Sarah Landau papers, 1874-1999

Sarah Landau papers, 1874-1999

Summary Information

Abstract

Architectural historian Sarah Bradford Landau is a scholar, advocate, and public servant in New York City, active from the late 1970s into the second decade of the 21st century. Landau's research includes a focus on the architecture of William Appleton Potter and Edward Tuckerman Potter (on whom she wrote her dissertation), the gothic revival (especially its influence on American church architecture), and the skyscraper. The bulk of the collection is made up of research and lecture files. Additionally, the collection includes a number of personal effects, including portraits of Landau as well as her ephemera files, which include clippings, correspondence, and other mementos from the colorful and celebrated career of a public intellectual beloved in many circles in New York City and beyond.

At a Glance

Bib ID:
12304787 View CLIO record
Creator(s):
Landau, Sarah Bradford, 1935-; Potter, Edward Tuckerman, 1831-1904
Repository:
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
Physical Description:
7 linear feet
Language(s):
English .
Access:

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 and to make an appointment, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.

Description

Scope and Content

Series I: Research Files

Organized and re-housed following Dr. Landau's own organizational system, these files are divided as Dr. Landau divided them, named as Dr. Landau named them, and have been organized internally by material type (namely research notes, correspondence, source materials, ect.) for ease of use by the researcher.

Series II: Lectures and Talks

This series includes all materials within Dr. Landau's files labeled "lectures" and materials range from fully articulated transcripts of Dr. Landau's lectures to hand-written notecards outlining speeches, lectures, and talks given at a variety cultural institutions and institutions of higher learning.

Series III: Grant Proposals and Research Travel

This series includes all extant copies of research proposals, grant applications, and sundry papers from research travel that Dr. Landau kept within her records.

Series IV: Publishing Files

This series includes files, organized as Dr. Landau organized them, corresponding directly to the publication of scholarship, namely correspondence with publishers, drafts and materials for revised editions, and remittance records.

Series V: Personal Papers

This series includes Dr. Landau's personal correspondence, portraits, and ephemera.

Series VI: Architectural Drawing

Included is one original architectural drawing by Edward T. Potter for John Crosby Brown summer home in West Orange, NJ, dated 1874.

Arrangement

This collection is made up of six series: Series I: Research Files; Series II: Lectures and Talks; Series III: Grant Proposals and Research Travel; Series IV: Publishing Files; Series V: Personal Papers; Series VI: Architectural Drawing

Using the Collection

Restrictions on Access

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 and to make an appointment, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.

Restrictions on Use

Columbia University is providing access to the materials in the Library's collections solely for noncommercial educational and research purposes. The unauthorized use, including, but not limited to, publication of the materials without the prior written permission of Columbia University is strictly prohibited. All inquiries regarding permission to publish should be submitted in writing to the Director, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For additional guidance, see Columbia University Libraries' publication policy.

In addition to permission from Columbia University, permission of the copyright owner (if not Columbia University) and/or any holder of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) may also be required for reproduction, publication, distributions, and other uses. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of any item and securing any necessary permissions rests with the persons desiring to publish the item. Columbia University makes no warranties as to the accuracy of the materials or their fitness for a particular purpose.

Preferred Citation

Sarah Landau papers, 1874-1990, Dept. of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Source of acquisition--Sarah Landau. Method of acquisition--Donated;; Date of acquisition--2016. Accession number--2016.014.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Travis Brock Kennedy (Graduate Intern), under the supervision of Shelley Hayreh, Avery Archivist, in 2017.

Revision Description

2017-11-21 File created.

2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.

Biography

Dr. Sarah Bradford Landau (1935-) is an architectural historian. Her research focus includes American and English art and architecture of the nineteenth century and the influence of the nineteenth century on the development of architecture in the early twentieth century, primarily in New York City, and particularly as it relates to the emergence of the skyscraper as a building type in New York City.

Landau completed her Ph.D. in Art History at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University in 1978. The subject of her dissertation was the architecture of William Appleton Potter and Edward Tuckerman Potter.

She served as commissioner of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission from 1987-1996. Later she served as Vice Chairman of the Commission from 1993-1996. Additionally, she is a founding member of Landmark West!: The Committee to Preserve the Upper West Side, where she has served on the Board of Directors for three decades.

