Frank Lloyd Wright correspondence

Collection Overview

Repository:

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives.

Creator:

Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Title:

Frank Lloyd Wright correspondence

Call Number:

A0006

Dates:

1943-1960 (bulk 1951-1958)

Volume:

1.4 cubic ft. (4 manuscript boxes)

Historical Abstract:

American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW), 1867-1959, played a leading role in transforming the practice of architecture early in the 20th century. FLW claimed to build "organic" architecture that seemed to grow naturally out of the surrounding landscape. He believed the internal space, furnishings and decorative details of a house to be intrinsic to its architecture. Many of his projects incorporated site specific furniture and fittings. These unified projects were intended to possess a natural "organic" beauty that would promote the life of the human spirit. During the Great Depression, FLW founded a community known as the Taliesin Fellowship and published an autobiography. Later commissions such as those for the Johnson Wax Administration building and Fallingwater, Edgar J. Kaufmann's residence progressed FLW's career. These projects, like his design for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, built in the 1950s, incorporated reinforced concrete cantilevered construction that liberated architecture from the "Box." All of FLW's works express his reverence for nature and his belief in the "soul of humanity."

Scope and Content Abstract:

The Frank Lloyd Wright correspondence spans the years 1943 to 1959 and documents the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation's (SRGF) relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright through the course of planning and constructing the new Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum building at 1071 Fifth Ave. The collection consists of letters, telegrams, memoranda, newspaper clippings, transcripts of speeches, and financial records relating to the SRGF. The majority of the records from series one have been digitized and can be viewed in the folder list of the collection's online finding aid. Select records were not digitized due to preservation needs and fragility concerns.

Location:

Language:

Collection is primarily in English.

Arrangement:

Organized into 2 series: 1. Correspondence Compiled for Harry F. Guggenheim; 2. Correspondence Compiled for other Guggenheim Foundation Trustees.

Restrictions:

The collection is unrestricted.

Publication Rights:

Requests for permission to publish material from this collection should be discussed with the Manager of the Library and Archives.

Preferred Citation:

Frank Lloyd Wright correspondence. A0006. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, New York, NY.

Subjects:

Architects--United States--Correspondence.
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Contributors:

Guggenheim, Harry Frank, 1890-
Guggenheim, Solomon R. (Solomon Robert), 1861-1949.
Hunt, Clinton N.
Moses, Robert, 1888-1987.
Rebay, Hilla, 1890-1967.
Short, William H.
Sweeney, James Johnson, 1900-
Thiele, Albert E.
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959.
Wright, Olgivanna Lloyd.

Finding aid prepared by Elizabeth Merrill, Alan Houston and Alexandra Woodworth in 2006-2007.

Digitization of this collection was made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

Historical Note

Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin on June 8, 1867. His early life remained nomadic and unsettled until his family arrived in Madison, Wisconsin in 1878, where FLW attended Madison High School. He left without graduating in 1885 to work for Allan D. Conover, then the Dean of the University of Wisconsin's Engineering Department. While at the University, FLW spent two semesters studying civil engineering; he was, otherwise, entirely self-taught.

In 1887, FLW moved to Chicago, where he apprenticed with the architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee. One year later, he went to work for the firm of Adler and Sullivan as a draughtsman, directly under Louis Sullivan. While working for Sullivan, FLW met and married Catherine Tobin; the two moved to Oak Park, Illinois where FLW built the house in which they would live for the next twenty years and raise their five children. In 1893, FLW left Adler and Sullivan to open his own firm, which he operated in Chicago before relocating it to the studio he had built adjacent to the Oak Park house.

Over the course of his career, FLW combined a diverse array of formative influences (few of which he would ever acknowledge as such)--19th century Romantic idealism, the writings of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Friedrich Froebel's geometric blocks for children, the Arts and Crafts movement, his experience at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 (which introduced him to both pre-Columbian architecture and Japanese art and design), and especially his former employer, Louis Sullivan--into a design vocabulary for what he called "organic architecture." By "organic," FLW did not mean a style that imitated nature, but rather one that creatively reinterpreted nature's principles. Vital to this reinterpretation was maintaining respect for the harmonious relationship between the building site and the materials used in construction as well as between the form and function of the building itself. His attempt to create an indigenous American architecture that echoed the natural environment in abstract forms and to integrate the twin themes of spatial continuity and rigorous, geometric order characterized what came to be known as his "Prairie style" homes. This can be seen clearly in the Darwin D. Martin House in Buffalo, New York (1904) and the Frederick C. Robie House in Oak Park, Illinois (1906), where FLW used over-hung, low-hipped roofs and uninterrupted walls of windows to emphasize the continuous horizontal movement he saw in the vast expanse of the Midwestern landscape.

