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Omeka Image File
The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files.
Bit Depth
8
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
F.S. Lincoln Photography Collection
Description
An account of the resource
The FS Lincoln Collection
Biographical Sketch
Mr. Fay S. Lincoln (known professionally as F.S. Lincoln) operated a photography studio in New York City from the 1930s until the mid 1960s. He was born in Keene, New Hampshire in 1894 and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Although he received training as an engineer, Mr. Lincoln chose to become a professional photographer in 1929, when he opened the firm of Nyholm & Lincoln in conjunction with another photographer, Peter Nyholm, in New York City. A few years later, he opened his own studio at 114 East 32nd St.1
In 1932, Lincoln began corresponding with Kenneth Chorley, President of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, about the possibility of contracting with the Foundation to photograph the completed restoration work at Williamsburg. Lincoln had learned that John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was looking for someone to create a master collection of photos of Williamsburg through Arthur S. Vernay, an acquaintance of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. In his correspondence, Lincoln noted he had completed photographic assignments for many of the top architects and designers in New York, including Arthur S. Vernay, Joseph Urban, James Gamble Rogers, Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker, McKim, Mead, & White, Robert Locher, and Eugene Schoen. He also pointed out that he had sold architectural photos to many prominent magazines, including "Architectural Record," "National Geographic," "Country Life," "Architectural Forum," and "Spur."2
Lincoln's credentials, along with sample photographs and recommendations from magazine editors, enabled him to secure a contract with Colonial Williamsburg on April 22, 1935. According to the terms of the contract, Lincoln was hired to prepare a master collection of photographs and negatives that Colonial Williamsburg could sell to tourists and residents of Williamsburg, as well as use for promotional purposes. Lincoln retained the right to sell copies of his photographs at his New York studio, provided he consulted with the Foundation regarding the proposed use of the photographs. He also retained title to all negatives and copyright for all photos until the termination of his business. Plans for a traveling exhibition of Lincoln's photographs of Williamsburg were also mentioned in the contract.3
During 1935, F.S. Lincoln traveled to Williamsburg at seasonal intervals to photograph views requested by the Foundation. A panel of Colonial Williamsburg employees reviewed each series of photos and selected a group to be added to the master collection. F.S. Lincoln photos illustrated two portfolios about Colonial Williamsburg published in the "Architectural Record" in December 1935 and November 1936. Full-page black and white photos of restored buildings and gardens accompanied articles on the restoration written by Kenneth Chorley, Fiske Kimball, William G. Perry, and Arthur Shurcliff. Thus, Lincoln's photos gave the American public their first introduction to the completed restoration.
Lincoln had also been hired by Colonial Williamsburg to create a group of photographs of Williamsburg that could be exhibited. Correspondence between staff members indicates that John D. Rockefeller, Jr. hoped to mount a traveling exhibit of Williamsburg photographs. An exhibit of a selection of Lincoln's views of Williamsburg, along with photos he took for "Harper's Bazaar," "House and Garden," "House Beautiful," "Vanity Fair," "National Geographic," and "Town and Country," was held at the Rabinovitch Gallery in New York City from October 4-17, 1935.
Although Foundation employees were satisfied with the quality of Lincoln's photographs, they were dismayed by the cost of individual prints and enlargements. Memos exchanged between members of the marketing staff indicate that employees were having a hard time convincing distributors to purchase enlargements of the Lincoln photos for display in shop windows. As a result, the Foundation's agreement with F.S. Lincoln was terminated on April 21, 1936.4
Despite this setback, F.S. Lincoln secured contracts for many other architectural photography projects in the 1930s. He received numerous commissions to photograph buildings in New York City and also traveled abroad on several assignments. In 1934, he completed a portfolio of photos of Mont St. Michel and in 1938 he toured the deep South and photographed examples of antebellum architecture. Lincoln's photos were widely published in the 1930s and 1940s in such magazines as "Architectural Record," "House Beautiful," "National Geographic," "Country Life," and "Architectural Forum." In addition, he published a book of his photographs in 1946 entitled "Charleston: Photographic Studies by F.S. Lincoln."5
F.S. Lincoln continued to operate a photography studio in New York City until 1965, when he retired and moved to Center Hall, Pennsylvania to live with his sister. He forwarded all of his negatives of Williamsburg buildings to the Foundation in 1972, along with a letter stating that “the copyright of the photographs has run out, so you are free to use them as desired.”6 Upon his death in 1976, the remainder of Lincoln's archive of prints and negatives, as well as some business papers, were donated to the Pennsylvania State University Archives.
Scope and Contents
The F.S. Lincoln collection consists of black and white negatives and prints taken by Mr. Lincoln in preparation for the publication of "The Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia," a series of articles appearing in the December 1935 and November 1936 issues of "The Architectural Record." Both issues featured a portfolio of buildings and gardens in the newly restored historic area of Williamsburg.
In order to produce a large pool of photos for use in these portfolios, Mr. Lincoln created comprehensive visual documentation of the work completed during the initial phases of the restoration (1927-1935.) He photographed the exteriors and interiors of thirty restored buildings, including the exhibition buildings open to the public, such as the Governor's Palace, the Capitol, Raleigh Tavern, Bruton Parish Church, the Wren Building, and the Powder Magazine. In addition, he captured exterior views of some of the shops open on Merchant's Square and restored buildings adapted for public use, such as the Public Library. He also photographed many of the gardens and garden ornaments throughout the restored area.
The collection is organized into series by format. Series included in the collection are negatives; bound matted and signed prints; unbound matted and signed prints; and small albums. Within each format, items are organized according to the numbering system assigned by Mr. Lincoln. The first three digits of numbers assigned to the images correspond to a particular building or subject category. For example, all images of the Capitol have numbers beginning with 325 and all miscellaneous views have numbers beginning with 365. After these first three digits, Lincoln added a P for print and then a successive number for each view. For example, the first view of the Capitol is number 325P1. An “LC” prefix has been added to all image numbers by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to identify the images as coming from the Lincoln Collection.
