Collections : [Avery Drawings & Archives]

The collection consists of papers related to the personal and professional life of American architect Ely Jacques Kahn. A small amount of personal papers was transferred from the Arendts Library at Syracuse University in 1992. Additional personal papers, including two large scrapbooks, were donated by Liselotte Kahn, wife of Ely Jacques Kahn, in 1992 and 1993. Also found in this collection are student drawings and an incomplete autobiographical essay, donated to Avery Library by Kahn himself in 1963. Completing the Kahn holdings are personal materials from Ely Jacques Kahn, including drawings done while Kahn was a student at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in Paris (1907-1908), sketchbooks, diplomas, autographs from fellow students, a typescript of Kahn's autobiography, and scrapbooks containing clippings, photographs, telegrams and other ephemera. Additionally, there is a small holding for Liselotte Kahn within the collection, including her unpublished memoirs, some correspondence, and a watercolor painting. Liselotte Kahn's memoirs describe her childhood in Germany; her marriage to Dr. Ernst Müller and the birth of their sons; Nazi anti-Semitism; their emigration to Greece; her husband's medical practice in Athens; the Italian and German invasion of Greece; their escape to Palestine; and their emigration to and experiences in the United States.

This collection included primarily original and reprographic architectural drawings by Roth, circa 1907-circa 1949, largely of apartment buildings located in Manhattan and designed during the 1920s and 1930s. Represented are the San Remo Towers, The Beresford, The Oliver Cromwell, the Normandy, and numerous other apartment buildings. There are also drawings for several hotel and private residences. A two-volume typescript autobiography is also included.

This collection primarily contains architectural drawings, correspondence, business records, and a small number of photographs related to the projects of Emery Roth & Sons and its subsidiary entities. A large portion of the entities are represented only in the Office Records series and are identified as such. Some projects on which Emery Roth & Sons acted as architect of record are not represented in this collection, most notably the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

This collection contains reprographic architectural drawings for the Empire State Building; photographs of the demolition of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which occupied the Fifth Avenue site; photographs of the Empire State Building under construction, circa 1930-1931 (one photograph shows former governor Alfred E. Smith standing in the building during construction), including 232 photographs by photographer Lewis Hine; photographs showing the building after completion, circa 1931-1956; scrapbooks of clippings of articles about the building, 1930-1957; and illustrations of the Empire State Building, circa 1930s-1960s. These subgroups of materials also have records in CLIO with more detailed descriptions of items; for these records, please search under "Empire State Building" or "Shreve, Lamb & Harmon" or "Hine, Lewis Wickes".

This collection contains lithographs of New York City streets, buildings and other structures drawn and printed by Ernest Born during the period 1930-1931. The suite of 15 completed images are New York City subjects originally contracted by a London art house; but, due to the 1930's depression, the transaction was not completed and the project remained in the Born family archives. The original edition was 20 prints of each image, of which five to 13 of each image survive. The lithographs are titled as follows: "Brooklyn Bridge" "Late Afternoon" "Battery Place" "East River Bend" "New York Public Library" "Grand Central Station" "Park Avenue and Lincoln Building" "Trinity Church" "Wall Street" "Garment Center" "Foundation Construction" "6th Avenue Elevation" "Jeannette Park Curve" "Bank of Manhattan and US Treasury" and "Frankfort Street.".

The architectural drawings found at "Natirar" at the time the property was acquired by Somerset County, in 2003, include those relating to the original designs by Guy Lowell and Henry J. Hardenbergh between 1910 and 1912, and those relating to the alterations and renovations made in the late 1940s under the direction of York and Sawyer. The drawings are organized by architect, which, in effect, also organizes the drawings by date ranges. Drawings that bear the names of various subcontractors have been organized by subcontractor but are filed with reference to the relevant principal architect. In addition to the drawings pertaining to "Natirar," the collection includes copies of three drawings by architect William Hanford Beers (1856-1932) of the "Gedney Farm" residence of Howard Willets and Mary Macy Willets at White Plains, New York, which was constructed circa 1898 (see photographs of the Willets residence in the July 1901 issue of The American Architect and Building News). William H. Beers' wife, Alice Macy, was a first cousin once removed to sisters Mary Macy Willets and Kate Macy Ladd.

This collection includes speeches, writings, and articles by and about Klaber; printed papers relating to the Federal Housing Adminsitration and housing design and planning in the United States; and a small group of photographs, drawings, and office records from Klaber's partnership with Ernest A. Grunsfeld, Jr. in Chicago during the 1920s.