In 1909, FLW abruptly left for Germany with his mistress Mamah Borthwick Cheney, the wife of a neighbor and client. When they returned in 1911, they moved to Spring Green, Wisconsin, where his mother had given him a portion of his ancestors' land. It was this land upon which he constructed the home and studio he called "Taliesin." The Wrights would live there until 1914, when tragedy stuck: a servant murdered Cheney, her two children, and four others and set fire to the house.

FLW began rebuilding Taliesin almost immediately. Around the same time, he received several larger commissions, including the Midway Gardens in Chicago (1913) and the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo (1915). It was in the late 1910s and early 1920s that FLW also began exploring Mayan architecture and experimenting with a construction technique that used a system of mass-produced, patterned concrete blocks ("textile" blocks), the results of which can be seen in a number of houses in and around Los Angeles, California: the Barnsdall Hollyhock House (1917), the Millard House (1923), and the Ennis House (1923) are all examples. Much of the 1920s, however, were characterized by personal difficulties, with a second, failed marriage to Maud Miriam Noel, a new mistress, and a constant struggle to obtain commissions.

The second phase of FLW's career began in 1928 with his marriage to Olgivanna Lazovich. In 1932, FLW opened Taliesin as an architectural fellowship. Thirty apprentices came to live with the Wrights, in what was vigorously promoted as an ideal, self-sustaining community of apprentices and architects who would learn and practice the philosophy of organic architecture by sharing in architectural work, building construction, and the related arts (which often included tending the Taliesin farm). During this time--when he was already approaching seventy years old--FLW received two major commissions, for which he produced two of the most important buildings of his career: Fallingwater, for Edgar J. Kaufmann in Bear Run, Pennsylvania (1935), and the Johnson Wax Company administrative building in Racine, Wisconsin (1936). Beginning in 1936 and continuing until his death in 1959, FLW also devoted himself to what he called "Usonian" houses--modest, moderately-priced, single-story homes of brick, wood, and glass, designed to provide comfort and high quality architecture to clients with limited budgets.

In 1937, FLW moved his fellowship from Wisconsin to Phoenix, Arizona, where he built a new complex, Taliesin West. He would spend the last twenty years of his life there. Taliesin West typifies the kind of geometric experimentation that would define the last (and most productive) phase of his career, wherein he would design buildings that mixed shapes (triangles, circles, squares, rectangles) and materials (concrete, plaster, masonry) for both domestic and non-domestic structures.

FLW was seventy-five when Hilla Rebay (HR) first contacted him about designing a museum to house Solomon R. Guggenheim's (SRG) growing collection of non-objective paintings. FLW was instantly eager to work for SRG when HR proposed the idea in June of 1943. FLW had specific ideas on the form the museum should take; in December of that year, he wrote HR, "I am so full of ideas for our Museum that I am likely to blow up or commit suicide unless I can let them out on paper. That building ought to show how to show a painting." From the beginning FLW was involved in every aspect of the new Museum, from its location to the proper way to display its non-objective paintings. The building, formed as a cast concrete spiral with a continuous, cantilevered ramp, combined many of the structural, spatial, and expressive ideas FLW had explored throughout his career into a single, integrated, sculptural entity that is itself a work of non-objective art. The building opened on October 21, 1959 to enormous crowds, but the design remained controversial: critics complained that it threatened to overwhelm the paintings it contained, that the curving walls of the spiral were inappropriate for the display of art, and that the lighting--the design relied heavily on natural light from the glass dome atop the building and a narrow glass band running along the exterior wall--was inadequate.

On April 9, 1959 at the age of ninety-two, FLW died at his home in Phoenix. In all, he designed 1141 works, including houses, offices, churches, schools, libraries, and museums. Of that total, 532 resulted in completed structures, 409 of which still stand.