Endnotes
1 Champagne, Anne, “Fay S. Lincoln Collection,” History of Photography 17, (Spring 1993): 127-128.
2 F.S. Lincoln to B.W. Norton, October 18, 1933. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives.
3 Agreement dated April 22, 1935 between Colonial Williamsburg, Inc. and F.S. Lincoln, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives.
4 Mr. Norton to Mr. Darling, February 22, 1937; Kenneth Chorley to F.S. Lincoln, April 6, 1937, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives.
5 Champagne, Anne, “Fay S. Lincoln Collection,” History of Photography 17 (Spring 1993): 128.
6 F.S. Lincoln to James R. Short, May 15, 1972, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives.
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Gelatin or collodian printing out paper with platinum toning, mounted on board
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
8x10 inches
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Margaret Hunter Shop (Pender's Grocery)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Block 17. Building 09.
Margaret Hunter Shop (Williamsburg, Va.)
Historic buildings -- Virginia -- Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Exterior of the Margaret Hunter Shop, once known as Pender's Grocery, as viewed from Duke of Gloucester Street, 1935. When Colonial Williamsburg first opened as a museum in the 1930s, Duke of Gloucester Street consisted of a combination of exhibition buildings and commercial establishments, and several grocers operated small food markets in restored or reconstructed structures. Pender's Grocery offered a place for town residents and tourists to pick up refreshments.</p>
<p>This building, "...an original structure, occupies a favorable spot on the busy 'downtown' end of the main street. Typical of commercial buildings, it has a gable-end facade, and its interior is divided between a large unheated storefront and a smaller counting office with a fireplace in the rear. Like many buildings, this one served as both workplace and home for its occupants." The first occupant (and later owner) of the building was Margaret Hunter, a milliner, who both "...imported and...made diverse and stylish accessories for men, women and children."</p>
<p>(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, <em>Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg</em> [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 57).</p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lincoln, F.S.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1935
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
1935
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This material is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). For reproduction queries: <a href="http://research.history.org/JDRLibrary/Visual_Resources/VisualResourcePermission.cfm">Rights and reproductions</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LC364P5
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Benches
Brickwork
Chimneys
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Duke of Gloucester Street
Exteriors
F.S. Lincoln
Fences
Historic Buildings
Lampposts
Margaret Hunter Shop
Pender's Grocery
Porches
Signboards
Signs
Virginia
Weatherboarding
Williamsburg
-
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Omeka Image File
The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files.
Bit Depth
8
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768
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
F.S. Lincoln Photography Collection
Description
An account of the resource
The FS Lincoln Collection
Biographical Sketch
Mr. Fay S. Lincoln (known professionally as F.S. Lincoln) operated a photography studio in New York City from the 1930s until the mid 1960s. He was born in Keene, New Hampshire in 1894 and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Although he received training as an engineer, Mr. Lincoln chose to become a professional photographer in 1929, when he opened the firm of Nyholm & Lincoln in conjunction with another photographer, Peter Nyholm, in New York City. A few years later, he opened his own studio at 114 East 32nd St.1
In 1932, Lincoln began corresponding with Kenneth Chorley, President of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, about the possibility of contracting with the Foundation to photograph the completed restoration work at Williamsburg. Lincoln had learned that John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was looking for someone to create a master collection of photos of Williamsburg through Arthur S. Vernay, an acquaintance of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. In his correspondence, Lincoln noted he had completed photographic assignments for many of the top architects and designers in New York, including Arthur S. Vernay, Joseph Urban, James Gamble Rogers, Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker, McKim, Mead, & White, Robert Locher, and Eugene Schoen. He also pointed out that he had sold architectural photos to many prominent magazines, including "Architectural Record," "National Geographic," "Country Life," "Architectural Forum," and "Spur."2
Lincoln's credentials, along with sample photographs and recommendations from magazine editors, enabled him to secure a contract with Colonial Williamsburg on April 22, 1935. According to the terms of the contract, Lincoln was hired to prepare a master collection of photographs and negatives that Colonial Williamsburg could sell to tourists and residents of Williamsburg, as well as use for promotional purposes. Lincoln retained the right to sell copies of his photographs at his New York studio, provided he consulted with the Foundation regarding the proposed use of the photographs. He also retained title to all negatives and copyright for all photos until the termination of his business. Plans for a traveling exhibition of Lincoln's photographs of Williamsburg were also mentioned in the contract.3
During 1935, F.S. Lincoln traveled to Williamsburg at seasonal intervals to photograph views requested by the Foundation. A panel of Colonial Williamsburg employees reviewed each series of photos and selected a group to be added to the master collection. F.S. Lincoln photos illustrated two portfolios about Colonial Williamsburg published in the "Architectural Record" in December 1935 and November 1936. Full-page black and white photos of restored buildings and gardens accompanied articles on the restoration written by Kenneth Chorley, Fiske Kimball, William G. Perry, and Arthur Shurcliff. Thus, Lincoln's photos gave the American public their first introduction to the completed restoration.
Lincoln had also been hired by Colonial Williamsburg to create a group of photographs of Williamsburg that could be exhibited. Correspondence between staff members indicates that John D. Rockefeller, Jr. hoped to mount a traveling exhibit of Williamsburg photographs. An exhibit of a selection of Lincoln's views of Williamsburg, along with photos he took for "Harper's Bazaar," "House and Garden," "House Beautiful," "Vanity Fair," "National Geographic," and "Town and Country," was held at the Rabinovitch Gallery in New York City from October 4-17, 1935.
Although Foundation employees were satisfied with the quality of Lincoln's photographs, they were dismayed by the cost of individual prints and enlargements. Memos exchanged between members of the marketing staff indicate that employees were having a hard time convincing distributors to purchase enlargements of the Lincoln photos for display in shop windows. As a result, the Foundation's agreement with F.S. Lincoln was terminated on April 21, 1936.4
Despite this setback, F.S. Lincoln secured contracts for many other architectural photography projects in the 1930s. He received numerous commissions to photograph buildings in New York City and also traveled abroad on several assignments. In 1934, he completed a portfolio of photos of Mont St. Michel and in 1938 he toured the deep South and photographed examples of antebellum architecture. Lincoln's photos were widely published in the 1930s and 1940s in such magazines as "Architectural Record," "House Beautiful," "National Geographic," "Country Life," and "Architectural Forum." In addition, he published a book of his photographs in 1946 entitled "Charleston: Photographic Studies by F.S. Lincoln."5
F.S. Lincoln continued to operate a photography studio in New York City until 1965, when he retired and moved to Center Hall, Pennsylvania to live with his sister. He forwarded all of his negatives of Williamsburg buildings to the Foundation in 1972, along with a letter stating that “the copyright of the photographs has run out, so you are free to use them as desired.”6 Upon his death in 1976, the remainder of Lincoln's archive of prints and negatives, as well as some business papers, were donated to the Pennsylvania State University Archives.
