Pioneering Agreement with Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Will Make
Historically Important Archives Accessible to Students, Scholars and Public

Columbia University, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation have announced that the vast archives of Frank Lloyd Wright (American, 1867-1959) have been jointly acquired by the University and the Museum and will become part of their permanent collections. Wright is considered by many to be one of the 20th century’s most influential architects, a figure whose iconic work helped define modernism. The American Institute of Architects, in a recent national survey, recognized him as “the greatest American architect of all time.” 

Avery Library will be the repository for all paper-based archival contents, including 23,000 architectural drawings, the extensive personal and professional correspondence as well as 44,000 photographs including both personal and architectural photography of Wright’s works, interview tapes, transcripts and films.  The Museum of Modern Art will house all three-dimensional works, including architectural models, architectural elements and design prototypes in the archives.  The Archives add to Avery and MoMA existing collections of materials by Frank Lloyd Wright, and this joint acquisition signals a ground-breaking collaboration between the two institutions to insure long term access and preservation of the materials, at the same time providing opportunities to celebrate the collections through public programs and exhibitions, curricular integration, research interrogation and publications.

• New York Times article
• Columbia University News (press release)
  
• Columbia University Libraries News (press release)
• Video and Slideshow
  

The existence of the magnificent Frank Lloyd Wright archives is the result of visionary actions and hard work by those who knew and loved Wright. During his lifetime, the architect had declined to donate portions of his work to various museums and institutions, preferring to keep together his life's work. Upon Wright's death in 1959, Mrs. Wright gathered the archive of his work at Taliesin West, thereby preserving and keeping intact the visual and textual legacy of one of history's great geniuses. It was an unprecedented action, since architectural archives of such size and scope for a single architect did not exist at that time. Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, first as Taliesin apprentice then as Director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, curated and organized the archives since its inception, thereby earning the appreciation of Frank Lloyd Wright lovers everywhere. The Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library would like to acknowledge the dedication of the Taliesin staff to preserving Wright’s legacy.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives is not currently available for consultation. We expect this temporary access hiatus to extend from March - August 2013 as staff work to move the Archives to its new repository at Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. Incremental access to the Archives for consultation and research services will resume in September 2013.

Please address inquiries to wrightarchives-info@columbia.edu

Avery Library’s Department of Drawings & Archives holds other important collections of Frank Lloyd Wright material including approximately 1,000 architectural drawings (c. 1880-1959) and related archival documents. Major projects represented in our existing Wright collection include: Dana House, Fallingwater, Guggenheim Museum, and Wright's own home and studio in Oak Park, Ill.
Please direct inquiries about these materials to:
avery-drawings@libraries.cul.columbia.edu

Avery Library maintains a comprehensive collection of published works on Frank Lloyd Wright. Please consult CLIO, our online catalog for holdings.

Avery Classics, our rare books collection, includes first edition and other rare volumes of Frank Lloyd Wrights’ published works.
Please direct inquiries about these materials to:
avery-classics@libraries.cul.columbia.edu

Frederick C. Robie residence, 1909.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)