Abstracts of Papers Presented at the Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Society of

Architectural Historians
Author(s): Thomas J. McCormick, Lon R. Shelby, Philip Foster, Christian F. Otto, Anna K.
Cunningham, Edward T. Hinderliter, Peter Serenyi, J. Meredith Neil, Geoffrey W.
Fairfax, Rhoda E. A. Hackler, Reuel Denney, Roger W. Moss, Jr., Robert C. Smith, Beatrice
H. Kirkbride, Nancy Halverson Schless, Barbara Liggett, Henry Hawley, Yvonne
Hackenbroch, Partha Mitter, Leonard K. Eaton, Marian C. Donnelly, H. Allen Brooks, Elliot
A. P. Evans...
Source: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Oct., 1971), pp.
238-248
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural
Historians
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ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS
PRESENTED AT THE TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF
THE SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS
Chicago, Illinois, January 28-31, 1971

GENERAL SESSION

Chairman: Thomas J. McCormick, Wheaton College, Norton

THE MATHEMATICAL KNOWLEDGE OF

diaeval master masons. These little books contain no axioms, theo-

MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECTS

rems, or proofs from Euclid, nor any serious interest in mathemat-

Lon R. Shelby, Southern Illinois University

A review of the mediaeval educational system, with special attention to the education of master masons, reveals that formal schooling played an insignificant r61e in the technical training of the mas-

ter mason as architect. Furthermore, the place of mathematics in

the curricula of the schools suggests that boys who went into the
masons' craft would have had little opportunity to study the subject seriously even at the highest level of formal schooling that a
craftsman might have attended.
The direct evidence for the mathematical knowledge of mediaeval architects illustrates the elementary level of their mathematics
which we might expect from the schooling they had received. For
instance, the expertises of Chartres (1316), of Milan (1392, 1400),
and of Gerona (1417), reveal only the most rudimentary calculations applied to the statical problems raised at these meetings,
when indeed any calculations were attempted by those master masons called in as building experts. More often than not they seem
to have based their opinions and conclusions on rule-of-thumb
practices. Even the more sophisticated treatment of statics by the

sixteenth-century Spanish master Rodrigo Gil de Hontafion involves only the simplest mathematical reasoning and relies more
heavily on empirical evidence and, literally, rule-of-thumb exer-

cises.

But mediaeval masons founded their craft on geometry, not

ical reasoning. Instead, they allude to, or explicitly set forth, rules
to follow, step-by-step, in the physical manipulation of geometri-

cal forms-circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles-in the recommended procedures for designing and building Gothic structures.

This manipulation of geometrical forms was the essence of the

practical geometry of mediaeval masons, and it was thereby the
predominating element in the mathematical knowledge of mediaeval architects. Modern students of Gothic architecture should
therefore be wary of imputing to mediaeval architects mathemati-

cal skills that would have been beyond their comprehension or

their building needs.

ALBERTI, LORENZO DE' MEDICI, AND

SANTA MARIA DELLE CARCERI IN PRATO

Philip Foster [Yale University]

As a result of a series of miracles in 1484, performed by an image of

the Virgin painted on a wall of the prison in Prato, it was decided

that a church should be erected on this site. After some discussion

a polygonal plan was accepted, and foundations were laid under

the direction of Giuliano da Maiano in May 1485. Shortly thereafter, however, construction was halted on orders from Florence.

In August, Lorenzo de' Medici requested a model of Alberti's

arithmetic, as explicitly stated in the "Articles and Points of Ma-

church of San Sebastiano in Mantua, which is based on a Greek-

sonry" which were compiled for the English masons' craft ca.
1400. While this document pays much lip service to Euclid as the

cross plan. Twice in the month of August, Lorenzo visited the site
for the new church in Prato. In September, he sponsored the publication of Alberti's treatise on architecture. Finally, in October

founder of the craft, in fact, Euclidean geometry as such was little

used by mediaeval masons. This can be seen in the sketchbooks and

1485, under the direction of Giuliano da Sangallo, construction of

textbooks of Villard de Honnecourt, Matthias Roriczer, Hans

Santa Maria delle Carceri was begun. This church, like that of San

Schmuttermayer, Lorenz Lechler, and other anonymous late me-

Sebastiano in Mantua, is based on a Greek-cross plan. The se-

238

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239

ceri, and that Lorenzo took an active interest in the architectural

decoration are employed in a manner that can only be understood

as Rococo. Deriving from French sources, Classicism and Rococo
are fused in Neumann's architecture with an effortless conviction

activities of his day.

that eluded French designers.

quence of these events suggests that Lorenzo de' Medici promoted

Alberti's San Sebastiano as the model for Santa Maria delle Car-

PARROTT HALL-AN ITALIAN VILLA

DOMES, NEUMANN, AND ROCOCO

IN UPSTATE NEW YORK

Christian F. Otto, Cornell University

Anna K. Cunningham, Office of State History, Albany

Hallmark of ecclesiastical architecture in neighboring Italy, France,

Parrott Hall is located 1.5 miles west of downtown Geneva. The

and Austria, domes traditionally have been designated as foreign

elements and largely absent in South German Rococo. Both these
traditions require modification. Not only do domes distinguish a
significant number of indigenous religious structures during this
era, they receive as well notable consideration in contemporary

building, the first administration and laboratory building of the

New York State Experiment Station at Geneva, is named in honor
of Dr. Percival Parrott, a former director of the Station. It was

The presence of domes in South Germany is vividly demonstrated by the work of Balthasar Neumann. One of the region's

state purchased it, and a surrounding 125 acres, in 1882 to establish

thereon its Agricultural Experiment Station, the sixth such facility
to be established in the United States.

architectural literature.

greatest architectural geniuses, he designed domed churches

placed last year on the National Register of Historic Landmarks.