Scope and Contents
The F.S. Lincoln collection consists of black and white negatives and prints taken by Mr. Lincoln in preparation for the publication of "The Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia," a series of articles appearing in the December 1935 and November 1936 issues of "The Architectural Record." Both issues featured a portfolio of buildings and gardens in the newly restored historic area of Williamsburg.
In order to produce a large pool of photos for use in these portfolios, Mr. Lincoln created comprehensive visual documentation of the work completed during the initial phases of the restoration (1927-1935.) He photographed the exteriors and interiors of thirty restored buildings, including the exhibition buildings open to the public, such as the Governor's Palace, the Capitol, Raleigh Tavern, Bruton Parish Church, the Wren Building, and the Powder Magazine. In addition, he captured exterior views of some of the shops open on Merchant's Square and restored buildings adapted for public use, such as the Public Library. He also photographed many of the gardens and garden ornaments throughout the restored area.
The collection is organized into series by format. Series included in the collection are negatives; bound matted and signed prints; unbound matted and signed prints; and small albums. Within each format, items are organized according to the numbering system assigned by Mr. Lincoln. The first three digits of numbers assigned to the images correspond to a particular building or subject category. For example, all images of the Capitol have numbers beginning with 325 and all miscellaneous views have numbers beginning with 365. After these first three digits, Lincoln added a P for print and then a successive number for each view. For example, the first view of the Capitol is number 325P1. An “LC” prefix has been added to all image numbers by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to identify the images as coming from the Lincoln Collection.
Endnotes
1 Champagne, Anne, “Fay S. Lincoln Collection,” History of Photography 17, (Spring 1993): 127-128.
2 F.S. Lincoln to B.W. Norton, October 18, 1933. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives.
3 Agreement dated April 22, 1935 between Colonial Williamsburg, Inc. and F.S. Lincoln, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives.
4 Mr. Norton to Mr. Darling, February 22, 1937; Kenneth Chorley to F.S. Lincoln, April 6, 1937, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives.
5 Champagne, Anne, “Fay S. Lincoln Collection,” History of Photography 17 (Spring 1993): 128.
6 F.S. Lincoln to James R. Short, May 15, 1972, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives.
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Gelatin or collodian printing out paper with platinum toning, mounted on board.
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
8x10 inches
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wren Building, Front Elevation
Subject
The topic of the resource
Wren Building (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 16. Building 03.
College of William & Mary - Buildings
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
Front elevation of the Wren Building, College of William and Mary, taken by F.S. Lincoln in 1935. Begun in 1695, the construction of the Wren Building marked the birth of an academic center in colonial Virginia. A series of fires in 1705, 1859, and 1862 damaged parts of the structure but never completely destroyed exterior walls.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lincoln, F.S.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1935
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
1935
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This material is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). For reproduction queries: <a href="http://research.history.org/JDRLibrary/Visual_Resources/VisualResourcePermission.cfm">Rights and reproductions</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LC329P17
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Balconies
Belt Courses
Brick Pathways
Bricks
Brickwork
Chimneys
Clock Towers
College of William and Mary
Colonial Architecture
Cupolas
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Exteriors
F.S. Lincoln
Fences
Grilles
Pediments
Public Buildings
Stairs
Stringcourses
Virginia
Williamsburg
Wren Building
-
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Omeka Image File
The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files.
Bit Depth
8
Channels
3
Height
682
Width
1024
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
An Architect of the Restoration: The Pencil Sketches of Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A.
Description
An account of the resource
BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS MOTT SHAW, F.A.I.A.
Thomas Mott Shaw is best known as one of the founding partners and principal architects of the prominent Boston architectural firm Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, which John D. Rockefeller Jr. hired in 1928 to design, plan, and supervise the groundbreaking historical restoration of Williamsburg, the former eighteenth-century capitol of Virginia.
