Avery Drawings & Archives Collections
 

Joseph W. Molitor architectural photographs, 1935-1985, bulk 1946-1980

Summary Information

At a Glance

Bib ID 5987214 View CLIO record
Creator(s) Molitor, Joseph W
Title Joseph W. Molitor architectural photographs, 1935-1985, bulk 1946-1980
Physical Description 10,000 photonegatives (approximate); 10,000 photoprints (approximate)
Language(s) English .
Additional Description https://www1.columbia.edu/sec/cu/libraries/inside/avery_assets/Molitor_public.xls
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.

Arrangement

Arrangement

The collection is organized by job number, as assigned by Molitor. Negatives are stored separately from prints and other formats.

Description

Summary

The bulk of this collection consists of more than 22,000 black and white photographic negatives and more than 10,600 black and white photographic prints documenting commercial, institutional, religious, and residential architecture throughout the United States, with particular emphasis on sites in the mid-Atlantic region. These images date from the mid-1930s to Molitor's retirement in the mid-1980s, with the great majority of images created between 1946 and 1980. Also included in the collection are images of landscapes, industrial design, portraits, and events of personal significance to Molitor. In some select cases, color prints, color negatives, color transparencies, and 35mm slides are also available in addition to or instead of the black and white negatives and prints. Researchers are also advised that documents in this collection indicate that when faced with a lack of storage space in 1973, Molitor contacted clients to return inactive negatives that they had comissioned before 1955. In at least some cases, those clients declined to accept their negatives and Molitor subsequently destroyed the images. Thus, this collection has lacunae in the negatives series.

General Note

The electronic inventory available for researchers records the project name, client name, and dates of photography from Molitor's job book, which appears to be a remarkably accurate list of the negatives and prints held in the archive. Please note that Molitor photographed most buildings shortly after completion, although photographs contracted for publication may postdate the building's completion by several years

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.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Copyright held by Columbia University. 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.

Preferred Citation

Joseph W. Molitor architectural photographs. Located in Columbia University, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Department of Drawings & Archives.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Source of acquisition--Purchased by Avery Library from the Joseph W. Molitor Estate, with funding from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and from private donors. Accession number--1996.023.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library

Processing Information

Electronic inventory prepared LDG and JCT 2006.

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

Heading "CUL Archives:"
"Portal"
"CUL Collections:"
"CLIO"
"Nat'l / Int'l Archives:"
"ArchivedGRID"
Photographic prints Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
negatives (photographs) Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID

Subject

Heading "CUL Archives:"
"Portal"
"CUL Collections:"
"CLIO"
"Nat'l / Int'l Archives:"
"ArchivedGRID"
A. Epstein and Sons International Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Architects Collaborative, Inc. Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Architectural photography Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Ashley, Warren Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Barnes, Edward Larrabee, 1915-2004 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Becket, Welton Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Belluschi, Pietro, 1899-1994 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Bentel & Bentel Architects/Planners Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Bohlin & Powell Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Breuer, Marcel, 1902-1981 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Carson & Lundin Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Carson, Lundin & Shaw Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Connecticut -- Buildings, structures, etc -- Pictorial works Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
E. H. & M. K. Hunter (Firm) Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Eero Saarinen & Associates Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Eggers & Higgins Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Florida -- Buildings, structures, etc -- Pictorial works Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Frederick G. Frost Jr. & Associates Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Freeman, French & Freeman Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Greenman-Pedersen Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Harriman, Alonzo J Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Harrison and Abramovitz Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Historic buildings -- Washington (D.C.) Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
International Business Machines Corporation Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Johnson, Philip, 1906-2005 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Kahn, Louis I., 1901-1974 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Kinney, A. M Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Koch, Carl, 1912- Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Lescaze, William, 1896-1969 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Loewenstein, Edward, 1913-1970 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Luckman Associates Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Lyles, Bissett, Carlisle & Wolff Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Maine -- Buildings, structures, etc -- Pictorial works Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Massachusetts -- Buildings, structures, etc -- Pictorial works Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Matsumoto, George, 1922- Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
New Jersey -- Buildings, structures, etc -- Pictorial works Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
New York (N.Y.) -- Buildings, structures, etc. -- Pictorial works Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
New York (State) -- Buildings, structures, etc -- Pictorial works Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
New York Telephone Company Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Noyes, Eliot Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
O'Brien & Gere Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Odell Associates Inc Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Pei, I. M., 1917- Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Perkins & Will Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Photographers Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
RTKL Associates Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Rudolph, Paul, 1918-1997 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
S. S. Silver & Company Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Sargent, Webster, Crenshaw & Folley Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Sherwood, Mills & Smith Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Small, G. Milton Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
South Carolina -- Buildings, structures, etc -- Pictorial works Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Stubbins, Hugh, 1912-2006 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
United Nations -- : Pictorial works -- : Buildings Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
United States Gypsum Co Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Warner, Burns, Toan & Lunde Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Yamasaki, Minoru, 1912-1986 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID

History / Biographical Note

Biographical / Historical

Joseph W. Molitor, recognized as a peer of such leading 20th-century American architectural photographers as Ezra Stoller, Hedrich-Blessing, George Cserna, Julius Schulman, and Balthazar Korab, documented the work of regional and national architects for fifty years. Trained as an architect, he practiced for twelve years before briefly working in advertising. Molitor turned exclusively to architectural photography in the late 1940s, maintaining his studio in suburban Westchester County, New York.

Working primarily in black and white, his images appeared in Architectural Record, the New York Times, House & Home, and other national and international publications. Molitor's iconic image of a walkway at architect Paul Rudolph's high school in Sarasota, Florida, won first place in the black and white category of the American Institute of Architects' architectural photography awards in 1960. He also served several terms as president of the Architectural Photographers Association, and published a guide to photographing the built environment, titled Architectural Photography, which included many examples of his own work. Molitor retired from practice in the mid-1980s.