The house, substantially built of brick in Italian villa style, was
owned by a wealthy Geneva resident, one Nehemiah Denton. The

throughout his career. These include modest structures such as

The house stands on the site of a Seneca Indian village, Kanada-

Holzkirchen (1726) and the Sch6nborn Chapel in Wiirzburg

sega, which was destroyed in the Clinton-Sullivan punitive expedition against the Iroquois in 1799. The village, or castle, was sub-

(1722), imposing churches at Langheim, Mainz (both 1742), and

Neresheim (1747-1749), and the immense Miinsterschwarzach

sequently divided into several farms and Nehemiah Denton and

(1727). Regrettably, these structures either remained projects or

were later destroyed or altered, obscuring their significance for

his wife bought one of these in I854. There was a farmhouse stand-

present-day scholarship.
Publications of the time on architecture reveal a similar famil-

particular house, that is, Parrott Hall, was built between 1854 and
1862 when Mrs. Barclay wrote a "Short History of Geneva," pub-

iarity with the dome. The prolific and prominent architectural

theoretician L. C. Sturm, for example, devotes extensive discus-

lished in the Geneva Directory for that year, which refers to "Mr.
Denton's handsome mansion."

sion to the dome in his Vollstdndige Anweisung Alle Arten Von

Kirchen Wohl Anzugeben (Augsburg, 1718). This and comparable
discourses remain unacknowledged in present research.
A consensus of scholarship characterizes South German Rococo
architecture as a-tectonic. Emphasized, as its essence and effectiveness, is the primacy of ornament and painting, producing an indefinite space devoid of standard architectural forms and arrangements, and to be experienced like a picture from a single point of
view. Domes interrupt the continuity of painted and stuccoed surfaces, create distinct spatial vessels, and therefore appear to be antithetical to such interiors. Consequently, Neumann's work is
commonly considered to be Baroque with greater or lesser infusions of Rococo. Though the consistency of effect is acknowl-

Geneva is a strikingly attractive town on the shore of Seneca

Lake, in the lush and beautiful Finger Lakes region of western
New York State. Talbot Hamlin comments in his Greek Revival

ing on the property at that time but, judging stylistically, this

Architecture that nowhere more than in upstate New York is Greek

Revival architecture more vital and varied nor is research to dis-

cover local architects and builders and to trace detailed influences

more necessary. His statement is equally applicable to the Italian

villa style. Parrott Hall is by no means a lone example in the area

-there are several other handsome villas within a twenty-mile

radius, in Seneca Falls and in Waterloo.
Geneva was laid out by Captain Charles Williamson, a former
British officer acting as land agent for a group of English specula-

tors under the leadership of Sir William Pulteney. Williamson had

edged, the combination is seen as a stylistic ambiguity. I would like

lived for a time in Baltimore, and it was probably his acquaintance

to suggest that the situation is more complex, and that one com-

with the South as well as his London background that resulted in

ponent in the amalgamation is a pronounced Classicism.

A study of Neumann's architectural associations reveals strong
attachments to some of the major manifestations of Classicism in
France. His involvements included its literature, the great architects of Classicism de Cotte and Boffrand, and an extensive knowl-

edge of the Parisian scene. This concern was complemented by

Italian material, specifically that "Classical line" of Palladio and
Scamozzi. His churches, with their traditional parts and tectonic
definition, demonstrate these sympathies. Yet from his correspondence and project drawings, it is clear that he designed interiors with ornament and painting in mind, and that he was concerned with the quality and nature of these in relation to his archi-

tecture. The result can be seen in a church such as Langheim. The

standard Latin-cross format utilizes dome and orders to produce a

pronounced Classicism. Yet within this framework, light and

the pleasant plan he worked out for the city-a broad main street
with a public square after the English pattern as the business center.

Pulteney Park, the square, is today much the way he planned it.
Elkanah Watson wrote in his diary in 1791, "I arrived on the

I7th at the..,. delightful and salubrious village of Geneva... distinguished for the refined and elevated character of its Society."
It is still quite salubrious in the 197OS.

THE MAYA TEMPLE OF THE 1933

CHICAGO WORLD'S FAIR

Edward T. Hinderliter, Architect

During the early planning for the "Century of Progress," the

Chicago World's Fair of 1933, the organizing committee decided

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240

to include a section depicting the History of Man in America before the conquest. The Museum Building for this section was to be
a true copy of an ancient and truly American structure. The Nun-

nery Quadrangle at Uxmal in Yucatan, Mexico, was chosen for

the building.

Dr. Fay-Cooper Cole, as director of the Anthropological Section of the Fair, selected the Department of Middle American Re-

search of Tulane University to send an expedition to produce the

field data and measured drawings necessary to construct the building. The expedition was made up of Mr. Frans Blom as archaeologist and director; ProfessorJ. H. Thompson, head of the architectural school at Tulane; two architectural students, A. Herndon

Fair and Gerhardt Kramer; Enrique Alferez and William Hayden,

sculptors; Dan Leyrer, photographer, and Robert H. Merrill, civil
engineer. This group brought back a fine set of drawings plus four
hundred photographs, fifteen hundred feet of movie film, and

maps of the site and neighboring area. The existence of these

drawings is little known among Mayan scholars of today.
The original idea of the Quadrangle was reduced to a portion of
the North Building which was built for the Fair. Gerhardt Kramer
was commissioned to make the plaster casts used for the faqade of
the building. It remained open through both years of the Fair.

SPINOZA, HEGEL, AND MIES: THE MEANING

OF THE NEW NATIONAL GALLERY IN BERLIN

Peter Serenyi, Northeastern University

When he accepted the Gold Medal of the American Institute of

and client Herbert Greenwald, a former philosophy student and a

man of rare vision, who commissioned Mies to build the Promon-

tory and the Lake Shore Drive Apartments here in Chicago.

In Spinoza's view, as expressed in his Theological-Political Treatise, published anonymously in 1670, a man should "live according
to the common will of all, to be guided, as it were, by one mind."
It would be difficult to better summarize Mies's central philosophy
as defined in his writings and visualized in his buildings. For Mies's

definition of architecture as being "the will of an epoch translated

into space" is a Hegelian reinterpretation of Spinoza's political

principle in visual terms. Mies's relation to Spinoza must be seen
through Hegel, the first major German philosopher whose ideas
and methodology were greatly influenced by Spinoza. The latter's
attempt to fuse Biblical idealism with Cartesian rationalism is replaced by Mies's unification of scientific materialism with German
idealism. The architectural prototypes that fitted into this scheme
were Greek and Gothic. As Hegel, Mies admired Greek architecture for the clarity and rationality of its form and Gothic architec-

ture for its spatial fluidity. The aesthetic preferences of Hegel and

Mies reflected their sociophilosophical outlook, for they both admired the rational structure of the Greek polis and the spirituality

of the Middle Ages. It is with the words of St. Augustine, for example, that Mies concluded one of his published lectures by saying
that "beauty is the splendor of Truth." Elsewhere he cites Thomas

Aquinas in proclaiming that "truth is the significance of facts."

When he translated the problem into modern terms Mies said that
"by our practical aims we are bound to the specific structure of
our epoch. Our values, on the other hand, are rooted in the spiritual

nature of men." No building expresses this total fusion between

Architects in April i960, Mies van der Rohe invoked Spinoza's

spirit and matter more perfectly than the New National Gallery in

famous dictum that "great things are never easy. They are as diffi-

cult as they are rare." This reference to Spinoza was not merely a
rhetorical device to conclude a speech but rather a summation of

Berlin, created between 1962 and 1968. By incorporating the rationality of Greek form without its bulk and the continuity of
Gothic space without its goal-directedness, Mies created in this

his deep admiration for the great seventeenth-century philosopher

museum an ideal stage for man and his achievements, a stage where

whose ideas and principles he discussed at length with his friend

the common will of all is guided by the mind of one.