Born in 1878 in Newport, Rhode Island, Thomas Mott Shaw received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1900 and continued his education at the atelier (workshop) of Jean-Louis Pascal at the Ècole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1900 to 1905.[1] After graduation in 1905, he began working in Boston as a draftsman in the office of Guy Lowell, a prominent American architect and landscape architect who designed the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, as well as numerous other public, commercial, academic, and private buildings and spaces, including many distinguished estates and gardens.[2] Shaw’s connections to Lowell were presumably academic in nature, as Lowell was a former Harvard alumnus who also studied under Pascal at the Ècole, where he graduated just one year before Shaw.[3] In 1908, Shaw left Lowell’s employ and opened his own architectural practice, which he pursued until 1916.[4] During the First World War, he served as a first lieutenant in the 489th Aero Squadron of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF).[5] He was stationed at the U.S. Army’s Air Service Production center at Romorantin, France, where he worked with the Air Service Construction Division #2. During this time, he helped design and build air fields, assembly plants for the fabrication of American aircraft, and barracks for military personnel.[6]
After the war, Shaw returned to the United States and partnered with Andrew H. Hepburn, an MIT graduate and practicing architect who had also worked under Guy Lowell.[7] The two men founded an architectural firm under the name of Shaw and Hepburn, which they managed together from 1918 to 1923.[8] When architect William G. Perry (another alumnus of Harvard, MIT, and the Ècole, as well as a former WWI Army Air Corps captain[9]) joined the partnership in 1923, the firm’s name changed to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[10]
In January 1927, William Perry (representing his partners Shaw and Hepburn) was invited by Reverend William A. R. Goodwin (the rector of Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg) to produce drawings of Williamsburg as it may have looked in the eighteenth century.[11] Goodwin planned to submit the renderings to an unnamed donor who was interested in restoring the town to its former eighteenth-century appearance.[12] Shaw noted: “I worked on those drawings. We all did. We all worked on them (just like a projet in the Ècole des Beaux-Arts) to get them out.” [13] In late November 1927, after spending eleven months working pro bono[14] on a series of illustrations detailing the prospective restoration of the town and the College of William and Mary’s Wren Building, Perry submitted the firm’s drawings to Reverend Goodwin to deliver to his anonymous benefactor for consideration.[15] Soon after reviewing the architects’ work, Goodwin’s patron decided to begin funding the restoration of Williamsburg, and by early December 1927, the firm of Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn was approved “'to proceed with work on [the] Wren Building’ and reconstruction of the colonial Capitol and Governor’s Palace.”[16] It was not until April 1928, however, that the architects finally learned the identity of the secretive individual funding the endeavor.[17] The three men were summoned to New York for a meeting, where Goodwin introduced them to the wealthy businessman and philanthropist, John D. Rockefeller Jr.[18] After meeting the architects in person and discussing the project with them over lunch, Rockefeller decided that he liked what he had seen and heard. On 1 April 1928,[19] he “assigned overall ‘authority and responsibility’” of Williamsburg’s building and restoration to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[20] Soon thereafter, the architects set up a small office in Williamsburg near Bruton Parish Church to manage the project.[21]
The architects “soon found that drawing plans was only a minor part of the [project]. The hard part was finding out what kind of plans should be drawn.”[22] Consequently, they organized a staff of historical researchers to assist them in their efforts to restore and rebuild Williamsburg’s eighteenth-century structures as authentically as possible. “Very early in the project, [the architects] decided to establish the highest possible standards for the job. ‘Nothing was ever done without a good reason,’ Shaw once stated. ‘If there were no documented reasons for doing a particular thing, we didn’t do it.’”[23]
Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn’s dedication to the ideals of historic preservation at Williamsburg also paralleled a larger “preservation fever” that was sweeping the nation in the 1920s, called the Colonial Revival.[24] “Historic preservation formed the core of the Colonial Revival, a social and stylistic mindset that peaked during the 1920s [25]…fueled by the usual turmoil – a world war, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Red Scare, and another spike in immigration, all of which increased the nostalgia for the good old colonial days.[26] ….Creating museums from historic buildings became a preferred philanthropy for the wealthy…and John D. Rockefeller Jr. launched the single largest preservation project the country had seen: Colonial Williamsburg.” [27]
In the wake of the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent national economic collapse of the Great Depression, the fervor of the movement waned, as “only the wealthiest could afford to indulge in antiques, art, and architectural restoration.”[28] As one of the wealthiest men in the country, however, John D. Rockefeller Jr. was one of the few people who could indeed afford to finance his interests in the Colonial Revival. Despite the economic strife of the times, Rockefeller’s infusion of funds into Williamsburg not only helped support the research and restoration of this sleepy southern town back to its former eighteenth-century appearance as the colonial capitol of Virginia, but also provided Williamsburg with much-needed jobs during the worst years of the Depression. By the late 1930s, Rockefeller’s restoration had positioned the town as an architectural and cultural cornerstone of the Colonial Revival movement, fueled Colonial Revival sentiments in spite of the nation’s social and economic woes, and established Williamsburg as a pioneering example of historical preservation relating to the nation’s colonial and revolutionary past.
In time, Thomas Mott Shaw was eventually “placed on [a] consulting basis” with Williamsburg’s Restoration “when an architectural department was established by Colonial Williamsburg” on 1 October 1934.[29] In 1938, Shaw was recognized by the American Institute of Architects for his work on the Williamsburg Inn, “chosen for its excellency of design wedded to the sensitive appreciation of location.”[30] He was awarded the Institute’s Bronze Medal of Honor, the highest award given to a practicing architect in the country.[31] In 1939, Shaw was placed on an annual retainer with the Restoration, though he continued working as a consultant for Colonial Williamsburg on various design and restoration projects.
After a long and accomplished career, Thomas Mott Shaw died on 17 February 1965.[32]
THE THOMAS MOTT SHAW COLLECTION
This collection consists of thirty-four graphite and mixed media sketches drawn by architect Thomas Mott Shaw during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg from the late 1920s through 1930s, depicting various architectural exteriors and interiors of historic buildings in and around Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area. It is not known precisely why these drawings were created – whether for in-house or external purposes by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, for Colonial Williamsburg’s staff or other interested parties, or perhaps even for Shaw’s own personal use – but they have since become historically important artifacts and images of Williamsburg’s Restoration period. These illustrations take us back in time to the early days of Williamsburg as a reconstructed historic site and living history museum, capturing views that offer interesting opportunities for insight and reflection into the early research, planning, design, building, and restoration of the town’s landscape, architecture, and character as Virginia’s eighteenth-century colonial capitol.
The earliest sketch in this collection, drawn in 1928, features the Bracken Tenement (also known as the Bracken House) on Francis Street, which was one of the first buildings to be restored in Williamsburg by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn[33] in 1928.[34] The latest sketch, drawn in 1938, depicts a proposed addition to the Williamsburg Inn which was never built. Otherwise, the majority of the drawings – thirty-two in number – were completed in 1933.
In the fall of 1944, Shaw offered this collection of thirty-four sketches to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation “for use in connection with publicity or any other purpose you would like to use them for.”[35] Upon review of the sketches, Colonial Williamsburg’s staff accepted them, stating: “These sketches are something which we definitely should have in our archives….Mr. Shaw has done them from photographs and that in this respect they are not such creative work as might be done on location without the use of photographs….We have not undertaken to determine how best they can be utilized but there are several possibilities which we should like to explore further.”[36]
Though the sketches were thought to be “very good” and might be used in various ways,[37] Colonial Williamsburg’s staff chiefly appreciated the drawings for their “sentimental appeal by virtue of Mr. Shaw’s connection with Colonial Williamsburg”[38] and “the fact that they are the handiwork of Mr. Shaw, which…will make them quite valuable to Colonial Williamsburg in the future.”[39]
Shaw’s sketches were purchased and accepted into the research archives of Colonial Williamsburg’s Architectural Department between November 1945 and January 1946. These drawings are now part of the Architectural Drawings Collection in the Special Collections wing of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library. While a separate collection of Shaw’s personal papers and drawings also reside within the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C.,[40] the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is proud to possess the majority of Mr. Shaw’s drawings and correspondence associated with his meticulous and pioneering work on Williamsburg’s restoration.