Her published works include George B. Post, Architect: Picturesque Designer and Determined Realist (New York: Monacelli Press. 1998), Rise of the New York Skyscraper, 1865-1913, with C.W. Condit. (New Haven: Yale University Press. 1996), The Grand American Avenue, 1850 to 1920, eds. with J. Cigliano (Washington, D.C.: American Architectural Foundation. 1994), "Greek and Gothic Side by Side: Architecture in the Village," eds. L.C. Berlowitz and R. Beard. In Greenwich Village: Culture and Counter-Culture (Rutgers University Press with Museum of the City of New York. 1993), P.B. Wight: Architect, Contractor, and Critic 1838-1925 (Art Institute of Chicago. 1981), and Edward T. and William A. Potter, American Victorian Architects (New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1979).

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

All links open new windows.

Name
Hunt, Richard Morris, 1827-1895
Post, George Browne, 1837-1913
Potter, William A., 1842-1909
Place
New York (N.Y.) -- Buildings, structures, etc
Subject
Architecture, Victorian -- United States
Skyscrapers -- New York (State) -- New York -- History

Series I: Research Files


Box 1 Folder 1

William A. Potter "Doubtful Works", 1873-1874

Research Notes, Correspondence, Photographs (includes three photographic prints and one small photograph album dated circa 1918), and Source Materials (includes 90th anniversary souvenir booklet from St. John the Evangelist, Barrytown NY, dated 1964).


Box 1 Folder 2

William A. Potter, 1894-1895

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 1 Folder 3

William A. Potter Government Buildings, 1876

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 1 Folder 4

William A. Potter, 1879-1881

Research Notes, Correspondence, Photographs, and Source Materials


Box 1 Folder 5

William A. Potter, 1882-1887

Research Notes, Correspondence, Photographs, and Source Materials


Box 1 Folder 6

William A. Potter, 1890

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 1 Folder 7

William A. Potter, 1896

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 2 Folder 1

William A. Potter Unlocated and Doubtful Works, 1890

Correspondence


Box 2 Folder 2

William A. Potter Government Buildings 1, 1875

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 2 Folder 3

William A. Potter Government Buildings 2, 1875

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 2 Folder 4

William A. Potter General Government Collateral

Research Notes


Box 2 Folder 5

William A. Potter General Government Collateral

Correspondence


Box 2 Folder 6

William A. Potter General Government Collateral

Source Materials


Box 2 Folder 7

Edward T. Potter, 1855-1860

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 3 Folder 1

Edward T. Potter, 1861-1862

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 3 Folder 2

Edward T. Potter, 1861-1862

Christ Church, Reading PA, 1826-1926 Centennial Souvenir


Box 3 Folder 3

Edward T. Potter, 1863-1865

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 3 Folder 4

Edward T. Potter, 1863-1865

Source Materials


Box 3 Folder 5

Edward T. Potter, 1865-1867

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 3 Folder 6

Edward T. Potter, 1867-1868

Research Notes and Source Materials includes The Witness (4/11/1929) and What's In a Name: The Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City by Frederick C. Grant


Box 4 Folder 1

Edward T. Potter, 1869

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 4 Folder 2

Edward T. Potter, 1869

Brochures and Saint John's Church at Brooklyn: 1976 150th Anniversary Year by Edward P. Dyer, Jr. et al


Box 4 Folder 3

Edward T. Potter, 1871-1872

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 4 Folder 4

Edward T. Potter, 1874

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 4 Folder 5

Edward T. Potter Doubtful Works

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 4 Folder 6

Edward T. Potter Unlocated Buildings and Other Works, 1856-1870

Correspondence


Box 4 Folder 7

Edward T. Potter Rejected Works

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 4 Folder 8

Edward T. Potter Biographical

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 5 Folder 1

Edward T. Potter Material from Avery Box

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 5 Folder 2

Edward T. Potter Collateral

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 5 Folder 3

Edward T. Potter Writings, Housing Material, and Patents

Research Notes and Correspondence


Box 5 Folder 4

Edward T. Potter Writings, Housing Material, and Patents

Source Materials


Box 5 Folder 5

1864-1869(71)

Lord and Taylor Building, Mutual Life Insurance Company, Metropolitan Savings Bank, Robbins & Appleton Building (1-5 Bond Street), National Park Bank, and Misc. (includes Kennison Notes)


Box 5 Folder 6

1858ff E.T.P. Alumni Hall (Nott Memorial, Union College), 1858

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 5 Folder 7

Starkweather - Potter Building, 1883-1886

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 6 Folder 1

St. Mary's - in Tuxedo & Collateral W.A.P. [William A. Potter], 1887-1888, 1890, 1897, 1901, and earlier work

