Harold Van Buren Magonigle architectural drawings and papers, 1894-1944, bulk 1894-1930

Summary Information

Abstract

Harold Van Buren Magonigle was a New York-based architect, graphic designer, painter and sculptor. Magonigle married artist Edith Marion Day in 1900. Edith Magonigle was a painter and muralist who served as President of the Society of Women Painters and Sculptors. Edith was a primary collaborator of Harold Van Buren Magonigle in both the decoration and creation of buildings designed by his practice. He was widely known as an architect of memorial structures including the Firemen's Memorial on Riverside Drive and the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City. Other prominent commissions include the Isaac Guggenheim house in Port Washington, New York and the United States Embassy in Tokyo, Japan.

At a Glance

Arrangement

• Series I: Architectural Drawings
• Series II: Student and travel drawings

Description

Summary

Sketchbooks, 1895-1903; sketches, 1894-1896, made while Magonigle was travelling in Europe on Rotch Travelling Scholarship; graphic designs, 1902-1919; rendered competition drawings for government buildings, circa 1907-1920, and memorial structures, circa 1910-1930; photographs of Magonigle's architectural drawings, memorial structures, monuments, and other architectural work, much of it located in New York City, circa 1900s-1930s. Among projects represented in the collection are the Gates Avenue Courthouse, Brooklyn, N.Y.; the Firemen's Memorial, the Robert Fulller Memorial, and the National Watergate Memorial in New York City's Riverside Park; the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Mo.; the Isaac Guggenheim house in Port Washington, N.Y.; numerous additions and alterations for the Franklin Murphy mansion in Mendham, N.J.; and the United States Embassy compound in Tokyo, Japan. Also, drawings by other architects including Hugh Ferriss, Thomas Rogers Kimball, Hubert George Ripley, and I.W. Taber, that were presented to Magonigle. Also included are drawings, circa 1910s-1940s, by Magonigle's wife, painter and designer Edith Marion Day; photographs of Day and Magonigle; manuscripts of lectures, literary works, and other writings by Magonigle; and ephemera.

• Series I: Architectural Drawings

  This series includes 2,184 architectural drawings including renderings, plans, elevations, sections and details for approximately 60 projects. The dates of the project drawings span from 1902 to 1931. Each project was catalogued separately in the online catalog. This finding aid provides a link to each project's associated record. Sheet level description can be found in these project-level records. Each sheet is individually cataloged with numbers ranging from NYDA.1939.001.00001 through .02357. The projects are listed in this finding aid in loose chronological order. Undated drawings are listed last in this series.

• Series II: Student and travel drawings

  Series II: Student and travel drawings consists of 173 drawings and sketches completed by Magnonigle was on a Rotch Traveling Fellowship in Europe during the years 1894-1896. The travel sketches vary from finished pencil, charcoal or watercolor pictures to quick short-hand notes, and also an series of measured drawings, many of which were widely exhibited and published.

Using the Collection

Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library

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.

Preferred Citation

Harold Van Buren Magonigle architectural drawings and papers. Dept. of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.

Related Materials

Harold Van Buren Magonigle papers at Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.

Edith Magonigle drawings, Avery Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Source of acquisition--Various gifts. Accession number--1000.028, 1939.001, 1996.018.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library

Processing Information

Drawings for the collection were cataloged in 1978 during Project AVIADOR (Avery Videodisc Index of Architectural Drawings on RYAN). The collection was re-inventoried by Paul Guidos (Student Assistant) in 2022. Shelley Hayreh (Archivist & Collection Manager) edited and published the finding aid for the collection in 2022.

Subject Headings

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

All links open new windows.

Genre/Form

Subject

History / Biographical Note

Biographical / Historical

Harold Van Buren Magonigle was born in Bergen Heights, New Jersey on October 17, 1867. His father John Henry was, for a time, the business manager of actor Edwin Booth. His mother, Katherine Devlin, was the sister of Booth's wife. By the age of 13, Magonigle had entered the work force, starting with a student draftsman position at the architecture firm of Vaux and Radford. In 1882, Magonigle left for a position in the offices of Charles C. Haight, staying five years. In 1887, he joined the offices of McKim, Mead and White and worked there until a move to Boston in 1892, where he worked for the firm Rotch and Tilden. In 1894, Magonigle won the Rotch Travelling Fellowship and traveled throughout England, France, Greece and Italy for the next two years.

After the completion of the fellowship, he returned to the offices of McKim, Mead and White. Over the next few years, he moved around working briefly as a partner of Evarts Tracy, then head draftsman with Schickel and Ditmars, followed by a short association with H.W. Wilkinson. Around 1902, Magonigle went into private practice, where he remained for the rest of his career.

Magonigle died on August 20th, 1935 following a stroke suffered while on vacation visiting friends in Vergennes, Vermont. Edith Magonigle donated his drawings to Avery Library in 1939.