Max Abramovitz architectural records and papers, 1925-1990

Series IV: Personal Papers

The series is arranged into the following sub-series: Biographical Information, Student Work, Sketchbooks, Military Service, and Appointment and Address Books.


Subseries 1: Biographical Information


Box 01 Folder 1 Professional profiles and curriculum vitae, 1976-1980, 1984, 1986-1988


Box 01 Folder 2 Curriculum vitae, [ca. 1961]


Volume 26 Oral history, 1975

Max Abramovitz oral memoir. Interview by Jayne Hilary Bruns. New York : American Jewish Committee, William E. Wiener Oral History Library.


Box 01 Folder 3 Correspondence for oral history, 1975-1976, 1993

Correspondence from the William E. Wiener Oral History Library and the American Jewish Archives. Includes copy of 8-page insert to the Wiener oral history.


Volume 26 Oral history, 1990

Oral history interview with Max Abramovitz . Interview by Sharon Zane. New York Oral History Project, Lincoln Center for ther Performing Arts


Box 01 Folder 4 Correspondence regarding oral history, 1990 Dec. 20

Letter from Sharon Zane, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.


Item AA685 Ab83 Ab83 Max Abramovitz interviewed by George M. Goodwin, March 31 and May 6, 1993, 2 audiocassettes

ATTENTION: Digitized recording unitelligible due to a recording error.

Tape 1. Side A. Family background [and education] Tape 1. Side B. [Early career and colleagues] Tape 2. Side A. [Clients, commissions and colleagues] Tape 2. Side B. [Clients, commissions and colleagues].

Summary of audio recordings


Subseries 2: Student Work

This section contains Max Abramovitz's student drawings and travel sketches, 1931-1933. Also, his awards and honors for the years 1926, 1928, 1929, 1932, and 1933.


Box 01 Folder 5 Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, 1926

First mention, Palladian windows


Box 01 Folder 5 Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, 1928

Mention, Office building


Box 01 Folder 6 Ricker History Prize Competition, 1928 May 3

Paper entitled Possibilities of an architectural synagogue style by Arch.-I.-Tect [pseudonym].


Box 01 Folder 7 Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, 1929

First medal, Restaurant in the air


Box 01 Folder 8 Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, 1929

First medal, Masonic Temple


Box 01 Folder 9 Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, 1929

Mention, Military academy


Box 01 Folder 10 Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, 1929 Dec. 20

Correspondence from BAID regarding medal.


Box 01 Folder 11 Warren Prize, 1929

5th prize, Recreation center


Box 01 Folder 12 Paris Prize, Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, 1932

Second medal, Academy of music for American composers and musicians


Box 01 Folder 13 to 15 Paris Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, 1932

Second prize, National opera house in Washington


Box 01 Folder 16 American Academy in Rome, 1933 Jan. 5

Correspondence


Box 01 Folder 17 Miscellaneous, 1926-1927, 1930


Drawer 293 Student drawings, 1931

1 drawing : Design for stadium in Riverside Park

Project-level record


Drawer 394 Student drawing, 1931

1 drawing : Recreation center (Warren Prize)


Student drawing, 1932-1933

1 drawing : Presidential dining room


Drawer 394 Student drawing, undated

1 drawing : Auditorium


Drawer 403 Travel sketches, 1932

1 drawing : Salamanca, Spain

Project-level record


Travel sketches, 1933

3 drawings : Spanish Morocco, Ronda

Project-level record


Drawer 403 Travel sketches, 1932-1933

1 drawing : Toledo

Project-level record


Drawer 403 Travel sketches, 1932-1933

19 drawings : Travel and figure studies

Project-level record


Drawer 403 Self-portrait, 1933

1 drawing : pastel on paper

Project-level record


Subseries 3: Sketchbooks


Item Sketchbook 01 Sketchbook, 1929-1933

29 leaves (21 with sketches or text) : Ink and pencil sketches of existing French and American Beaux-Arts buildings. A few leaves have drawings on both recto and verso.

Project-level record


Item Sketchbook 02 Sketchbook, 1931

62 leaves (52 with sketches) : Most sketches show plans produced by other architects after Beaux-Arts programs; most have extensive notes on verso; many are dated to the date of the plan, e.g. 1904.


Item Sketchbook 03 Sketchbook, [19]33-[19]34

16 leaves (12 with sketches) : Paris. Sketches of people, dogs, etc. as observed from life.


Item Sketchbook 04 Sketchbook, 1934

45 leaves (36 with sketches) : Sketches of 20th c. buildings in Germany, Holland and Belgium. Most include extensive notes.


Item Sketchbook 05 Sketchbook, 1934 Feb. - 1934 Mar.

56 leaves (54 with sketches) : Sketches for Paris, Tel Aviv, Egypt, Syria, and Spain, most with notes.


Item Sketchbook 06 Notebook, 1934-1936

46 leaves (21 pages with sketches) : Pencil on paper, several loose pages, and some pages glued to other pages. In front of book: 1 p. of notes on Housing Exhibition, dated Jan. 22, 1934. Inside back cover, labelled: Studies for Development of Central Park - 1936 -[MA]. All drawings are found in the back of book.