ARCHITECTURE IN HAWAII: THEN AND NOW

Chairman: J. Meredith Neil, University of Hawaii

GROVE FARM PLANTATION

Geoffrey W. Fairfax, Architect, Honolulu, Hawaii

laundry, work sheds, the fernery, the tea house, plantation houses,

duck pens, orchards, vegetable and herb gardens, and countless

other facilities that made for a remarkable self-sufficiency.

tions in Hawaii, covers some Io,ooo acres of land on the green island of Kauai.

The key figure behind the development was George Norton

Wilcox, son of Abner and Lucy Wilcox, who gained control of
Grove Farm Plantation in 1865; and who, for sixty-eight years

And nestled comfortably and securely within this plantation is

thereafter, focused his engineering skills and his daring on its con-

an undisturbed scene of yesteryear, the Grove Farm Homestead-maintained over the years by the descendants of missionaries Ab-

structive growth. Death came to "G.N." in 1933 at the age of

ninety-four-marking the end of a long and productive life in
which success appeared in many ways. George Norton Wilcox

Grove Farm Plantation, one of the most advanced sugar planta-

ner and Lucy Wilcox, and physically isolated from a rapidly

changing community by the dense fields of cane. The seventy-

was a farmer, a surveyor, a botanist, a hydraulic engineer, an in-

eight acre homestead, the base of operations for the plantation in

ventor, a labor relations expert, a financier, a legislator, and a

the early years, is a thoughtfully organized arrangement of build-

philanthropist.

ings, trees, gardens, and roads in a setting of lush natural beauty.

Miss Mabel Wilcox, G.N.'s niece, was born on Grove Farm and

The improvements, dating from the early 185os, include the Wil-

has lived there for eighty-eight years. Consequently, she is extremely knowledgeable as to its history and is deeply concerned

cox house, high-roofed cottages, the office, shop buildings, the

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241

program. It will soon be possible for visitors to wander about the

grounds and to learn of the wonders, the restful atmosphere, and
the good life of Grove Farm. Thus the story of an early Hawaiian

churches which symbolize the religious influences which were

brought to bear on the native Hawaiians: Kawaiahao Congregational Church, Our Lady of Peace Roman Catholic Cathedral, and
St. Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral.
There are many other interesting reminders of Hawaii's past
amid the modern structures of business and government which

sugar plantation, a significant part of the Islands' history, will be

surround Iolani Palace. The Palace was built in 188o-I882 as the

with its future. For many years her wish has been to preserve the

homestead and to somehow share it with the public; and, toward

this end, Miss Wilcox is now directing an extensive restoration

told for the first time.

official residence of the Hawaiian kings and queens and is the only
royal palace in the United States. Since the overthrow of the mon-

HAWAII'S PAST TODAY

Rhoda E. A. Hackler, University of Hawaii

In 19o6, Charles Mulford Robinson, a city planning advisor, came
to Hawaii from Rochester, New York, to undertake a study of the
city of Honolulu at the request of the Board of Supervisors of the

County of Oahu. One section of Mr. Robinson's report pointed

out that "Few cities of the United States are so fortunate as Hono-

archy in I893 it has been the seat of government for succeeding

administrations of the Hawaiian islands until the new capitol was
completed in 1968. Iolani Palace is currently being restored to the
monarchy period, after years of use and abuse as a government

building. When the restoration is complete, the Palace should

complement the new capitol, Victorian and modern structures
facing each other across a grassy mall, and should also provide a
historical center for downtown Honolulu, a fitting reminder of
Hawaii's past today.

lulu in an early grouping of public buildings around a single open

space. At once for its present significance, for its growing importance as official business becomes larger, and for its past, which can

not fail to have increasing historical interest as time goes on, this

center demands careful and worthy development." It is perhaps

not entirely to the credit of subsequent citizens and planners that

THE HIGHRISE BUILDING: THREE CASES,

THREE CITIES

Reuel Denney, University of Hawaii

Honolulu is still struggling to develop a suitable civic center

The motivation and timing of the highrise was strikingly different

around the grounds of lolani Palace as Robinson suggested should

be done sixty-five years ago.

for each of these three cities. So was function, to a degree. Chicago

During the past five years the civic center concept has achieved

increasing public acceptance and a number of steps have been

taken by government and by private organizations to turn dreams

into reality. In 1965 the Hawaii State Capitol Complex Master

Plan was completed; in 1967 John Carl Warnecke and Associates

originated the bigger steel-frame highrise for the Loop. Later, Chi-

cago and New York built residential highrises, beginning with the

hotel. Meanwhile, pre-World War II London resisted the form.

So did Honolulu. In London, as Rasmussen explains, the English
wished to preserve the familiar London profile and a residential
life-style that includes individual gardens. In Honolulu, after 1945,

submitted to the City and County of Honolulu an overall plan for

land scarcity, population increases, and rising income made the

Oahu Civic Centers, including the Iolani Palace complex; and that
same year the Department of Land and Natural Resources con-

difference. Land scarcity and rising price was the biggest factor.

ceived and publicized in a brochure entitled "Monarchy Promenade" a walking tour of seventeen points of historical interest in

Most Honolulu highrises were for near-resort residential use.

(Statehood in 1959 was a great impetus to prosperity and inflation.) The English motivation is less clear, in London. Land costs

the vicinity oflolani Palace and the proposed Civic Center, and the

contributed. But since the first highrises to break the horizon were

Friends of Iolani Palace was organized as a nonprofit group to

corporate symbols rather than residential (or hotel, except for the
Hilton) the motivation seems distinct. Speculation: highrises appeared in London after 1945 because the center of the British Empire needed prestige symbols. Government officials, sensing this
need, hurried the acceptance. Unfortunately, none of these cities
balanced the highrise against adequate green space. True, some
London suburban highrises do provide green space. So do a few in
Hawaii, including those in the neighbor islands. This question of

assist in the restoration of the Palace itself.

Honolulu is indeed fortunate to have so many historical buildings grouped relatively closely together within the downtown
business district of the city and so easily accessible to both visitors
and citizens. Iolani Palace serves as a center from which the history
of Honolulu can be viewed. Across the street from the Palace, in
the grounds of theJudiciary Building, is a statue of Kamehameha I,

the warrior chief who first unified the Hawaiian islands. Nearby
are the recently restored homes of the Christian missionaries who

ample siting is the immediate problem of the highrise for any pur-

came to Hawaii in I820. To the east, north, and west are three

late for inner Honolulu; not too late for parts of Hawaii.

pose. Too late for Chicago, New York, and inner London; too

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242

AMERICAN COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE

Chairman: Roger W. Moss, Jr., Athenaeum of Philadelphia

THE STYLE OF WILLIAM BUCKLAND,

ARCHITECT (1734-1774)
Robert C. Smith, University of Pennsylvania

William Buckland, considered by many to have been our foremost Colonial architect, was born in Oxford, England. At the age
of fourteen he was apprenticed to an uncle in London, who was a

seventy-five prominent Philadelphians who proceeded to elect

twelve directors and a treasurer and adopt Articles for a Deed of
Settlement.
Among these directors were Samuel Rhoads and Joseph Fox,
master carpenters and members of the prestigious Carpenters'
Company, founded in the 1720s and a dominating influence on

woodcarver as well as a publisher and seller of architectural books.

