historically important chicago book and ephemera collection joins bldg 51 museum archive at end of 2018

highlights:

finally, i found an original early 20th century chicago athletic association "cherry circle" profusely illustrated year book, providing seldom seen images of the club's various rooms (including schmidt, garden & martin's 1907 annex), before they were moderately altered in subsequent years, including the 1921 addition, cherry circle bar, etc.

by this time, the "drooping tip" ceilings in the grand dining room had been painted over in a polychrome finish (the cast plaster modules were originally painted white). i spent a great deal of time documenting that ceiling with the polychrome finish amazingly intact when exposed and later replaced with faithfully reproduced panels (see pics) when turned into a boutique hotel.

two amazingly intact pages of paint samples advertised for use in interior and exterior residential cottages. the heavy card stock ads were found in an 1889 architects' and builders' chicago reference book i recently acquired. the paints were offered by chicago white lead and oil company, located in fulton market.

courtesy of the bldg. 51 museum collection.

original 1927 soft-bound chicago jewelers building brochure distributed to prospective building tenants. the profusely illustrated book with visually striking cover offers a great deal of information and seldom seen images i hope to scan in the near future.
courtesy of the bldg. 51 archive.

rarely seen original softbound chicago merchandise mart building (1930) booklet distributed to prospective tenants. alfred p. shaw of graham, anderson, probst and white, lead architect.

courtesy of bldg. 51 archive.

"the time has arrived..." detailed schematics/plans, photos, and maps for a chicago subway system, proposed (one of many) by george w. jackson in 1906. need to revisit "fort feet below" by bruce moffat to reacquaint myself with jackson's extant tunnel system.

early 20th century real photo postcard of christian a. eckstorm's 1902 international harvester company headquarters building and holabird and roche's 1915 century building.
i documented several sections of ornamental glazed terra cotta adorning the century building, including a spandrel with knight's helmet above an emblematic shield, late last year.
192 sections of damaged terra cotta were replaced on the century's facade in 1934. the cornice was removed and interior modified in the 1950's, when it was occupied by a bank. the original staircase remains intact however.
jenney's fair building (to the right) was built in 1892 and demolished in 1984.

additional books and/or ephemera:

further reading:

19TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS OF BURNHAM AND ROOT'S ROOKERY'S SKYLIGHT ACQUIRED BY BLD. 51 MUSEUM ARCHIVE

NEARLY COMPLETE SET OF RARE LATE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY "ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS" HANDBOOKS ADDED TO BLD. 51 MUSEUM ARCHIVE

OVERSIZED J.W. TAYLOR ALBUMEN PRINTS OF WILLIAM LE BARON JENNEY'S LEITER II BUILDING UNDER CONSTRUCTION JOINS BLDG. 51 MUSEUM ARCHIVE

BLDG. 51 MUSEUM ACQUIRES "LOST" RECORDS OF ARCHITECTURAL FIRM GRAVEN AND MAYGER

EPHEMERA, PHOTOGRAPHS, DRAWINGS, AND BOOKS FROM THE ARCHITECTURAL OFFICES OF JENNEY & MUNDIE ACQUIRED BY BLDG. 51 MUSEUM