Peter Bonnett Wight Papers
1863-1915
Peter Bonnett Wight (1838-1925)
Peter B. Wight’s architectural career flourished in the 1860s and 1870s in New York, where he developed a decorative, historicist style that showed affinities to the work of European designers John Ruskin and A W. N. Pugin. Immediately after the devastating Chicago fire of 1871, Wight came to Chicago and entered a successful architectural partnership. An interest in modern technologies for fireproof construction led Wight to found the Wight Fireproofing Co. by 1881, which designed and manufactured hollow terra cotta tiles-impervious to fire and non-heat conductive, for construction. This collection contains manuscripts for lectures and publications.
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Manuscript, typescript papers, black and white photographic prints, and printed papers.