Philadelphia building until well into the nineteenth century.

As surveyors for the new company, Rhoads and Fox examined

Seven years later, in 1755, he came to this country.

Buckland's career can be divided into three distinct periods. The

the buildings proposed for insurance and prepared the surveys describing the fabric liable for replacement in case of fire loss.

first falls between 1755 and 1759, when he was entirely concerned

with the decoration of George Mason's new country house, Gunston Hall, in Fairfax County, Virginia. During the decade 17601770 he maintained an office in Richmond County, Virginia, and,
as new documents have recently revealed, worked extensively for
John Tayloe II at Mount Airy, where he may have designed the

now ruined house of Menokin nearby. He also began to work,

about 1765, on a number of mansions in and around Annapolis,
Maryland. In the last years of his life (1771-1774), during what can
be considered his third and greatest period of activity, he lived in

Annapolis, where he built the celebrated Matthias Hammond

house, completed the Chase Lloyd, and decorated the Senate
chamber of the State House of Maryland.
William Buckland's greatest contribution to American architecture was in the field of interior and exterior woodwork. From the
pattern books of Batty Langley and others he developed the theme

of the Palladian and Gothic Revival porch, the glazed door, the
arch penetrating a pedimental area, and a distinctive type of mantel decorated with a foliate frieze. At Gunston Hall he introduced

the room with textile-covered walls, bare chimney breast, and

marble mantel, as well as richly carved baseboards. In Annapolis
he provided the plaster cornice along with plaster panelling and
wall and ceiling ornament, the last of which is already Adamesque.

At Gunston he experimented with pseudo-Chinese motifs, introduced "pinwheel" ornament, and employed what appear to be the
oldest surviving Rococo elements inBritish-American woodwork.
To Buckland's second and third periods belong his preoccupation with the carving of foliage and flowers, the concept of a great
room for entertaining, the simplification of the stair railing, and
innovations in the use of the Venetian window. In these last two
categories his work foretells major accomplishments of the architects of the Federal period.

Throughout his career Buckland's work shows a constant concern with elegant and delicate effects of line, a "leanness" of surface decoration which offers the strongest contrast with contem-

porary Philadelphia style, and an ability, rare in the eighteenth

century and indeed in any period, successfully to integrate spectacular subordinate elements into a powerful all-over design.

EARLY FIRE INSURANCE SURVEYS,

AN IMPORTANT TOOL FOR RESTORATION

Beatrice H. Kirkbride, Philadelphia Historical Commission

"The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Ensurance of Houses
from Loss by Fire" was organized in 1752 by subscription of

The master carpenter was the master builder, the architect of the

period, the arbiter of style, design, and building methods. Who

better than he would know what was insurable, the cost of re-

placement, and how best to protect the Company from unwarranted claims? It is not surprising, therefore, that succeeding surveyors of the Philadelphia Contributionship and for later fire in-

surance companies were members of the Carpenters' Company.

The surveys prepared by these men are important tools for restoration today. We learn from their descriptions, technical terms,
and language of the period the fabric, size, height, and age of
buildings as well as the number and arrangement of rooms. They
describe frame details such as exterior and interior cornices, wainscotting, mantels, chimney breasts, stairs, frontispieces, etc., as well

as the size of lights for windows, note the value and rate at which

the building will be insured and the deposit required.

Surveys became more detailed in the nineteenth century but
that is another story. This study is limited to the period between
1752 and 1784. After the Revolution a whole new era of building
began as the Adam style was adopted and adapted by younger artisans to become the Federal style in America.

PETER HARRISON, THE TOURO SYNAGOGUE

AND THE WREN CITY CHURCH

Nancy Halverson Schless [University of Pennsylvania]

It has long been thought that the major prototypes behind Peter
Harrison's works, and, in particular, the Touro Synagogue, New-

port, Rhode Island (1759-1763), were the copies of illustrated

books known or assumed to have been in his private architectural

library. The Synagogue's interior design, both of the colonnaded

gallery and the two-staged ark, seems to show Harrison's fidelity
to the eighteenth-century architectural books of his generation,
primarily those of William Kent andJames Gibbs, while the plan
elements are supposedly based upon those of the Sephardic Synagogue, Amsterdam, 1675, described to the architect by the Rev.

Isaac Touro of Newport.

It may now be assumed, however, that the Touro Synagogue,
far from being a compilation of published sources based upon a
revival of Inigo Jones and his pupilJohn Webb, can be traced to
one specific English building-the Synagogue of the Spanish and
Portuguese Jews, Bevis Marks, London, I700-1701, designed by
the Quaker carpenter and joiner Joseph Avis. That Harrison had
seen, known, and recalled this structure is clear when one examines
the ratios of the rectangular plan, the incorporation of the galleries,

the compromise between the aisled basilica and the tendency towards centralization because of the pulpit's location, and the carv-

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243

ing of the wooden ecclesiastical furnishings. Harrison was not only

raised in the East Riding of Yorkshire and had contacts with Yorkshire merchants in London, but also was in London for three ex-

tensive periods--739-I740o, the winter of 1741-1742, and for

eighteenth centuries in Philadelphia, was formalized and funded

two years ago. Intensive documentation was necessary, in order to
test tradition and received knowledge against land records, maps,
plans, and the artifacts themselves.

considerable lengths of time between 1743 and 1745. He had un-

A historic land model was constructed, based on bounding

paralleled, first-hand opportunities to study both sacred and secular English architecture built since the Great Fire of 1666.

