vast majority of the these drawings have not been published before.

[Matt2]

Decades ago, I worked at the Getty after the Wright archive had been photographed. It was the start of my Wright fascination. I could search the binders of 8x10" photos of drawings at my leisure...on a lunch break, or even coming in on the weekends to marvel at the vast quantity of amazing work.

I did worry about the resolution of the photos and how in today's world the drawings would be scanned at a much higher resolution.