ENDNOTES
[1] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965” unpublished biography, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Henry F. Withey and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects [Deceased] (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970), 381-382.
[4] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[5] George H. Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers (in Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Sarah Quinan Shaw Johnson, Concord, Ma., 1975), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[6] Ibid.; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet on Thomas Mott Shaw, dated 15 March 1947, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[7] George H. Yetter, “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 58.
[8] Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[9] Will Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Autumn 2004), 61.
[10] “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[11] Fred Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun,’” Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), 21 May 1956, page number unknown, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[12] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[13] Ibid. (T.M. Shaw quote excerpted from “Reminiscences of Thomas Mott Shaw,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives, Oral History Collection, 11), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[14] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[15] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[16] Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg,” 63.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[20] Molineux, 63; see also Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[21] Molineux, 63.
[22] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[23] Ibid.
[24] Mary Miley Theobald, “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002), 81.
[25] Ibid., 81.
[26] Ibid., 84.
[27] Ibid., 81.
[28] Ibid., 84.
[29] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[30] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[31] Ibid.
[32] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[33] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[34]Carl Lounsbury, “Bracken Tenement: Block 2, Building 52,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation website, n.d., http://research.history.org/Architectural_Research/Research_Articles/ThemeBldgs/Bracken.cfm (accessed 5 May 2014).
[35] Letter from Thomas Mott Shaw to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 25 October 1944, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[36] Staff memo from B.W. Norton to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 1 November 1945, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[37] Staff memo from J.A. Upshur to Kenneth Chorley of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 12 January 1946, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Ibid.
[40] Letter from Michael A. Grimes (archivist, Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art) to George H. Yetter (Associate Curator of Architectural Drawings, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation), 2 August 1989, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Chappell, Edward A. “Architects of Colonial Williamsburg” in Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, ed. by Charles
Reagan Wilson, William R. Ferris, and Ann J. Adadie. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989, 59-61.
Greenspan, Anders. Creating Colonial Williamsburg: The Restoration of Virginia’s Eighteenth-Century Capitol. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Hosmer, Charles Bridgham, and National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. Preservation Comes of Age: From Williamsburg to the National Trust, 1926-1949, Vol. 1. Charlottesville: Published for the Preservation Press, National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States by the University Press of Virginia, 1981.
Kimball, Fiske, et al. The Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. New York: F.W. Dodge
Corporation, 1935.
Molineux, Will. “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (August 2004): 58-65.
Theobald, Mary Miley. “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002): 81-85.
Yetter, George Humphrey. “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 54-60.
Yetter, George Humphrey. Williamsburg Before and After: The Rebirth of Virginia's Colonial Capital. Williamsburg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1988.
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43.5 x 29 cm
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Governor's Palace, View Looking Northeast
Subject
The topic of the resource
Governor's Palace (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 20. Building 03A.
Historic Buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public Buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Exterior of Governor's Palace, looking to the northeast from the Robert Carter house, 1933. “The Governor’s Palace was an important element in [Williamsburg’s] great civic design. Sited at the end of a broad, imposing green, the governor’s residence terminated in the primary north-south axis of the town. The high visibility and symmetrical formality of this complex did much to reinforce the importance of the governorship in the eyes of Virginians.” Construction began on the Governor’s Palace in 1706 under Governor Edward Nott, and finished in 1722 under Governor Alexander Spotswood. In the early 1750s, Governor Robert Dinwiddie commissioned the construction of a Ballroom Wing addition behind the Palace.</p>
<p>The Robert Carter House (out of view, but whose front yard is pictured here) is one of the original eighty-eight buildings at Colonial Williamsburg. It served as the gentry-class townhouse residence of various members of the Carter family throughout the eighteenth century, beginning with Charles Carter, the son of Robert "King" Carter, and ending with Robert Carter III of Nomini Hall. Governor Dinwiddie also briefly resided in the house during the renovations of the Governor's Palace between 1751 and 1752. </p>
<p>(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, <em>Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg</em> [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 88-89).</p>
Creator
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Shaw, Thomas Mott
Date
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1933
Date Created
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1933
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This material is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). For reproduction queries: <a href="http://research.history.org/JDRLibrary/Visual_Resources/VisualResourcePermission.cfm">Rights and reproductions</a>
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jpeg
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Image
Identifier
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D2008-COPY-1014-1022
Rights Holder
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Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Advance Buildings
Balconies
Brick Walls
Brickwork
Capitol
Chimneys
Colonial Architecture
Cupolas
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Fences
Gates
Historic Buildings
Hitching Posts
Palace Street
Public Buildings
Robert Carter House
Thomas Mott Shaw
Virginia
Williamsburg
-
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Omeka Image File
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Title
A name given to the resource
An Architect of the Restoration: The Pencil Sketches of Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A.
Description
An account of the resource
BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS MOTT SHAW, F.A.I.A.
Thomas Mott Shaw is best known as one of the founding partners and principal architects of the prominent Boston architectural firm Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, which John D. Rockefeller Jr. hired in 1928 to design, plan, and supervise the groundbreaking historical restoration of Williamsburg, the former eighteenth-century capitol of Virginia.