properties, and the sequence of construction of the several docks

In turn, the concept behind the Bevis Marks Synagogue lies in

the Wren city churches of the late seventeenth century where there

appears frequently the scheme of the aisled, galleried auditorium,

often combined smoothly with some suggestion of centralized

and bridges correlated with the building of each of the dwellings

in Budd's Buildings.
A pattern emerged of phases of development, decline, and redevelopment associated with historic city-building. By 1764, the
area bounded by Dock Street, Front, Second, and Walnut streets

planning. In addition to the direct line of descent from the Wren

had been redesigned twice: the first period, 1684 to 1697; the first

city churches to a London synagogue to churches erected during

the 17Ios and 20s under the Tory Act of 1711, there is additional
proof of influences via first-hand contacts among the craftsmen

repair and rebuilding of bridge and causeway by 1718; the second

and building surveyors of the time. It is pertinent to note that Avis,

land rights. Settlement of differences resulted in complete reconstruction, resurveying, and in some cases, repatenting and clearance of titles. The last phase occurred after the Revolution, and

the designer of the Bevis Marks Synagogue, had also worked for
Wren at St. Bride, Fleet Street, as well as for Dr. Robert Hooke,
who often carried out many of Wren's church commissions.
Because of his first-hand knowledge of English architecture,
Harrison was able to accomplish what few of his Colonial contemporaries were able to achieve: bring his personal experience to the
New World and, with the help of pattern books, create a personal
version of the Palladian Revival. The Bevis Marks Synagogue, as
the descendant of the Wren parish church and the ancestor of the
Touro Synagogue, may be seen as a halfway point in the amalgamation of the galleried church into synagogue architecture in the
American colonies.

phase was a complex period from 1746 to 1764 rife with petitions,

viewings, investigations, and redefinition of public and private

ended with final closing and paving by I835.

An inference from this pattern of redevelopment and redefinition is that clouded titles tend to block changes and improvements,

and that there is a high correlation between historic building sur-

vivals and unclear titles and ownership. (The historic building in

continuous ownership by the same family is, of course, not included in this generalization.)

During excavation of Front and Dock streets, remains of a log

road and a stone bridge were exposed eight feet below the surface,

a substantial stone wall, shoring timbers, cribbing, and a large

ARCHAEOLOGY OF EARLY PHILADELPHIA-

THE DOCK AND BUDD'S ROW

Barbara Liggett, University of Pennsylvania

number of artifacts ranging in date of manufacture from 166o to

1840. Their placement and the organization of various fills coincide with the documentary base available in city archives, but pro-

vided previously unknown data as to their sequence and dimensions.

An opportunity to inspect the physical remains of the Drawbridge

and Dock, built traditionally in the late seventeenth and early

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ROCOCO DESIGN

Chairman: Robert C. Smith, University of Pennsylvania

THE FURNITURE OF JEAN-PIERRE LATZ,

1691-1754, AND THE GERMAN ROCOCO
Henry Hawley, Cleveland Museum of Art

Jean-Pierre Latz was born about 1691 in the Electorate of Cologne. He came to Paris at the age of approximately twenty-six
years, presumably already versed in the rudiments of the cabinetmaker's trade. At least by 1741, and probably several years earlier,
he had established himself as an independent master, working outside the direct control of the Paris guild of e'binistes, under the au-

thorization of a royal brevet. In 1749 Latz was party to a legal

action brought by representatives of the Parisian metalworkers
guild charging him with the illegal manufacture of metal mounts
used on his furniture. Though the outcome of this action is not
known, the evidence provided by the resulting description of his
shop made in 1749 and by the inventories taken at the time of

Latz's death in 1754 and after his widow's death in 1756 provide
ample evidence that many, if not all, of the metal mounts used on
Latz's furniture were made in his shop or from models which he
owned. Thus it is known that Latz frequently employed mounts
which were available only to him. The repetition of metal mounts
of unusual design on pieces of furniture stylistically attributable to
Latz makes possible the confident assignment of a considerable
body of extant furniture to his shop.
It is known from documents that Latz supplied furniture for the
use of Frederick the Great. Several pieces of furniture which are
now, or were before World War II, in Potsdam can be presumed
to have been made by Latz because of their style and because of the
designs of their mounts, which are traceable to signed works by
Latz. Several of the pieces attributable to Latz were almost exactly
copied in Prussia. It can be further demonstrated that elements of
these pieces were adapted for the decoration of other examples of
Prussian Rococo furniture. Certain more general stylistic charac-

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244
teristics of the furniture made for Frederick II by local craftsmen

seem to be derived from furniture made by Latz. Frederick stated

enchanted with the imaginative designs of such artists as B6rain,

Pineau, and Meissonier, who introduced the rocaille ornament to

that his intention in importing some examples of French furniture

them. After the rule of William Kent's ponderous architectural

was not only to supply his personal needs but also to provide inspiration for local craftsmen. There is ample evidence that Latz's
furniture at Potsdam fulfilled both these functions.

style for furniture and furnishings, English patrons welcomed the

departure from previous conformity and adopted these new designs, in which gravity yielded to grace and symmetry to freedom.

The credit for adopting the French Rococo style to English

ANDRE SOARES (1720-1769) AND THE

IMPACT OF MEISSONIER AND HIS GERMAN

FOLLOWERS IN PORTUGAL

Robert C. Smith, University of Pennsylvania

Andre Ribeiro Soares da Silva, an obscure architect of the north-

ern Portuguese city of Braga, created some of the most original

and forceful expressions of the Rococo style in Europe. Virtually
forgotten until a few years ago, he is now becoming recognized as
one of the outstanding figures in the art of Portugal.
The mature phase of Soares' brief career began with the spectacular Falperra chapel (1753-1755), decorated in a plastic style
derived from engravings by F. X. Habermann, the brothers Klauber, and other artists, published in Augsburg during the 1740s,
which are a frenetic restatement of the motifs of the French genre

pittoresque in a Germanic language that goes back to the seventeenth-century Ohrmuschelstil. The extravagant but superbly co-

taste, and to English furniture in particular, belongs to Matthias

Lock, whose pattern books were published from 1740 on, and
even more so to Thomas Chippendale. After 1754, when the first

edition of his Director appeared, Rococo became the dominant

style of English furniture, although for a short period only. When

the third edition of the Director appeared in 1762, that style was
already giving way to Chinese and Gothic trends, and even more
so to Robert Adam's Neo-Classical designs.
The London Huguenot silversmiths were first in introducing
the Rococo style to English silver. Paul de Lamerie, for instance,
adopted wholeheartedly those designs by Meissonier in which ro-

caille ornament predominates. However, even during his later

years, when the Rococo style had gained general currency in Eng-

land, Lamerie continued producing, at least occasionally, plain

domestic plate, for which English patrons never lost their genuine

appreciation. The flowering of the Rococo style in English silver

was profuse, as is evident in some of the creations of Phillip Garden, Thomas Hemming, and others. But once again, after a rela-

ordinated ornament of the Falperra chapel is combined with auda-

tively short period, the Neo-Classical revival imposed restraint

cious spatial effects of plan and setting that are constantly recurring

upon the exuberance of this fanciful style.

A certain interchange of form did occur between models con-

in subsequent works by Andrd Soares.