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 6 Folder 2

Somerville Church

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 6 Folder 3

Mark Twain House Ideas and Collateral [Edward T. Potter]

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 6 Folder 4

Mark Twain House Information and Chafee Thesis [Edward T. Potter], 1873-1874

"A 'Villa Normandie' in Connecticut: The Mark Twain House" by Sarah Bradford Landau, research notes, and correspondence


Box 6 Folder 5

Mark Twain House Information and Chafee Thesis [Edward T. Potter], 1873-1874

pamphlets and brochures


Box 6 Folder 6

Mark Twain House Information and Chafee Thesis [Edward T. Potter], 1873-1874

Source Material - Archival and Source Material - Published


Box 6 Folder 7

Lutheran Church of the Advent [William A. Potter]

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 6 Folder 8

Colt: Factory Complex and Sundries

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 6 Folder 9

Problems of the Church of the Good Shepherd

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 7 Folder 1

St. Agnes Chapel, School House, and Rectory, 1888

Research Notes and Source Materials (incl two copies of Year Book and Register of the Parish of Trinity Church in the City of New York A.D. 1882 and 1889


Box 7 Folder 2

St. Martin's Harlem (Holy Trinity), 1887

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 7 Folder 3

Union Theological Seminary - Potter & Lord, 1881

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 7 Folder 4

Cathedral of St. John the Divine & Other Notes, 1888

Research Notes and Source Materials (Archival, Published, and Photographic)


Box 7 Folder 5

Church of the Good Shepherd/Parish House - Hartford, St. John's - Hartford, Jarvis Letters, Franklin Diary Notes, Library at Armsmear, 1867, 1894, 1871-1872

Research Notes and Correspondence


Box 7 Folder 6

Church of the Good Shepherd/Parish House - Hartford, St. John's - Hartford, Jarvis Letters, Franklin Diary Notes, Library at Armsmear, 1867, 1894, 1871-1872

Source Materials


Box 7 Folder 7

Post: Western Union, 1872-1875 ff

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 7 Folder 8

Marine National Bank, c. 1870-1871

Research Notes


Box 7 Folder 9

25 Union Square: Tribune Building (Hunt), Coal & Iron Exchange, Evening Post, 1872-1876

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 8 Folder 1

Peabody & Stearns, United Bank Building, Post: Produce Exchange, Hanan Building, DeVinne Press, 691 Broadway, 1880-1886

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 8 Folder 2

Church of the Divine Paternity [William A. Potter]

Research Notes and Source Materials (includes 19th Century Lithograph of an Engraving of the High Altar from American Architect and Building News 9/14/1897 No. 1132)


Box 8 Folder 3

Church of the Divine Paternity [William A. Potter]

Howe, Charles A. The Larger Faith: A Short History of American Universalism. Boston: Skinner House Books, 1993. Paperback print edition signed by the author and dedicated to Sarah Bradford Landau November 16, 1997


Box 8 Folder 4

Teacher's College [William A. Potter]

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 8 Folder 5

Loggia: Metropolitan Club (Washington, D.C.) and St. James Lutheran Church, 1888-1890

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 8 Folder 6

Apartment Houses and Tenements

Research Notes and Correspondence


Box 8 Folder 7

Apartment Houses and Tenements

Source Materials


Box 8 Folder 8

Brown Brothers

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 8 Folder 9

Delano Material - Scribner's

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 9 Folder 1

Collateral: Other Architects includes Babb & Cook, Charles W. Clinton, Horace S. Bush, Henry Ferirach, James Brown Lord, H. Edwards-Ficken, Snelling & Pottes, Robert Gibson, John Sturgis, Sturgis & Brighton, Peter B. Wight, James W. Pirsson, Hubert, Pirrson, & Co., Chas C. Haight, The Upjohns, Henry Vaughan, F.L. Olmstead, William Halsey Wood, L.C. Tiffany, Alfred H. Thorp, A.J. Davis, Richardson, Chester Babcock, Vaux, Bruce Price

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 9 Folder 2

Extra Notes for Periodicals and Misc. (Henry Hobson Richardson)

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 9 Folder 3

Pre-Civil War and Cast Iron Buildings I: Banks & Hotels, Moffat Building, Park Theater, Castle Garden, Gilsey BuildingBank of New York, A.T. Stewart Store

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 9 Folder 4

Pre-Civil War and Cast Iron Buildings II: Academy of Music, Astor Library, Lyceum of National History, Richard M. Upjohn Buildings, Old New York Times Building, Cast Iron Buildings and Hotels, Harper Brothers