Born in 1878 in Newport, Rhode Island, Thomas Mott Shaw received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1900 and continued his education at the atelier (workshop) of Jean-Louis Pascal at the Ècole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1900 to 1905.[1] After graduation in 1905, he began working in Boston as a draftsman in the office of Guy Lowell, a prominent American architect and landscape architect who designed the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, as well as numerous other public, commercial, academic, and private buildings and spaces, including many distinguished estates and gardens.[2] Shaw’s connections to Lowell were presumably academic in nature, as Lowell was a former Harvard alumnus who also studied under Pascal at the Ècole, where he graduated just one year before Shaw.[3] In 1908, Shaw left Lowell’s employ and opened his own architectural practice, which he pursued until 1916.[4] During the First World War, he served as a first lieutenant in the 489th Aero Squadron of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF).[5] He was stationed at the U.S. Army’s Air Service Production center at Romorantin, France, where he worked with the Air Service Construction Division #2. During this time, he helped design and build air fields, assembly plants for the fabrication of American aircraft, and barracks for military personnel.[6]
After the war, Shaw returned to the United States and partnered with Andrew H. Hepburn, an MIT graduate and practicing architect who had also worked under Guy Lowell.[7] The two men founded an architectural firm under the name of Shaw and Hepburn, which they managed together from 1918 to 1923.[8] When architect William G. Perry (another alumnus of Harvard, MIT, and the Ècole, as well as a former WWI Army Air Corps captain[9]) joined the partnership in 1923, the firm’s name changed to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[10]
In January 1927, William Perry (representing his partners Shaw and Hepburn) was invited by Reverend William A. R. Goodwin (the rector of Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg) to produce drawings of Williamsburg as it may have looked in the eighteenth century.[11] Goodwin planned to submit the renderings to an unnamed donor who was interested in restoring the town to its former eighteenth-century appearance.[12] Shaw noted: “I worked on those drawings. We all did. We all worked on them (just like a projet in the Ècole des Beaux-Arts) to get them out.” [13] In late November 1927, after spending eleven months working pro bono[14] on a series of illustrations detailing the prospective restoration of the town and the College of William and Mary’s Wren Building, Perry submitted the firm’s drawings to Reverend Goodwin to deliver to his anonymous benefactor for consideration.[15] Soon after reviewing the architects’ work, Goodwin’s patron decided to begin funding the restoration of Williamsburg, and by early December 1927, the firm of Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn was approved “'to proceed with work on [the] Wren Building’ and reconstruction of the colonial Capitol and Governor’s Palace.”[16] It was not until April 1928, however, that the architects finally learned the identity of the secretive individual funding the endeavor.[17] The three men were summoned to New York for a meeting, where Goodwin introduced them to the wealthy businessman and philanthropist, John D. Rockefeller Jr.[18] After meeting the architects in person and discussing the project with them over lunch, Rockefeller decided that he liked what he had seen and heard. On 1 April 1928,[19] he “assigned overall ‘authority and responsibility’” of Williamsburg’s building and restoration to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[20] Soon thereafter, the architects set up a small office in Williamsburg near Bruton Parish Church to manage the project.[21]
The architects “soon found that drawing plans was only a minor part of the [project]. The hard part was finding out what kind of plans should be drawn.”[22] Consequently, they organized a staff of historical researchers to assist them in their efforts to restore and rebuild Williamsburg’s eighteenth-century structures as authentically as possible. “Very early in the project, [the architects] decided to establish the highest possible standards for the job. ‘Nothing was ever done without a good reason,’ Shaw once stated. ‘If there were no documented reasons for doing a particular thing, we didn’t do it.’”[23]
Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn’s dedication to the ideals of historic preservation at Williamsburg also paralleled a larger “preservation fever” that was sweeping the nation in the 1920s, called the Colonial Revival.[24] “Historic preservation formed the core of the Colonial Revival, a social and stylistic mindset that peaked during the 1920s [25]…fueled by the usual turmoil – a world war, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Red Scare, and another spike in immigration, all of which increased the nostalgia for the good old colonial days.[26] ….Creating museums from historic buildings became a preferred philanthropy for the wealthy…and John D. Rockefeller Jr. launched the single largest preservation project the country had seen: Colonial Williamsburg.” [27]
In the wake of the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent national economic collapse of the Great Depression, the fervor of the movement waned, as “only the wealthiest could afford to indulge in antiques, art, and architectural restoration.”[28] As one of the wealthiest men in the country, however, John D. Rockefeller Jr. was one of the few people who could indeed afford to finance his interests in the Colonial Revival. Despite the economic strife of the times, Rockefeller’s infusion of funds into Williamsburg not only helped support the research and restoration of this sleepy southern town back to its former eighteenth-century appearance as the colonial capitol of Virginia, but also provided Williamsburg with much-needed jobs during the worst years of the Depression. By the late 1930s, Rockefeller’s restoration had positioned the town as an architectural and cultural cornerstone of the Colonial Revival movement, fueled Colonial Revival sentiments in spite of the nation’s social and economic woes, and established Williamsburg as a pioneering example of historical preservation relating to the nation’s colonial and revolutionary past.
In time, Thomas Mott Shaw was eventually “placed on [a] consulting basis” with Williamsburg’s Restoration “when an architectural department was established by Colonial Williamsburg” on 1 October 1934.[29] In 1938, Shaw was recognized by the American Institute of Architects for his work on the Williamsburg Inn, “chosen for its excellency of design wedded to the sensitive appreciation of location.”[30] He was awarded the Institute’s Bronze Medal of Honor, the highest award given to a practicing architect in the country.[31] In 1939, Shaw was placed on an annual retainer with the Restoration, though he continued working as a consultant for Colonial Williamsburg on various design and restoration projects.
After a long and accomplished career, Thomas Mott Shaw died on 17 February 1965.[32]
THE THOMAS MOTT SHAW COLLECTION
This collection consists of thirty-four graphite and mixed media sketches drawn by architect Thomas Mott Shaw during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg from the late 1920s through 1930s, depicting various architectural exteriors and interiors of historic buildings in and around Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area. It is not known precisely why these drawings were created – whether for in-house or external purposes by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, for Colonial Williamsburg’s staff or other interested parties, or perhaps even for Shaw’s own personal use – but they have since become historically important artifacts and images of Williamsburg’s Restoration period. These illustrations take us back in time to the early days of Williamsburg as a reconstructed historic site and living history museum, capturing views that offer interesting opportunities for insight and reflection into the early research, planning, design, building, and restoration of the town’s landscape, architecture, and character as Virginia’s eighteenth-century colonial capitol.