Chronology

	1867	Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) born in Richland Center, WI on June 8. He is the first child of William Cary Wright and Anna Lloyd Jones Wright.
	1869-1877	Wright family moves to McGregor, IA. Subsequent moves take the family to Pawtucket, RI and Weymouth, MA.
	1876	Anna Lloyd Wright introduces the "Froebel Kindergarten" training to her son.
	1878	The Wright family moves to Madison, WI. FLW spends the summer months at the James Lloyd Jones farm near Spring Green, WI into the 1880s.
	1885	FLW's parents divorce and his father leaves Madison. FLW takes a part-time job as a draftsman with Allan D. Conover, University of Wisconsin engineering professor.
	1886	FLW attends University of Wisconsin.
	1887-1889	FLW leaves Madison for Chicago, finding employment first at the office of Joseph L. Silsbee and eventually with the architectural firm of Adler and Sullivan.
	1889	FLW marries Catherine Lee Tobin. Designs his own home in Oak Park, IL.
	1890	FLW is assigned all residential design handled by Adler and Sullivan. Birth of Lloyd, first of six children by Catherine.
	1892	FLW leaves offices of Adler and Sullivan.
	1893	FLW opens his own practice.
	1894	First exhibition of FLW's work is held at the Chicago Architectural Club. Daughter Catherine Lloyd Wright is born.
	1895	Son David Samuel Wright is born.
	1897	FLW moves his office to Steinway Hall, Chicago.
	1898	Daughter Frances Lloyd Wright born.
	1903	Son Robert Llewellyn Wright born.
	1904	FLW's father, William Wright (1825-1904) dies and is buried in small graveyard in Bear Valley near Lone Rock, WI.
	1909	FLW leaves his practice and family for Europe accompanied by Mamah Borthwick Cheney.
	1910	FLW returns from Europe.
	1911	FLW begins building a new home and studio near Spring Green, WI and calls the complex Taliesin.
	1912	FLW opens an office in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, IL.
	1913	FLW visits Japan to secure commission for the Imperial Hotel and to acquire Japanese prints for American clients.
	1914	A servant kills Mamah Cheney her two children and four others, then sets fire to Taliesin. FLW begins after a month to rebuild. The exhibition "Frank Lloyd Wright's work since 1911" is held at the Art Institute of Chicago. FLW meets Miriam Noel whom he later marries.
	1916	Contract signed for the Imperial Hotel commission at Taliesin. FLW sails to Japan with Miriam Noel and opens an office in Tokyo.
	1922	FLW returns for final time from Japan, opens an office in Los Angeles FLW and Catherine are divorced.
	1923	FLW's mother, Anna, dies and is buried in Unity Chapel cemetery. Kanto earthquake demolishes much of Tokyo; Imperial Hotel survives. FLW marries Miriam Noel. Construction begins on the textile block houses in Los Angeles.
	1924	FLW separates from Miriam Noel. FLW meets Olga Lazovich (Olgivanna).
	1925	Second major fire occurs at Taliesin. Daughter Iovanna born to Wright and Olgivanna. FLW again rebuilds Taliesin, Taliesin III, Spring Green, WI.
	1926	The Bank of Wisconsin takes title to Taliesin, due to FLW's indebtedness. FLW and Olgivanna are arrested near Minneapolis for allegedly violating the Mann Act FLW starts work on his autobiography.
	1927	FLW and Miriam Noel divorced.
	1928	FLW marries Olgivanna at Rancho Santa Fe, California. Wright, Inc. is formed by a group of FLW's friends who obtain title to Taliesin for FLW.
	1931	An exhibition of FLW's life work travels to New York City, Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Brussels, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Eugene, Oregon, and Chicago.
	1932	The Wrights found the Taliesin Fellowship and convert the Hillside Home School buildings at Hillside into the Taliesin Fellowship Complex. "An Autobiography" is published. FLW's work is included in the "International Style Exhibition" at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.
	1934	FLW and apprentices begin construction of a scale model of a section of Broadacre City.
	1935	Construction of the Broadacre City model continues at "La Hacienda" in Chandler, AZ; completed model is exhibited at "National Alliance of Arts and Industry Exposition" Rockefeller Center, New York City.
	1937	FLW purchases approximately 800 acres of government land near Phoenix, AZ and design and construction of Taliesin West begins.
	1940	"The Work of Frank Lloyd Wright," a major retrospective exhibition, is held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. FLW founds the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
	1946	Stepdaughter Svetlana dies in automobile accident on September 30.
	1951	FLW and his apprentices design and construct an exhibition of FLW's work entitled "Sixty Years of Living Architecture." It includes models, photomurals, and original drawings. The show opens at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence.
	1952	The exhibition "Sixty Years of Living Architecture" travels from Florence to Zurich, Paris, Munich, and Rotterdam.
	1953	The exhibition "Sixty Years of Living Architecture" is on view in Mexico City and at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
	1954	The exhibition "Sixty Years of Living Architecture" concludes its run at FLW's Hollyhock House in Los Angeles.
	1955	FLW opens office and residence in New York City, "Taliesin East," at the Plaza Hotel.
	1957	FLW is invited to Baghdad, Iraq, where he is asked to design a cultural center to include and opera house, two museums, and a post office and telecommunications building.
	1959	FLW dies on April 9 in Arizona. Services, officiated by the minister of the Madison Unitarian Society, are held on April 12 at Taliesin near Spring Green.