This plastic style continues in the fagade of the sumptuous Casa
do Raio, long ago publicized by Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, the chapels of Nossa Senhora da Torre, and the Terreiro dos Evangelistas
(at the sanctuary of BomJesus), in Braga, and the gilt retables and

ceived in silver and in porcelain. We are thinking of Charles

Kaendler's work in particular. This London silversmith was a
cousin of the master-modeller Kaendler of the Meissen porcelain

pulpits of the Benedictine monastery of Tibaes, all designed before

factory. Furthermore, there was Nicholas Sprimont, onetime silversmith who, in 1745, became the first director of the Chelsea

1757, as well as the retable of Nossa Senhora do Rosario, in the

porcelain works, where he modelled his earlier domestic silver,

Dominican church of Viana do Castelo, dating from 1760 to 1762,

which is the most monumental Rococo altarpiece in Portugal.
At the same time, Andr6 Soares practiced a linear style which is

there were figures and groups on rocaille bases, produced at Chel-

almost an abstraction of his plastic manner, that found its first

great expression in the city hall of Braga, built between 1753 and
1756. It is this style, which in the 1760s became involved with the
manipulation of subtly curving walls, that furnishes an eloquent
parallel with the contemporary buildings of Aleijadinho and other
colonial masters working in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil.
At home in Portugal the styles of Andre Soares, who was just
beginning to feel the effect of Neo-Classicism when he died in
1769, had a profound influence in his native Braga and a wide im-

such as plates, salts, and sauceboats, in soft-paste porcelain. Finally,

sea, Derby, Bow, or elsewhere in England, which impersonate the

gallant spirit of that age in all its brilliance and gaiety. Many of the
characters are derived from the Italian Comedy, and some are seen

through the eyes of Watteau, whose compositions circulated in

contemporary engravings.
For a short moment, an international Rococo style evolved in
the decorative arts. Although French pattern books had been instrumental in launching this style, its dissemination in England was
due to those English artists who assimilated the lighthearted French

Rococo to the more formal English taste.

pact throughout the north, thanks in large measure to the prolific

career of his distinguished disciple Frei Jos6 de Santo Ant6nio

Vilaca (I73I-1809), who continued to work as an architect and

sculptor until the close of the eighteenth century.

PATTERNS FOR ROCOCO DESIGN IN THE

DECORATIVE ARTS (Furniture, silver, porcelain)

Yvonne Hackenbroch, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In England, the Rococo movement resulted in a temporary departure from the traditional predilection for Classical form. This
change was due to the influence of French pattern books, which
had reached the workshops of English craftsmen. The latter were

A RECONSIDERATION OF LATE-NINETEENTHAND EARLY-TWENTIETH-CENTURY CRITICISMS OF SOUTH INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

Partha Mitter, University of Victoria
The aim of the paper is to evaluate the criticisms of South Indian
architecture by those historians of Indian art who had in general

imposed Classical standards of criticism on Indian art. Their approach was curiously reminiscent of Neo-Classic criticisms of
Rococo art. Neo-Classicists, following Vasari's criteria of perfection in art derived from Vitruvius, held that this perfection was

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245

reached in modern times in the Renaissance. They also held that

architecture, and also in the way the Gopuras were conceived. This

the succeeding periods showed the decline of taste as they deviated

view was reinforced by the argument that a decadent society was

from Classical norms of art, and generally condemned the Rococo

responsible for the decline in its arts. We would like to suggest

here that not only is there an absence of necessary correlation between the decline of art and of society but the judgment of these
art historians simply fails to come to terms with this artistic tradition. The concept of "decadence" derived from the Classical tradi-

period as being particularly decadent. Historians of Indian art,

who were influenced by the Classical tradition, naturally searched
for a "Classical" counterpart in Indian art which they identified
with the early art of Sanchi and of the Guptas. Later periods were
accordingly assigned an inferior place and late South Indian architecture was considered thoroughly decadent. Its decadence consisted in its rich and ornate reliefs that formedan integral part of the

tion cannot be applied to South Indian architecture, which was

governed by its own standards of art criticism related to its own
tradition.

THE ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT

Chairman: Leonard K. Eaton, University of Michigan

THE ARTS AND CRAFTS

determined by fashions from continental Europe. While the ap-

IN THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES

parent pattern of craft vs. fashion need not be exclusive to Scandi-

Marian C. Donnelly, University of Oregon

navia, it may in part account for the richness of Scandinavian industrial design in modern times.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century the impact of industrialization, with objects for use and adornment of homes being
mass-produced by machines, was followed by a reactionary wave
of interest in handwork and the productions of individual craftsmen. The most formal expression of this interest appeared in Eng-

CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE: ITS DEBT TO

THE ARTS AND CRAFTS

H. Allen Brooks, University of Toronto

(visiting professor, Vassar College)

land in the work of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts

movement.

The development was somewhat different in the Scandinavian

countries. Industrialization came more slowly, and there was

[This paper will be published in a forthcoming issue of the

JSAH.]

greater continuity of the traditions of individual craftsmen. As

early as the I840s these traditions were starting to find official na-

School of Arts, Crafts, and Design in 1844. In the I860s and I870s

THE ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT

AND THE MISSION REVIVAL

of C. G. Estlander and Akseli Gallen-Kallela. In Denmark, Anton

Elliot A. P. Evans, The Society of California Pioneers

Rosen and Theodore Bindesbll were among those who fostered

The Mission Revival, later in origin than the Arts and Crafts
movement, shared several concepts with it. The California Mis-

tional identity, as indicated by the founding of the Swedish State

these interests deepened, particularly in Finland with the leadership

the idea of artistic development away from academic systems and

toward the values of high-quality handicrafts. The Arts and Crafts

sions themselves offered few inspirations for interiors and furnish-

Exhibition in London in 1888 provided additional inspiration, and

Scandinavian design at this period was also characterized by the

and was also appropriate to the California bungalow developing at

use of motifs from Celtic and Viking traditions. Some of the artists
who worked in the "Arts and Crafts" spirit in its stricter sense con-

tinued on into the twentieth century, adopting the design formulas

of the Art Nouveau.

A clearly defined movement parallel to that of the Arts and

Crafts in England did not develop in the Scandinavian countries.
The continued vigorous production of handicrafts throughout the
nineteenth century probably made a formal expression less necessary.

In addition to the forces at work in Scandinavia at this time, a

more deeply rooted kind of tradition probably contributed to the

ings. However, "hand-madeness" appeal was common to both

the same time. By 19oo, "Mission" interiors and furnishings were
indistinguishable from Arts and Crafts versions. So they remained

until all disappeared ca. I915-1920.

