Anthony N.B. Garvan collection, 1827-1980 (bulk, 1827-1889)

Format:

Other

Author/Creator:

Garvan, Anthony N. B.

Contributor:

Davis, Alexander Jackson, 1803-1892.

Town, Ithiel, 1784-1844.

Dakin, James H.

Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959.

Andrews, Wayne.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Davis, Alexander Jackson, 1803-1892.

Davis, Alexander Jackson, 1803-1892. Rural residences.

Town & Davis.

Architects--Archives.

Architectural design--History--19th century--Sources.

Architectural drawing--United States.

Architecture--United States--History--19th century--Designs and plans.

Genre:

Architectural drawings -- American.

Photographs.

Correspondence.

Physical Description:

251 items.

19 items.

35 items.

28 items.

9 items.

71 photoprints.

14 folders.

Other Title:

Anthony N. B. Garvan collection.

Place of Publication:

1827-1980

Biography/History:

Anthony Garvan was Professor of American Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania, 1960-1987, and first chairman of the American Civilization department. His interdisciplinary approach to American culture (including an active interest in American architecture) led to his leadership of the graduate program in Historic Preservation from 1980-1982. Garvan's personal and professional papers may be consulted at the University Archives.

Garvan's collection of materials related to American architecture focuses on Alexander Jackson Davis (1803-1892), one of the most influential proponents of the picturesque style for rural American houses. Davis began as a pictorial artist, student of John Trumbull. His skill as draftsman and renderer led to his partnership with Ithiel Town 1829-1935 (and James H. Dakin for a brief period ca. 1832). Davis was actively involved with major architects of his period, including Andrew Jackson Downing and Thomas U. Walter. Davis's book, Rural Residences, and his contributions to Downing's books and to Downing's monthly magazine, The Horticulturist, gave Davis's romantic country houses wide exposure and his style became very popular. In the 1840s and 1850s, at the height of his career, Davis was busy designing rural and urban residences and romantic suburbs such as Llewellyn Park in New Jersey. Before the Civil War he also designed residences and institutional buildings in the South, including the Capitol of North Carolina (with Town), an insane asylum at Raleigh, NC and buildings for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Davidson College and the Virginia Military Institute. Davis continued practicing architecture until his mid-seventies and then lived in retirement in New Jersey to his death in 1892.

Summary:

Materials related to Alexander Jackson Davis include two letterbooks, original rendered prints for Rural Residences, architectural drawings and sketches, financial records and 20th century photographs. Garvan also donated a small amount of material related to his other interests, including one architectural drawing by Frank Lloyd Wright published in a September 26, 1938 issue of Life Magazine as "House for a Family of $5,000-6,000 Income." The collection contains correspondence of Anthony Garvan related to the acquisition of materials in the collection, but no materials related to Garvan's teaching, publications or personal life.

The two Davis letterbooks contain original correspondence received and a small number of copies of correspondence sent. Notable correspondents include: Andrew Jackson Downing, Ball Hughes, Richard Lathers, Louise Davezac Livingston, J. M. Morehead, Samuel F. B. Morse, John Cox Stevens, David L. Swain and Thomas U. Walter. Other notable correspondents are represented by brief or institutional correspondence, including: Asher Benjamin, James H. Dakin, Richard Morris Hunt, Minard Lafever, Ithiel Town and Richard Upjohn.

Projects represented by significant correspondence and/or drawings include several residences as well as institutional projects such as: North Carolina State Hospital for the Insane, Pauper Lunatic Asylum (Blackwell's Island, New York City), University of North Carolina, Virginia Military Institute and Yale College Alumni Hall. Correspondence in the collection indicates the existence of at least ten projects not identified in the job list by Jane B. Davies, published in 1992 as a chapter, "Works and Projects," in Peck, Amelia, ed. Alexander Jackson Davis, American Architect 1803-1892. Additional projects (from the period of his partnership with Town and Dakin) may be newly identified from financial records in this collection. Some of Davis's built works are documented with 20th century 8" x 10" black and white photographs by Wayne Andrews. The collection includes a small number of project-related architectural drawings, including original drawings for the Thomas Hunt Residence and lithographs of plans for the Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

The collection contains substantial materials related to Davis's 1837 publication Rural Residences. Davis continued to revise and enlarge this publication later in his life, altering and painting the prints, adding others not published in the 1837 book and assembling enlarged sets, perhaps in hope of publishing a new edition. In addition to forty-four such prints, thirty-three of them rendered, the collection contains paper folders inscribed with lists, presumably used by Davis to store prints to be assembled into sets. Other materials include a draft of a preface and model specifications.

Personal materials of Alexander Jackson Davis include travel sketches, engravings unrelated to his architectural projects, notes and a small number of letters from family members. There is no material related to Davis's wife or children.

Finding Aid/Index:

Printed finding aid available at the Architectural Archives. For electronic finding aid see Web Link.

Cited as:

Anthony Garvan Collection, The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania.

Access Restriction:

Collection available for research by appointment only.

Online:

Finding Aid