Research Notes and Source Materials


Box 9 Folder 5

Collateral: Upjohn: Father and Son, H.C. Potter, Olmstead, Howard Potter, Vaughan, Delano & Aldrich, Family - Potter Collateral, Bibliography, Cram, American Colleges, M. Crook

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 9 Folder 6

Albany Tricentennial

Research Notes, Correspondence, Completed Work, and Source Materials


Box 10 Folder 1

[Richard Morris] Hunt Research - Research Notes


Box 10 Folder 2

[Richard Morris] Hunt Research - Correspondence


Box 10 Folder 3

[Richard Morris] Hunt Research - Source Materials


Box 10 Folder 4

[Richard Morris] Hunt Research - Photographs

Large Format Prints and Contact Sheets


Box 10 Folder 5

[Richard Morris] Hunt Research - Photographs

Small Format Prints


Box 10 Folder 6

Nott Memorial Article

Speech, Drafts and Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials (includes Photographs)


Box 10 Folder 7

American Collateral, 1876-1882 ff

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 11 Folder 1

Chicago Research - Research Notes


Box 11 Folder 2

Chicago Research - Completed Works I


Box 11 Folder 3

Chicago Research - Completed Works II


Box 11 Folder 4

Chicago Research - Source Materials


Box 11 Folder 5

Wight Research - National Academy of Design


Box 11 Folder 6

Odds and Ends includes Potter Statement, List of Recent Photos Made at Avery, Hitchcock on Ruskin, Wodehouse on William A. Potter, My Outline, Unfiled AABN


Box 11 Folder 7

Miscellaneous New York City, Buffalo, Sturgis &c.

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 11 Folder 8

Edward Tuckerman Potter - Several Churches - Two Complete

Research Notes (includes Thesis/Dissertation Notes) and Source Materials


Box 11 Folder 9

William A. Potter, 1899

Research Notes


Box 11 Folder 10

Church Architecture - Biography

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 12 Folder 1

William A. Potter, 1875-1878

Research Notes amd Correspondence


Box 12 Folder 2

William A. Potter, 1875-1878

Source Materials


Box 12 Folder 3

Colt

Research Notes, Photographs, and Source Materials


Box 12 Folder 4

Potter and Robertson Private Commissions, 1875

Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 12 Folder 5

Providence

Downtown Providence Statewide Historical Preservation Report - Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission


Box 13 Folder 1

Miscellaneous Research Notes


Box 13 Folder 2

Miscellaneous Correspondence


Box 13 Folder 3

Miscellaneous Source Materials


Box 13 Folder 4

Miscellaneous Photographs

Includes one original nineteenth century photograph of Brighthurst, West Orange NJ, summer home of John Crosby Brown by William A. Potter in 2016.


Box 13 Folder 5

Miscellaneous Source Materials


Box 13 Folder 6

Miscellaneous Source Materials


Box 14 Folder 1

Victorian Gothic Research Files I


Box 14 Folder 2

Victorian Gothic Research Files II


Box 14 Folder 3

Victorian Gothic Research Files III


Box 14 Folder 4

Victorian Gothic - Foreign Sources

Correspondence and Source Materials

Series II: Lectures and Talks


Box 17 Folder 2

Lectures on Housing and Apartment Houses I

includes English Terrace Housing, Irving Gill, New York's Nineteenth Century Buildings, Irish Architecture, Philadelphia 1800-1840, Latrobe, The Stick Style from Unamerican Perspectives, and New York's Arcaded Buildings


Box 17 Folder 3

Lectures on Housing and Apartment Houses II

includes The Row House, Nott Memorial, Richardson's Buffalo Psychiatric Center, the Upper West Side, Greenwich Village, P.B. Wright's legacy to Frank Furness, A Taste for the French: Early Work of Lienau and Hunt in New York and Newport, The Potter Brothers: High Victorian Gothic Specialists, and William Potter's Princeton


Box 17 Folder 4

Lectures on Housing and Apartment Houses - Source Materials


Box 17 Folder 5

Skyscraper Lecture


Box 17 Folder 6

Skyscraper Lectures I

includes Skyscraper Museum Lecture, The First Skyscrapers: Innovation in the 1870's, The Birth of the Skyscraper in New York, New York Skyscrapers: A Talk at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rise of the New York Skyscraper 1865-1913, New York Before the Skyscraper: Aspects of Mid-Nineteenth Century Commercial Architecture, Creation of the Early Skyscraper: Reappraisal in Favor of New York City, The Early New York Skyscraper: Relationship Between Site and Design