WILSON EYRE, JR. AND THE

ARTS AND CRAFTS IN PHILADELPHIA

Edward Teitelman, University of Pennsylvania

In basic approach if not by name, the Arts and Crafts movement

flourishing of porcelain, glass, metal, and textile production which

formed a significant, broad, and very creative trend in Philadelphia's architecture through at least four decades after 188o. It was

seemed to need little external stimulation. From prehistoric times

reflected in such new institutions as the T-Square Club, the found-

Scandinavian craftsmen showed great strength in the production

of objects of use, a strength which was curiously lacking in those
periods when the major arts of painting and sculpture were more

ing and early volumes of House and Garden magazine, and the ar-

chitecture of a number of creative men, the most important of

whom was Wilson Eyre, Jr. This consideration will trace some

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246
aspects of the Philadelphia Arts and Crafts movement through the

work of Eyre.

The use of the term "Modernismo" must be clarified. To counter the catchall vagueness of this designation in recent literature,

Eyre's approach to architectural design was based on thorough

craftsmanship, and he made frequent and sensitive use of the inherent quality of his materials as well as the crafts of artists and

artisans. He worked closely with such artists as Maxfield Parrish,

Alexander S. Calder, and a number of excellent local artisans such

as Milne, Volkmer, Yellin, and Mercer. As a talented artist himself, his sculptural ornament was of great originality and value, and

he applied these same talents to the design of furniture, mantels,

cupboards, and other objects. Probably most significant was his

ability to fuse these objects with the total construction so that they

were not applied or superfluous but necessary to the total architectural solution.

Eyre, along with a dozen other young architects, in 1883 found-

two distinct phases of architectural production will be characterized. The early phase, leading up to the turn of the century, involved the self-conscious renovation of the Catalan arts and crafts

tradition and was closely associated with the cultural Renaixensa

(Renaissance), as well as with the political aspirations of Catalan

regionalism. The later phase shows concern chiefly with formal
problems which reflect increased foreign influence, especially that
of the Art Nouveau.
The keynote for the first phase, with which the remainder of the

paper will deal, was sounded by Dominech y Montaner's article

"In Search of a National Architecture" (1878) which invoked an
eclecticism of principles from past architectures as the guide to a

truly Catalan style. The showplace for this quest, and for the

ed the T-Square Club for socialization and mutual professional

growth through friendly design competitions. The Club, housed

bourgeois exuberance which made it possible, was provided by the

in a "Bohemian Clubhouse," grew to have great influence even on

a national level through its annual exhibitions and publications as
well as its atelier. Eyre was also deeply involved in the founding

dent in many of the new homes which were filling in the blocks of

International Exposition of 1888, while experimentation was evithe "new city" laid out beyond the recently demolished mediae-

val walls.

and early editing of House and Garden magazine, which was found-

In keeping with a general current in culture and politics at the

ed in Philadelphia in 90go. During the several years that it remained under local control, it provided a strong statement for the

time, many architects were concerned with recalling the glories of

the Catalan mediaeval tradition in the context of nineteenth-cen-

beauty that came from the artful blending of house and garden,
convenience, art, craft, and nature-in effect, the essence of the

techniques, dying arts were revived and glorified, and modern in-

Arts and Crafts movement in its Philadelphia manifestation.

dustrial methods were applied where possible to renovate arts and

These concerns remained strong in local architecture well into

this century, and to some extent have remained an important
theme in Philadelphia's architecture even today.

crafts production and to supply an increased demand. There was,

tury progress. Research was carried out to rediscover lost craft

concurrently, heated debate on the advisability of restoring the

mediaeval guild system in Barcelona.

The workshop of Domenech y Montaner and Gallissi in the

MODERNISMO AND THE ARTS AND CRAFTS

Judith C. Rohrer [Columbia University]

In this paper the discussion will focus on those activities within the
architectural ambience of Barcelona at the end of the nineteenth

century which parallel the concerns of the Arts and Crafts movement elsewhere, and yet at the same time reflect the unique socio-

political and economic circumstances in Catalonia during this

period.

early 89gos was a center for the restoration and renovation of the
craft tradition. Artisans from various fields came together there to

experiment and develop their techniques along common lines,

while under the same roof Catalanista politicians met to prepare
the framework for an autonomous regional government. Elsewhere, architects such as Gaudi worked closely with craftsmen at

individual building sites, establishing an intimate master-apprentice relationship. There was, in addition, a commercial revitalization of the arts and crafts on a larger scale for which architects pro-

vided both designs and clientele.

WORLD'S FAIRS 1851-1970

Chairman: John Maass, City of Philadelphia

THE BATTLE OF THE SIDEBOARDS:
FURNITURE COMPETITION AT

INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS 1851-1876

Kenneth Ames, Franklin & Marshall College

International exhibitions of the nineteenth century played an important r1le in determining the styles and fashions of the furniture

Sources of the period repeatedly stress the competitive nature of

these events. No aspect was free from rivalry. The major buildings
at each successive event vied with their predecessors in daring and
in scale. Each successive fair tried to outdo the others in the number of square feet under cover. At each, nations vied with nations,
manufacturers with manufacturers, designers with designers.
This competitive spirit extended to furniture, which, like other

of that century. These exhibitions promoted an intense international rivalry which eventually saw France's position as the font of
furniture inspiration challenged and ultimately denied, and Eng-

arts of the period, had been a source of both satisfaction and dis-

land assuming the r1le.

the glaring disparity between imaginative exhibition buildings and

may. Those disappointed claimed that furniture had limited itself

wholly to copying, and degenerate styles at that. They pointed out

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247
their unimaginative contents. One even found more inventiveness

Beaux Arts, and by Marlborough House, in which the South

in the Crystal Palace than in all its contents put together.

Kensington team had quarters between I852 and 1857. All these
"permanent" buildings have vanished.

Two factors, then, motivated furniture activity in the twentyfive years between 1851 and 1876: international competition, par-

ticularly between long-time rivals France and England, and the

need to escape from copying into production of furniture as imagi-

native as the best architecture of the period. Both these factors

were intensified by the International Exhibitions.
At the Crystal Palace in 1851 a lavish sideboard by Fourdinois of
Paris stole the show and established the sideboard as the competition piece. In the Renaissance Revival style, a French contribution

to the nineteenth century, this sideboard sparked in English designers a host of imitators and rivals. The imitators accepted French

supremacy but sought to outdo the French at their own game. The

rivals, on the other hand, spurned French solutions and sought

original forms of their own devising. Now known as the Reform
Style, this British creation eventually superseded the French styles,

giving to Britain a short-lived but important primacy in furniture

design.

It is possible that without the challenge of the international ex-

hibitions and the appeals to nationalism they fostered, the English Reform Style would have evolved. But it is hard to believe that these fairs were not crucial in hastening its development.