Chronology of built projects

	1891	House for James Charnley, Chicago, IL.
	1893	Japanese Temple for World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, IL.
	1902	House for Susan Lawrence Dana, Springfield, IL.
	1903	Larkin Company Administration Building, Buffalo, NY (demolished).
	1904	House for Darwin D. Martin, Buffalo, NY. Unity Temple, Oak Park, IL.
	1905	Lawrence Memorial Library, Dana House, Springfield, IL. Rookery Building, Interior Remodeling, Chicago, IL.
	1906	House for Frederick C. Robie, Chicago, IL.
	1908	House for Isabel Roberts, River Forest, IL.
	1913	Midway Gardens, Chicago, IL (demolished).
	1914	Taliesin II, Spring Green, WI.
	1916	Imperial Hotel (1915) Tokyo, Japan (demolished; entrance lobby reconstructed in 1976 in Meiji Village). Imperial Hotel Annex, Tokyo, Japan.
	1917	Hollyhock House for Aline Barnsdall, Los Angeles, CA.
	1923	House for Charles Ennis, Los Angeles, CA. La Miniatura House for Alice Millard, Pasadena, CA. House for John Storer, Los Angeles, CA.
	1932	Taliesin Fellowship Complex, Spring Green, WI.
	1935	"Fallingwater" House for Edgar J. Kaufmann, Bear Run, PA.
	1936	House for Herbert Jacobs, Madison, WI. S.C. Johnson & Son Co. Administration Building (Johnson Wax), Racine, WI.
	1937	Taliesin West, Scottsdale, AZ.
	1943	Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (original design).
	1944	Solar Hemicycle House for Herbert Jacobs, Middleton, WI. S.C. Johnson & Son Co. (Johnson Wax) Research Tower, Racine, WI.
	1946	Unitarian Meeting House, Shorewood Hills, WI.
	1947	Usonia II Housing Master Plan, Pleasantville, NY.
	1948	Gift Shop for V.C. Morris, San Francisco, CA.
	1952	Price Tower for the H.C. Price Company, Bartlesville, OK.
	1953	Usonian Exhibition House and Pavilion for "Sixty Years of Living Architecture" New York, NY (dismantled).
	1954	Exhibition Pavilion for Los Angeles, CA.
	1955	Dallas Theatre Center for Paul Baker, Dallas, TX.
	1956	Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, final revised scheme, New York, NY.

Bibliography

Berg, Henry. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1980.

Costantino, Maria. Frank Lloyd Wright. New York: Cresent Books, 1991.

Cronon, William. "Inconstant Unity: The Passion of Frank Lloyd Wright." In Frank Lloyd Wright: Architect, ed. by Terence Riley with Peter Reed. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994.

Elman, Kimberly. "Frank Lloyd Wright and the Principles of Organic Architecture." Frank Lloyd Wright: Life and Work. PBS. http://www.pbs.org/flw/legacy/index.html.

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. "Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation." http://www.franklloydwright.org.

Johnson, Donald Leslie and Donald Langmead. Makers of 20th Century Modern Architecture: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook. Westport: CT: Greenwood Press, 1997.

Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright. The Guggenheim Correspondence. Carbondale, IL: The Frank Lloyd Wright Memorial Foundation, 1986.

Scully, Vincent. Frank Lloyd Wright. New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1960.

Scope and Content Note

Series Descriptions

Series 1. Correspondence Compiled for Harry F. Guggenheim, 1943-1958, .35 cubic ft. (1 manuscript box)

Summary: Series 1. Correspondence Compiled for Harry F. Guggenheim (1943-1958) consists of letters, telegrams, and memoranda, arranged chronologically. Related correspondence is often attached. The correspondence was originally collected into four binders and ordered chronologically, with each binder accompanied by an index. Indices include detailed summaries of the contents of individual letters. Many of the letters and memoranda are copies of originals; these copies appear on both yellow and pink paper. There is a separate "supplemental" index for the pink copies. The pink copies of the letters in this collection are interfiled with the remainder of the correspondence (see Schweppenheimer's memo of June 27, 1958, a copy of which is in the Documentation on Collection and Indices folder). The correspondence documents the planning and construction of the new Museum designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW), including discussions about the Museum site, Museum design, the production of drawings, the construction of models, building costs, negotiations with contractors, the naming of the Museum, and the Museum's organizational structure. The often acrimonious debates over escalating construction costs and architect's fees are especially well documented here. Another highlight of the collection is the correspondence documenting the conflict between FLW and James Johnson Sweeney over a number of design issues, particularly the display of artwork in the Museum.

Arrangement: Chronological

Series 2. Correspondence Compiled for other Guggenheim Foundation Trustees, 1943-1960, 1.05 cubic ft. (3 manuscript boxes)

Summary: Series 2. Correspondence Compiled for other Guggenheim Foundation Trustees (1943-1960) was compiled over time for trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (SRGF) other than Harry F. Guggenheim (HFG). The bulk of the collection consists of letters, telegrams, and memoranda (originals and copies), arranged by subject. The series also includes a small amount of financial records. The correspondence between Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW), HFG, Albert E. Thiele, Museum directors Hilla Rebay and James Johnson Sweeney, various builders, and New York City officials document a number of issues pertaining to the planning and construction of the new Museum building, from the selection of a site, the acquisition of property, and the search for a builder, to the appropriate method for displaying artwork and the creation of a publication, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: Architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, following the opening of the Museum. The disputes between FLW and the SRGF over the cost of the project are well represented here. A highlight of this series is a copy of the original letter contract, sent by Solomon R. Guggenheim and accepted by FLW, dated June 29, 1943; the letter established a cost structure for the construction project that would be much debated (and contested) over the course of the subsequent 15 years. Another highlight among the materials related to planning and construction is a group of letters discussing the original application for a building permit, which was initially denied by the Department of Housing and Building, and the subsequent appeal process. Included is a statement submitted to the Board of Standards and Appeals addressing the specific objections raised by the Department of Housing and Building. Also of note are the materials related to the "Sixty Years of Living Architecture" exhibition, which was installed in a temporary pavilion on the site of the new Museum in 1953. The materials include correspondence discussing the planning, construction, demolition, and sale of the Usonian Model Home that FLW designed for the exhibition.

Arrangement: Alphabetical

Box	Folder	Title		Date
000518	9-20	General (12 folders)		undated, 1943-1959
		Exhibition: "Sixty Years of Living Architecture"
000519	1-2		General (2 folders)	July 1953-June 1954
000519	3		Admissions and Catalogue Sales Statements	November 1953-March 1954
000519	4-5		Demolition (2 folders)	December 1953-June 1954
000519	6		Exhibition Expenses Statements	November 1953-February 1954
000519	7		Income and Expenditures Statements	November 1953-July 1954
000519	8-9		Payments (2 folders)	December 1953-May 1954
000520	1-4	Fees and Agreements (4 folders)		1943-1959
000520	5	Hilla Rebay		undated, 1944-1951
000520	6-16	Planning and Construction (11 folders)		1945-1956
		Publications: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: Architect, Frank Lloyd Wright (New York: Horizon Press, 1960)
000520	17-21		Correspondence (5 folders)	February 1960-December 1960
000520	22		Essays	1958-1960

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Frank Lloyd Wright correspondence