Elmer C. Jensen Papers
1871-2014 (bulk 1880s-1950s)
Elmer C. Jensen (1870-1955) Mundie and Jensen William LeBaron Jenney (1832-1907)
Elmer C. Jensen (1870-1955) was hired as an office boy at the age of 14 by noted Chicago architect William Le Baron Jenney, and later, after Jenney’s retirement in 1905, selected by William Bryce Mundie as his new partner in the firm of Mundie & Jensen (1907–1936). This collection contains a significant amount of material relating to Jenney and the Home Insurance Building—often considered the world’s first true skyscraper—including: photographs, correspondence, manuscripts, holograph notebooks, and drawings. These notebooks and drawings include calculations, specifications, sketches, and design notes related to the Home Insurance Building and other projects. Other materials document aspects of Jensen’s career and personal life, as well as the development of skyscrapers.
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Contact the Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives:
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Photographs, negatives, postcards, holograph papers, typescript papers, printed papers, photocopies, architectural reprographic prints, graphite drawings, ink drawings, correspondence, watercolors, scrapbooks and realia.