Avery Drawings & Archives Collections
 

George Cserna photographs and papers, 1937-1978

Summary Information

At a Glance

Bib ID 8658019 View CLIO record
Creator(s) Cserna, George
Title George Cserna photographs and papers, 1937-1978
Physical Description 10,260 photographic items; 12 manuscript boxes; 1 manuscript box (1 manuscript boxes of archival papers)
Language(s) English .
Additional Description https://www1.columbia.edu/sec/cu/libraries/inside/avery_assets/Cserna_inventory_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.

Description

Summary

This collection is photograph archive of the works of architectural photographer George Cserna. Images include interior and exterior shots of prominent New York buildings primarily during the 1960s. The collection has been arranged alphabetically by the client or architect of the building. Some of George Cserna's most notable work in this collection includes photographs of Ulrich Franzen's Agronomy Building, Emerson Hall, and Goddard Library at Cornell University; Haines, Lundberg, and Waehler's U.S. Trust Building and Schering-Plough Headquarters; Victor Lundy's I. Miller Store and IBM Headquarters; and I. M. Pei's John Hancock Tower, Mount Royal Bank and Ville Marie Complex, and MIT Chemistry Building. The collection also contains photographs of exhibitions and openings at the Museum of Modern Art in the 1960s and 1970s, such as The Responsive Eye and Toward a Rational Automobile. Finally, the collection has photographic portraits of notable persons including John dos Passos, W.H. Auden, and William Faulkner.

Publication Date

1937-1978

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

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.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Source of acquisition--David Pickman. Method of acquisition--Donated;; Date of acquisition--2007. Accession number--2007.002.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library

Processing Information

Processed; Elizabeth Gollnick 2011.

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"
Color transparencies Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Contact sheets Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Magazines (periodicals) Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Photographs Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID

Subject

Heading "CUL Archives:"
"Portal"
"CUL Collections:"
"CLIO"
"Nat'l / Int'l Archives:"
"ArchivedGRID"
Architects -- United States Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Architecture -- United States -- History -- 20th century Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Candela, Félix, 1910-1997 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Carson, Lundin & Thorson Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Cavaglieri, Giorgio, 1911-2007 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Cornell University -- : Buildings Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Dos Passos, John, 1896-1970 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Faulkner, William, 1897-1962 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Franzen, Ulrich, 1921-2012 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Geddes Brecher Qualls Cunningham: Architects Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Haines, Lundberg & Waehler Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Johansen, John Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Lundy, Victor Alfred, 1923- Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig, 1886-1969 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Pei, I. M., 1917- Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Polshek, James Stewart Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Ranalli, George Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959 Portal CLIO ArchiveGRID

History / Biographical Note

Biographical / Historical

George Cserna was a New York based architectural photographer. Cserna was born in Budapest, Hungary on March 14, 1919. He received a degree from Minta Gymnasium in Budapest, and later studied Etruscology at the University of Perugia, Italy, and law at Budapest University. He emigrated to the United States in 1951. In 1958, he began contributing to Architectural Forum. Cserna's work was featured in Progressive Architecture, Architectural Forum, Art in America, and Fortune Magazine. He received the 1970 AIA Architectural Photography Medal. He taught Architectural Photography at the New School in New York City in 1979 and 1980. Some of George Cserna's most notable work includes photographs of the work of Ulrich Franzen; Haines, Lundberg, and Waehler, Victor Lundy, and I. M. Pei. He also photographed many openings and exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art between 1960 and 1975. While working for Doubleday he took book jacket portraits of notable persons including John dos Passos, W.H. Auden, and William Faulkner.