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, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
The Edwin R. Will collection consists of drawings, papers and photographs. Most of the drawings in the collection document the residential work Will executed in New York and are largely undated. The drawings also include work from the firm Rose & Will while three projects are listed under other architects for whom Will worked including Kenneth M. Murchinson, John Russell Pope and Charles T. Mott. The papers in the collection are more varied. A small grouping of papers documents the work of John Russell Pope, including the Temple of the Scottish Rite and the Lincoln Memorial. Of note is a 1912 annual statement detailing Pope's earnings and expenses. Other papers include project documentation, specifications and newspaper clippings. The photographs included in the collection are largely unidentified and undated.
This collection is made up of 3 series: I: Drawings, II: Professional records, and III: Photographs.
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, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
Accession number--1985.002.
Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
Processed Nicole Lindberg Richard September 2016.
Edwin R. Will was born in Germany in 1868 and trained at City College of New York and the Cooper Union. He then apprenticed in the firms of William J. Merritt, Charles T. Mott, and Rose & Stone. He also worked in the office of Kenneth M. Murchinson for 10 years. From 1907 to 1916, Will assumed the management of the firm of John Russell Pope where he also undertook a supervisory role in various commissions. Afterwards, he formed a partnership as Rose & Will before establishing an independent practice. He and his wife Helen had two sons, Grinton I. and Robert E.