The earliest sketch in this collection, drawn in 1928, features the Bracken Tenement (also known as the Bracken House) on Francis Street, which was one of the first buildings to be restored in Williamsburg by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn[33] in 1928.[34] The latest sketch, drawn in 1938, depicts a proposed addition to the Williamsburg Inn which was never built. Otherwise, the majority of the drawings – thirty-two in number – were completed in 1933.
In the fall of 1944, Shaw offered this collection of thirty-four sketches to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation “for use in connection with publicity or any other purpose you would like to use them for.”[35] Upon review of the sketches, Colonial Williamsburg’s staff accepted them, stating: “These sketches are something which we definitely should have in our archives….Mr. Shaw has done them from photographs and that in this respect they are not such creative work as might be done on location without the use of photographs….We have not undertaken to determine how best they can be utilized but there are several possibilities which we should like to explore further.”[36]
Though the sketches were thought to be “very good” and might be used in various ways,[37] Colonial Williamsburg’s staff chiefly appreciated the drawings for their “sentimental appeal by virtue of Mr. Shaw’s connection with Colonial Williamsburg”[38] and “the fact that they are the handiwork of Mr. Shaw, which…will make them quite valuable to Colonial Williamsburg in the future.”[39]
Shaw’s sketches were purchased and accepted into the research archives of Colonial Williamsburg’s Architectural Department between November 1945 and January 1946. These drawings are now part of the Architectural Drawings Collection in the Special Collections wing of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library. While a separate collection of Shaw’s personal papers and drawings also reside within the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C.,[40] the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is proud to possess the majority of Mr. Shaw’s drawings and correspondence associated with his meticulous and pioneering work on Williamsburg’s restoration.
ENDNOTES
[1] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965” unpublished biography, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Henry F. Withey and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects [Deceased] (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970), 381-382.
[4] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[5] George H. Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers (in Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Sarah Quinan Shaw Johnson, Concord, Ma., 1975), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[6] Ibid.; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet on Thomas Mott Shaw, dated 15 March 1947, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[7] George H. Yetter, “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 58.
[8] Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[9] Will Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Autumn 2004), 61.
[10] “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[11] Fred Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun,’” Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), 21 May 1956, page number unknown, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[12] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[13] Ibid. (T.M. Shaw quote excerpted from “Reminiscences of Thomas Mott Shaw,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives, Oral History Collection, 11), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[14] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[15] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[16] Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg,” 63.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[20] Molineux, 63; see also Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[21] Molineux, 63.
[22] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[23] Ibid.
[24] Mary Miley Theobald, “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002), 81.
[25] Ibid., 81.
[26] Ibid., 84.
[27] Ibid., 81.
[28] Ibid., 84.
[29] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[30] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[31] Ibid.
[32] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[33] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[34]Carl Lounsbury, “Bracken Tenement: Block 2, Building 52,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation website, n.d., http://research.history.org/Architectural_Research/Research_Articles/ThemeBldgs/Bracken.cfm (accessed 5 May 2014).
[35] Letter from Thomas Mott Shaw to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 25 October 1944, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[36] Staff memo from B.W. Norton to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 1 November 1945, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[37] Staff memo from J.A. Upshur to Kenneth Chorley of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 12 January 1946, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Ibid.
[40] Letter from Michael A. Grimes (archivist, Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art) to George H. Yetter (Associate Curator of Architectural Drawings, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation), 2 August 1989, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Chappell, Edward A. “Architects of Colonial Williamsburg” in Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, ed. by Charles
Reagan Wilson, William R. Ferris, and Ann J. Adadie. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989, 59-61.
Greenspan, Anders. Creating Colonial Williamsburg: The Restoration of Virginia’s Eighteenth-Century Capitol. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Hosmer, Charles Bridgham, and National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. Preservation Comes of Age: From Williamsburg to the National Trust, 1926-1949, Vol. 1. Charlottesville: Published for the Preservation Press, National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States by the University Press of Virginia, 1981.
Kimball, Fiske, et al. The Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. New York: F.W. Dodge
Corporation, 1935.
Molineux, Will. “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (August 2004): 58-65.
Theobald, Mary Miley. “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002): 81-85.
Yetter, George Humphrey. “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 54-60.
Yetter, George Humphrey. Williamsburg Before and After: The Rebirth of Virginia's Colonial Capital. Williamsburg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1988.
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Graphite on paper
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
31.5 x 45.5 cm
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Governor's Palace, Entrance Gate
Subject
The topic of the resource
Governor's Palace (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 20. Building 03A.
Historic Buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public Buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial – Virginia – Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Exterior of the Governor's Palace, looking out through the front gate at the arrival of a carriage and costumed interpreters, 1933. “The Governor’s Palace was an important element in [Williamsburg’s] great civic design. Sited at the end of a broad, imposing green, the governor’s residence terminated in the primary north-south axis of the town. The high visibility and symmetrical formality of this complex did much to reinforce the importance of the governorship in the eyes of Virginians.” Construction began on the Governor’s Palace in 1706 under Governor Edward Nott, and finished in 1722 under Governor Alexander Spotswood. In the early 1750s, Governor Robert Dinwiddie commissioned the construction of a Ballroom Wing addition behind the Palace.</p>
<p>(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, <em>Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg</em> [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 88-89).</p>
Creator
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Shaw, Thomas Mott
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1933
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1933
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D2008-COPY-1014-1024
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Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Brick Walls
Brickwork
Carriages
Chimneys
Coachmen
Colonial Architecture
Costumed Interpreters
Cupolas
Dormer Windows
Dormers
F.S. Lincoln
Gates
Historic Buildings
Hitching Posts
Hostesses
Lions
Men
Palace Street
Public Buildings
Thomas Mott Shaw
Unicorns
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Williamsburg
Women
Wrought Iron
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An Architect of the Restoration: The Pencil Sketches of Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A.
Description
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BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS MOTT SHAW, F.A.I.A.
Thomas Mott Shaw is best known as one of the founding partners and principal architects of the prominent Boston architectural firm Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, which John D. Rockefeller Jr. hired in 1928 to design, plan, and supervise the groundbreaking historical restoration of Williamsburg, the former eighteenth-century capitol of Virginia.