Item Sketchbook 07 Photograph of plan to continue 6th Avenue thru end under Central Park, 1936

Mounted photograph of drawing : Title inscribed on board. Accompanies Notebook with sketches for Development of Central Park


Item Sketchbook 08 Notebook (and envelope) from trips to China for U.S. Army., [1944-45]

29 leaves (lined pages torn from small notebook) : Contains flight information, Mandarin vocabulary, field notes and sketches, and layouts of specific locations. Housed in War Department envelope labeled: Sketches made of Field Trip 1944-45.


Item Sketchbook 09 Sketchbook, [1957?]

27 leaves (l5 with sketches or text) : Pencil, red pencil, ink, and marker sketches for the Assembly Hall, University of Illinois. Sketchbook found with folder of clippings from 1957.


Item Sketchbook 10 Sketchbook, 1960

11 leaves (10 with sketches or text) : Ink sketches of various projects and ideas. Notes in ink and pencil. A few leaves contain notes on both recto and verso. Pages have been removed.


Box 01 Folder 18 Photograph of MA, 1929

1 b&w photo. Annotation of verso, "Univ. of Illinois days 1929."


Box 01 Folder 19 Photographs of Abramovitz, 1929, 1931, 1940, 1942-1947, 1949, 1950-1951

29 b&w photos of MA alone and with others. File includes photos of MA in the military and with the UN design team.b&w


Subseries 4: Military Service

Abramovitz served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers, 1942- 1945. He began his Army career as a First Lieutenant and was later promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. He served in the China Theater from 1944-45 and was awarded the Legion of Merit Medal in 1945.

He was a Colonel in the United States Air Force, 1950-1952. In 1952 MA was the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. He also served as a civilian member of the United States Air Force's Project Installations Committee, 1952-1953.

The military service papers are arranged in two groupings. The first concerns MA's service as a military officer. The second grouping is devoted to his civilian work for the Project Installations Committee.


Military Service: Us Army and Air Force, 1942-1955


Box 01 Folder 20 to 23 Military personnel files, 1942-1952, 1954-1955

Files include Certificate of Service, Military Record and Report of Separation, Legion of Merit Citation, and Air Force Reserve Letter Orders.


Box 01 Folder 24 Writings by MA, 1944 Jan. - 1944 Mar.

Typescript containing fourteen dated entries, titled Somewhere in China. 6p.


Box 01 Folder 25 Army officer's notebook, [1944]


Box 01 Folder 26 World War II broadsides, [ca. 1944]


Box 01 Folder 27 Airfields in China: the Engineer section fourteenth Air Force, 1945

File also includes photocopies of photographs, Military Training Certificate (1940), US Army Certificate of Service (1946), Honorable Discharge (1955), and other personnel materials.


Box 01 Folder 28 to 30 Citations , certificates, and honors, 1942, 1945, 1951-1952, 1954

Officer Training School certificate, Legion of Merit citation, Appointment to Lieutenant Colonel and other documents.


Oversize 1 Folder 1 Photograph of MA at Special Course - C.M.T.C., Plattsburg Barracks, N.Y., 1940


Oversize 1 Folder 1 Photograph of MA with Army Air Force unit, Miami Beach, Fla., 1942


Box 01 Folder 31 Photograph of MA at Camouflage School, Hamilton Field, Calif., Fourth Class, undated


Box 01 Folder 32 Passports and identification cards, 1932-1934, 1942, 1945


Box 01 Folder 33 to 34 Clippings and press releases, 1931, 1944-1946, 1952

Includes 1931 guidebook to Berlin architecture with annotations by MA.


Oversize 1 Folder 2 Memorabilia, 1951


Military Service: Project Installations Committee 1952-1953


Box 02 Folder 1 Correspondence: incoming, A-J


Box 02 Folder 2 to 4 Correspondence: incoming, Perry ( John P.H.)

Includes letters from Perry, Deputy for Installations to MA and others. Also, some correspondence from others to Perry.


Box 02 Folder 5 Correspondence: incoming, R-W


Box 02 Folder 6 Correspondence: outgoing, 1952-1953


Box 02 Folder 7 to 10 Committee reports, notes, and memoranda

Includes Study of Procedures for Air Force Construction, Notes on Implementation of Recommendations to Study, report drafts, maps, and memoranda.


Subseries 5: Appointment and Address Books

57 appointment and 8 address books. Appointment books span the years 1962-1995 with gaps for the following years: 1970, 1972, 1975-1978, 1981, and 1985. The books for 1966, 1979, 1980 and 1984 - 1995 are annual. The remainder are quarterly and contain the following gaps: April - June 1962, Jan. - June and Oct. - Dec. 1968, and April - June 1971. Some of the books contain sketches. Six of the address books are numbered in red pencil on the front cover from 1 through 6. Two are dated, 1972/1973 and 1974, but unnumbered. Address book number 5 is numbered and dated 1972.


Box 03 Appointment books, 1962-1969, 1971, 1973-1974, 1979-1980, 1982-1984, 1986-1995


Box 03 Address books, [ca. 1962-1967], 1972-1974, undated