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Three sketchbooks; the first, 1893-1894, containing sketches from his student years at the Columbia School of Mines, Department of Architecture (he received his degree in 1894); the second, 1894-1896, containing sketches made as a student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris; and the third, circa 1896-circa 1905, containing sketches for a variety of projects and designs. Buildings and other structures depicted include the Academy of Music on 14th Street, New York City (a seating plan); Wells Fargo Bank Building, Portland, Oregon, 1910; Reunion Hall, Princeton University, 1902; lantern for the Aetna Building, Hartford, Connecticut; Woodland Street entrance to Kinney Park, Hartford, Connecticut, 1905 (some drawings are by others). Program notes from the classes of Paul Blondel and J. Gaudet at the Ecole des Beaux Arts are included. Also, designs (some done in partnership with Joseph Urban) for proposals for the Metropolitan Opera Company on various sites in New York City, circa 1920s; and designs for shopping and music centers in New York City, to 1936.

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 Additionally, there is a small holding for Liselotte Kahn within the collection, including her unpublished memoirs, some correspondence, and a watercolor painting.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.

Also, a variety of professional and personal miscellany, such as correspondence, clippings, pamphlets, flyers, postcards, invitations, menus, receipts, a diploma, caricatures of colleagues, and Sawyer's monocle