MEMORIAL HALL, 1876: INTERNATIONAL

ARCHITECTURE IN THE FIRST AGE OF
MASS COMMUNICATIONS
John Maass, City of Philadelphia
Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, was designed as
the Art Gallery of America's first world's fair, the Centennial Ex-

hibition, and to house a permanent museum afterwards. The ar-

chitect was Hermann J. Schwarzmann, a twenty-eight-year-old

immigrant from Munich. He was employed as chief engineer of
the exhibition, and he had never designed a building before. How
did an inexperienced young man arrive at this remarkably successful design? Memorial Hall far surpassed the four art museum buildings designed in the United States before 1874, and it did not resemble any European museum then extant. A search discovered its

prototype: in 1867 (the year of an International Exposition in

Paris) the Prix-de-Rome project was Un Palais pour l'exposition
des Beaux Arts. Schwarzmann developed his plan from a nonpremiated entry by N. F. Escalier, aged twenty-four, published in

AS ACADEMY

the Croquis d'Architecture; he also seems to have looked at the published entries of E. B6nard and L. Feuchere. There is no stigma to
this traditional process; Schwarzmann actually built an effective

Winslow Ames, University of Rhode Island

museum, and he greatly improved on the paper projects of the

French students. The imposing "great hall" of Memorial Hall also

As a performance, the 1862 fair might have been almost as much a

recalls the spirit of a Piranesi etching of 1743, Galleria grande di

Statue. Curiously, there was a marriage between the Piranesi and

LONDON 1862: CRYSTAL PALACE

success as 1851 if the death of the Prince Consort in December

1861 had not deprived it of one of the most skillful personnel man-

agers ever. The exhibition was even larger than its predecessor;
many of the exhibits showed the influence of the South Kensington Museum team that grew out of the 1851 experience and prop-

agandized for both good industrial design and "sound historical

principles." Many of the buildings were meant to be permanent,
and were deliberately related to the enclosure of the great South
Kensington superblock by the Arcades, which functioned as sculpture galleries under partial cover and as control devices for the gar-

dens of the Royal Horticultural Society. The important and externally visible buildings were in two ranges: I. almost entirely of
brick with tall arches, punctuated by taller pavilions topped by

curved mansards terminating in glass and metal lanterns; 2. a

parallel range which was really a sort of I840 train-shed with a
great twelve-sided glass "dome" at each end; the long north side
of the latter was masked by two-story "aisles" in brick with tiers
of triplet windows, rather like the first buildings of the Museum

Schwarzmann families in the eighteenth century.

Memorial Hall also has surprising European offspring. It has

been noticed before that Memorial Hall, with its distinctive square
glass dome, resembles the Reichstag (German parliament) build-

ing in Berlin; it was taken for granted that Schwarzmann copied

this prestigious German building. However, Memorial Hall was

built 1874-1876; the Reichstag was designed in 1882 and built

1884-1894. The parliament building in Berlin is, in fact, an enlarged pastiche of the museum in Philadelphia. It can be shown
beyond doubt that Paul Wallot derived his design of the Reichstag
building from articles on Memorial Hall published in the Deutsche
Bauzeitung in 1876. This is one of the earliest instances of an Ameri-

can prototype for European architecture. The Reichstag building,

in turn, became the model for important buildings in Europe, including courts, museums, and libraries.
This tale of two continents demonstrates the effect of interna-

tional mass communications upon architecture.

across the way. The designer was Captain Francis Fowke, Royal
Engineers, who had designed both "Brompton Boilers," the shortlived first exhibition building of the Museum, and the brick-andterracotta galleries which still stand around the back court of the
V. & A., not to mention his temporary buildings for the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857. The glass domes of 1862 may
well have been influenced by those which were built or proposed
for several imitations of the Crystal Palace between 185 I and 1860
(New York, Dublin, Paris) or for the Palace itself as rearranged at
Sydenham. The "permanent" buildings were influenced probably
by Dutch eighteenth-century architecture, by Duban's Ecole des

WHAT THE ENGINEERS CONTRIBUTED TO

THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION
Titus M. Karlowicz, Western Illinois University
D. H. Burnham and the nonresident contingent of the commission
of architects are given credit for devising as well as carrying out an

architectural program for the World's Columbian Exposition as if

they were free from external influence. Any attempt to investigate

the degree of freedom of decision which did exist is very recent.

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248
This paper attempts to show that a predisposition against bold and
adventuresome structural displays comparable to those of the two

wrong fork in the road. The White City, to our disappointment

and mild embarrassment, did not continue the boldness which had

preceding French international expositions was established in ad-

begun with the Crystal Palace in 1851. And only one designer has
emerged unscathed: Sullivan, for his exotic Transportation Building.

vance of any discussions by the commission of architects and

Burnham.

Select proposed designs for a comprehensive building and a

tower are presented to indicate the extent of interest shown by
engineers and their backers in such undertakings. In addition an
explanation is offered for how they were removed from prominent consideration. The primary force is attributed to Octave
Chanute, because developments subsequent to his suggestions follow his line of thought.
The presentation closes with a review of changes in plan for the
Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building to show that the attempt
to display American engineering prowess at the World's Columbian Exposition was a tardy and fortuitous contradiction of Chanute's precepts.

Were these opinions also the opinions of European critics who

judged the worth and meaning of the exposition in the I89os? To a
certain extent, yes. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is not to
argue that we hold today a viewpoint quite different from that of
European critics of seventy-five years ago but to qualify and interpret their judgments, to suggest reasons for differences of opinion

abroad, and to examine this criticism as a part of the abundant

commentary on American architecture in these years.

Many architects of Western Europe believed that when the

long-awaited new style of architecture appeared, it would appear
first in the United States. They thought the American exposition
might reveal aspects of the new style, especially after the announce-

ment that Chicago had been chosen as the host city. Reporters for
the popular press described the setting more favorably than did the
CHICAGO 1893: EXPECTATIONS

architects and representatives of the professional journals. Unlike

AND REACTIONS ABROAD

Sullivan, the latter floundered in trying to assess the meaning of

the buildings for the country. They did not know if the halls were

Arnold Lewis, College of Wooster

isolated instances necessitated by the exceptional demands of an

exposition or indicators of a national trend for which they were

For most architectural historians today the Chicago Exposition of

1893 was an unfortunate event in the history of American archi-

unprepared. Confused, they tried to readjust their expectations for

the reality they met. Some rejected the White City for the Black

tecture. We have lamented the failure of its planners to listen to the

City of Chicago's Loop where, they claimed, the real American

progressive voices of the time and to demonstrate for an interna-

architecture could be studied. Negative criticisms of the exposition

were more evident in 1894 and 1895 than they had been in I893.

tional audience the techniques and approaches which had attracted

attention abroad in the decade before the fair. Repeatedly, we have

quoted Louis Sullivan's "the damage wrought by the World's Fair

will last for half a century" as proof that the leadership took the

The results of the fair sobered European architects who by I895

had begun to reconsider their pre-I893 image of the vigor and
potential of American work.

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