Historic Architecture and Landscape Image Collection
c.1865-1973 (bulk 1890-1945)
Chicago Plan Commission Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846-1912) Edward Herbert Bennett (1874-1954)
Consisting of approximately 15,000 images that document the architecture, landscape and urban planning of sites across the United States—with a particular emphasis on Chicago and its suburbs—and, to a lesser extent, internationally, The Historic Architecture and Landscape Image collection, or HALIC, contains mounted photographic prints, lantern slides (both black and white and hand-colored), and postcards dating from the 1860s to the 1970s. These materials supplement, extend, and support the architectural groupings described above, with particular focus on the work of the first Chicago School, the Prairie School, and Beaux-Arts urban planning activities inspired by Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett. This collection will be added to on a periodic basis. Of particular note is a large body of lantern slides that was gathered by the Chicago Plan Commission, representing the international influences of Chicago’s urban planning ideals during the 1910s and 1920s. HALIC also contains a significant number of pre-Civil War, vernacular, and anonymous buildings, as well as images from many of the expositions and world’s fairs that took place around the turn of the 20th-century, most notably the World’s Columbian Exposition (1893), and the Century of Progress Exhibition (1933–1934), both in Chicago.
The lantern slides represent the work of numerous photographers and slide-makers, including George W. Bond and Company, Chicago Transparency Company, Curtis and Miller, the Detroit Photographic Company/Detroit Publishing Company, the Historic American Buildings Survey, Frances Benjamin Johnston, Alvina Lenke Studios, T.H. McAllister, A.G. McGregor, L. Manasse, Grace Nichols, Underwood and Underwood, and Edward Van Altena.
The mounted photographs come from many sources, but most were taken by professional architectural photographers. Included are large groups of photographs by the Chicago Aerial Photography Company (active about 1920–1940), the Detroit Photographic Company/Detroit Publishing Company (active 1898–1924), Henry Fuermann and Sons (Frank Lloyd Wright’s preferred photographers), Albert Levy (active 1890s), and J.W. Taylor (active 1885–1910).
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Collections may be accessed in the Franke Reading Room of the Research Center at The Art Institute of Chicago, by appointment only. For further information, consult the FAQ.
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Contact the Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives:
archives@artic.edu
Mounted black and white, toned, and color photographic prints; black and white, hand-colored, mechanically-colored, and toned glass lantern slides; black and white photographic negatives; black and white and color photomechanical prints; and black and white and color photolithographed postcards.