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 William Muschenheim collection spans from 1929 to 1957, with bulk dates from 1931-1950. The collection documents approximately 130 separate jobs and is made up of architectural drawings, correspondence, accounts, estimates, specifications, invoices, contracts, samples, invoices, and other material related to Muschenheim's professional projects. The projects mainly represent Muschenheim's work in New York City, but also include work in Albany (NY), Amenia (NY), Bridgehampton (NY), Chappaqua (NY), Hampton Bays (NY), Malverne (NY), Massapequa (NY), Nassau Point (Long Island), Washington (CT), Washington DC, Westhampton Beach (NY), and Woodstock (NY), among other locations.
William Muschenheim also had numerous clients which included the following family members: Carl Muschenheim, Elsa Muschenheim, and Frederick A. Muschenheim. In addition to the many clients for whom he did alteration work, Muschenheim also worked with a wide variety of companies including Bigelow Carpet Company, C.G. Flygare Inc., Excel Metal Cabinet Co., F. Schumacher & Co., Famaes Development, Hans Knoll, Howard & Schaffer, Inc., Kurt Versen Lamps, Inc., Ledlin Light Designers, Portland Cement Association, and Thonet Brothers, among others.
Series I: Architectural Drawings
The drawings in this collection are arranged in Job Number order. Muschenheim assigned each client a job number from 1 to 130. Each client received a single job number no matter how many projects Muschenheim may have done for them. Many job numbers contain more than one project because many of Muschenheim's clients hired him to work on more than one residence, building, etc.
Each project that contained architectural drawings 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 accessioned with numbers ranging from 1986.004.00001 through .03069. Student drawings are listed first as they do not have a project number.
The finding aid also provides a link to each project's digitized content found in the William Muschenheim Digital Archive hosted by the University of Michigan. Every drawing in the Muschenheim collection has been digitized.
The project records are organized according to Muschenheim's original filing system in which he interfiled the drawings, correspondence, specifications, and other papers for each job. There are a total of 130 numbered jobs (with gaps between jobs 11-17, 25-26, 28-29). Each job number may represent more than one project. Each client received a single job number no matter how many projects Muschenheim may have done for them. The drawings have been removed from the original files and stored and cataloged separately (see Series I). Unlike the architectural drawings in this collection, the project records have not been previously digitized.
Collection is divided into two series. Each series is organized by job numbers: 1 to 130. Each job number may represent more than one project, and each client received a single job number no matter how many projects Muscheneheim may have done for them.
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.
Permission to publish must be obtained in writing from the Director, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, 1172 Amsterdam Ave., MC 0301, New York, NY 10027.
William Muschenheim architectural drawings and papers. Dept. of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.
The University of Michigan hosts the William Muschenheim Digital Archive, which is a searchable database of 3500 scans of architectural drawings and photographs from the Muschenheim collections at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University and the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. Links to Avery Library's digitized content can also be found in Series I: Architectural Drawings' container list (found at the project level.)
Source of acquisition--Gift of William Muschenheim. Accession number--1986.004.
Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
William Muschenheim (1902-1990), was a modernist architect in New York in the 1930s. Muschenheim attended Williams College, 1919-21; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1921-1924; Behrens Master School of Architecture, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria, 1925-29. He received the Behrens Prize in 1926, and taught at the University of Michigan from 1950-1973.
His work includes major alterations to the Hotel Astor, NY; Marine Transportation Building, 1939 New York World's Fair; S.R. Guggenheim Museum for Non-Objective Art, 1939; and numerous alterations to penthouses, apartment houses and private residences. Muschenheim also worked for Peabody, Wilson & Brown, and Joseph Urban.
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.
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