Box 18 Folder 1

Skyscraper Lectures II

includes The Tower, Rise of the Office Building in New York, Buell Talk: Early Skyscrapers, Francis H. Kimball and the Early New York Skyscraper, Skyscraper Lecture at Barnes & Noble, Toward the Skyscraper: Architectural and Technical Achievement in New York Before 1870, Inventing the New York Skyscraper, The New York Stock Exchange: George B. Post's Monument to Money (talk given at the Skyscraper Museum), George B. Post and the RIse of the New York Skyscraper


Box 18 Folder 2

New York City Architecture

includes Brooklyn Historical Society Talk (May 12, 1999), Lower Manhattan, West Side Row Houses: Swan Song of the New York "Brownstone," From East to West: Development of the Upper West Side, From Victorian Gothic to Beaux-Arts Classicism: American Architecture and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Barnes and Noble Panel on Union Square, Design Before the Zoning Law of 1916, Cass Gilbert's New York City Architecture


Box 18 Folder 3

The Potter Brothers

includes The House that Edward Built: The Mark Twain House, The Curious House That Mark Built, Art for Nature's Sake: Edward Potter and the Colts, Potter Lecture at the Fourth Universalist Society, Panel on the Restoration of the Nott Memorial


Box 18 Folder 4

George B. Post

includes Bard Lecture (April 1, 1988), George B. Post & Sons, Architects


Box 18 Folder 5

Richard Morris Hunt

includes Hunt's Griswold: A "Villa Normandie" in Newport, Richard Morris Hunt and the Development of Two Building Types: Artist's Studios and Apartment Houses, and The Stick Style Revisited: Richard Morris Hunt and the Newport Villa


Box 18 Folder 6

Miscellaneous Lectures & Speeches I

includes Colonial to Modern, American Architecture from the Victorian Gothic to Queen Anne, Church Architecture, Excavating Hidden Treasures, Brazer & Gilbert, Cesar Pelli, Wight on Root: An Architecture "Without Style"


Box 18 Folder 7

Miscellaneous Lectures & Speeches II

includes Landmarks Conservancy Award Acceptance Speech, Society of Architectural Historians Lecture, Channel 12 TV Interview, The Townsend and St. James Buildings Centennial Celebration Speech, Brown Lecture Data, and IFA Lecture

Series III: Grant Proposals and Research Travel


Box 15 Folder 1

New-York Historical Society Drawings Study Grant Proposal

Grant Proposal, Research Notes, Correspondence, and Source Materials


Box 15 Folder 2

England - Trips, 1978


Box 15 Folder 3

Grant Applications and Upcoming Projects I, 1972-1990

American Architectural Archive, American Association of University Women, The American Architectural Foundation, The American Institute of Architects College of Fellows, The American Council of Learned Societies


Box 15 Folder 4

Grant Applications and Upcoming Projects II, 1978-1996

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, The National Endowment for the Humanities, New York University, Yale University

Series IV: Publishing Files


Box 15 Folder 5

Publisher's Letters, 1988-1995

Yale University Press


Box 15 Folder 6

Dictionary of Art, 1988-1999

Research Notes and Correspondence


Box 15 Folder 7

Glessner House Article I, 1985-1987

Research Notes and Correspondence


Box 15 Folder 8

Glessner House Article II

Source Materials


Box 16 Folder 1

Garland Contract Book Update I

Research Notes, Remittance, and Source Materials - Periodicals


Box 16 Folder 2

Garland Contract Book Update I

Correspondence

Series V: Personal Papers


Box 16 Folder 3

Personal Correspondence, circa 1976-1978

includes Lori Zabar, Freya Zabitsky, Mosette Broderick, Chris Gray, Committee for the Preservation of Architectural Records, Margot Gayle,


Box 16 Folder 4

Photographs of Landau

Prints and Contact Sheets. Includes one unidentified 19th-century portrait of a young man. Possibly William A. Potter or Edward T. Potter, possibly a relative of Landau


Box 16 Folder 5

Curriculum Vitae, Miscellaneous Talks and Speeches, and Miscellaneous Correspondence, 1979-1990


Box 16 Folder 6

Ephemera I

Event Programs and Posters


Box 17 Folder 1

Ephemera II

Clippings

Series VI: Architectural Drawing


Shelf C280ft

"Brighthurst," John Crosby Brown summer home (West Orange, NJ), 1874

1 item : watercolor rendering, framed