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This collection primarily contains architectural drawings, photographs, business records and reference materials related to the projects and designs of architectural and engineering firm Abbott, Merkt and Company. A subsidiary portion of the collection includes drawings, photographs and papers related to the life and career of Richard H. Tatlow, III, president of Abbott Merkt, as well as the firms and agencies for which he also worked.

Additional materials include carbons of typescript correspondence of lectures given by Dean William A. Boring (academic year 1933-1934) and Professor Theodor Karl Rohdenburg (academic year 1946-1947). Also design problems, the earliest of which were given in conjunction with the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, from academic years 1918-1919, 1926-1927, 1936-1937, 1949-1950, and 1957-1958. Also materials for the Architecture 51 class; correspondence of Joseph Hudnut; course outlines; correspondence relating to the search for a new dean of the school, 1957-1963.

Included are drawings made by Avery while studying under Jules Andre at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and sketchbooks containing sketches made in Paris and on excursions, 1872-1879. Architectural drawings and photographs of architectural drawings for proposed or executed residential and commercial buildings, churches, art galleries, monuments, and other structures, 1880s; competition drawings for public monuments, 1883-1887; experimental studies, 1885, for the pedestal of Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty; and 39 studies and finished drawings, 1888-1890, made for a competition for a memorial for Ulysses S. Grant which he did not win. Also, magazine articles by or about Avery and his work, 1883-1890; obituaries and death announcements, 1890; miscellaneous photographs, certificates, and papers; and invitations, clippings, illustrations, and photographs, circa 1892-1894, relating to the founding of the Avery Architectural Library at Columbia University.

The materials that comprise the Vertical File have been collected and added to from a variety of sources by former Avery Librarians. The vertical file contains clippings, pamphlets, reprints, and other miscellaneous materials relating to persons, places, organizations, and topical subjects relating to architecture, housing, and city planning. The purpose of the vertical file was to arrange and store small items, memorabilia, and ephemeral material on a variety of topics to facilitate access by researchers. For the most part, the vertical file contains printed items only. Manuscript material and other unique items were, generally, not placed in the vertical file. In some cases, manuscript material has been removed from the Vertical File and placed in its corresponding collection.

This collection contains materials related to a full range of Blake's personal, professional, and academic lives. The bulk of the collection dates from the 1980s through the early 2000s. His professional and faculty papers document many of his interests, and primarily include published and unpublished lectures and articles. Although Blake delivered his lectures at various architectural schools in the United States and abroad, the specific locations of the lectures are not usually recorded on the documents. In addition, many articles he wrote for publication appear as annotated typescripts. There are also significant papers related to publication of his memoir No Place Like Utopia (Knopf, 1993), including correspondence and some production records. Throughout the professional and faculty papers are also found a large number of reference files relating to modern architecture, art, design, urbanism, technology, and current events, compiled over many decades. The collection also contains correspondence with personal friends, clients, and professional and academic colleagues. There is an especially significant amount of correspondence and clippings related to Patwant Singh, a Sikh writer, commentator, journalist, editor, and publisher, with whom Blake was a close friend. There are also many materials including correspondence, typescripts, and book production records related to Philip Johnson and Paul Rudolph, with whom Blake was also close. Architectural project records include original and reprographic drawings and photographs for 40 residential and institutional designs, located primarily in New York City and the surrounding region. Of particular note are drawings and papers related to Blake's important Pin Wheel House (1954) in Water Mill, New York. In addition, there are drawings related to the American National Exhibition in Moscow (1959). Finally, there is a significant number of drawings, photographs, and correspondence related to the Benjamin Gerson Residence (1999-2003) in Johnsonburg, New Jersey, one of Blake's last architectural projects.

Also, typescripts of lectures delivered by Boring in architecture courses at Columbia, 1932-1933, miscellaneous typescripts of articles and printed materials, 1930-1933, and a typescript of Boring's autobiography, MEMORIES OF THE LIFE AND WORK OF WILLIAM A. BORING, circa 1937. Also included are four sketches by Henri Gauthier, Edward Tilton, Maurice Sashin, and Joseph Laudin.

Included in this collection are nineteen albumen photographs and one lithographic print of architectural drawings submitted by architects for the competition to design the New York State Capitol building in Albany, circa 1866-1870. Competing architects and architectural firms represented here include Adams & Worthen, Louis Burger, Fuller & Gilman, Fuller & Laver, Schulze & Schoen, and several unidentified architects. Of note are drawings for the New York State Capitol by Louis Burger and Schulze & Schoen bearing inscriptions to Obadiah B. Latham, a member of the Capitol Commission. Also included are nine photographs showing construction in progress on the Capitol between July and September, 1869. Photographs of competition drawings by Schulze & Schoen for the Iowa Capitol, the New York Post Office, and the New York Life Insurance Company Building, as well as an unsigned drawing of the Ohio Capitol building are additionally part of this collection. Several of the images are labeled by the photographer E.S.M. Haines, also practicing as Haines & Wickes, in Albany, New York.

This collection includes Giorgio Cavaglieri's preliminary studies, working drawings, presentation drawings, and specifications, circa 1962-1965, for his renovation of the Jefferson Market Courthouse into a library. Also, prints of drawings, 1876, by Vaux and Withers for the original building, and drawings, circa 1918-1940, for alterations.