Born in 1878 in Newport, Rhode Island, Thomas Mott Shaw received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1900 and continued his education at the atelier (workshop) of Jean-Louis Pascal at the Ècole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1900 to 1905.[1] After graduation in 1905, he began working in Boston as a draftsman in the office of Guy Lowell, a prominent American architect and landscape architect who designed the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, as well as numerous other public, commercial, academic, and private buildings and spaces, including many distinguished estates and gardens.[2] Shaw’s connections to Lowell were presumably academic in nature, as Lowell was a former Harvard alumnus who also studied under Pascal at the Ècole, where he graduated just one year before Shaw.[3] In 1908, Shaw left Lowell’s employ and opened his own architectural practice, which he pursued until 1916.[4] During the First World War, he served as a first lieutenant in the 489th Aero Squadron of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF).[5] He was stationed at the U.S. Army’s Air Service Production center at Romorantin, France, where he worked with the Air Service Construction Division #2. During this time, he helped design and build air fields, assembly plants for the fabrication of American aircraft, and barracks for military personnel.[6]
After the war, Shaw returned to the United States and partnered with Andrew H. Hepburn, an MIT graduate and practicing architect who had also worked under Guy Lowell.[7] The two men founded an architectural firm under the name of Shaw and Hepburn, which they managed together from 1918 to 1923.[8] When architect William G. Perry (another alumnus of Harvard, MIT, and the Ècole, as well as a former WWI Army Air Corps captain[9]) joined the partnership in 1923, the firm’s name changed to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[10]
In January 1927, William Perry (representing his partners Shaw and Hepburn) was invited by Reverend William A. R. Goodwin (the rector of Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg) to produce drawings of Williamsburg as it may have looked in the eighteenth century.[11] Goodwin planned to submit the renderings to an unnamed donor who was interested in restoring the town to its former eighteenth-century appearance.[12] Shaw noted: “I worked on those drawings. We all did. We all worked on them (just like a projet in the Ècole des Beaux-Arts) to get them out.” [13] In late November 1927, after spending eleven months working pro bono[14] on a series of illustrations detailing the prospective restoration of the town and the College of William and Mary’s Wren Building, Perry submitted the firm’s drawings to Reverend Goodwin to deliver to his anonymous benefactor for consideration.[15] Soon after reviewing the architects’ work, Goodwin’s patron decided to begin funding the restoration of Williamsburg, and by early December 1927, the firm of Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn was approved “'to proceed with work on [the] Wren Building’ and reconstruction of the colonial Capitol and Governor’s Palace.”[16] It was not until April 1928, however, that the architects finally learned the identity of the secretive individual funding the endeavor.[17] The three men were summoned to New York for a meeting, where Goodwin introduced them to the wealthy businessman and philanthropist, John D. Rockefeller Jr.[18] After meeting the architects in person and discussing the project with them over lunch, Rockefeller decided that he liked what he had seen and heard. On 1 April 1928,[19] he “assigned overall ‘authority and responsibility’” of Williamsburg’s building and restoration to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[20] Soon thereafter, the architects set up a small office in Williamsburg near Bruton Parish Church to manage the project.[21]
The architects “soon found that drawing plans was only a minor part of the [project]. The hard part was finding out what kind of plans should be drawn.”[22] Consequently, they organized a staff of historical researchers to assist them in their efforts to restore and rebuild Williamsburg’s eighteenth-century structures as authentically as possible. “Very early in the project, [the architects] decided to establish the highest possible standards for the job. ‘Nothing was ever done without a good reason,’ Shaw once stated. ‘If there were no documented reasons for doing a particular thing, we didn’t do it.’”[23]
Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn’s dedication to the ideals of historic preservation at Williamsburg also paralleled a larger “preservation fever” that was sweeping the nation in the 1920s, called the Colonial Revival.[24] “Historic preservation formed the core of the Colonial Revival, a social and stylistic mindset that peaked during the 1920s [25]…fueled by the usual turmoil – a world war, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Red Scare, and another spike in immigration, all of which increased the nostalgia for the good old colonial days.[26] ….Creating museums from historic buildings became a preferred philanthropy for the wealthy…and John D. Rockefeller Jr. launched the single largest preservation project the country had seen: Colonial Williamsburg.” [27]
In the wake of the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent national economic collapse of the Great Depression, the fervor of the movement waned, as “only the wealthiest could afford to indulge in antiques, art, and architectural restoration.”[28] As one of the wealthiest men in the country, however, John D. Rockefeller Jr. was one of the few people who could indeed afford to finance his interests in the Colonial Revival. Despite the economic strife of the times, Rockefeller’s infusion of funds into Williamsburg not only helped support the research and restoration of this sleepy southern town back to its former eighteenth-century appearance as the colonial capitol of Virginia, but also provided Williamsburg with much-needed jobs during the worst years of the Depression. By the late 1930s, Rockefeller’s restoration had positioned the town as an architectural and cultural cornerstone of the Colonial Revival movement, fueled Colonial Revival sentiments in spite of the nation’s social and economic woes, and established Williamsburg as a pioneering example of historical preservation relating to the nation’s colonial and revolutionary past.
In time, Thomas Mott Shaw was eventually “placed on [a] consulting basis” with Williamsburg’s Restoration “when an architectural department was established by Colonial Williamsburg” on 1 October 1934.[29] In 1938, Shaw was recognized by the American Institute of Architects for his work on the Williamsburg Inn, “chosen for its excellency of design wedded to the sensitive appreciation of location.”[30] He was awarded the Institute’s Bronze Medal of Honor, the highest award given to a practicing architect in the country.[31] In 1939, Shaw was placed on an annual retainer with the Restoration, though he continued working as a consultant for Colonial Williamsburg on various design and restoration projects.
After a long and accomplished career, Thomas Mott Shaw died on 17 February 1965.[32]
THE THOMAS MOTT SHAW COLLECTION
This collection consists of thirty-four graphite and mixed media sketches drawn by architect Thomas Mott Shaw during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg from the late 1920s through 1930s, depicting various architectural exteriors and interiors of historic buildings in and around Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area. It is not known precisely why these drawings were created – whether for in-house or external purposes by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, for Colonial Williamsburg’s staff or other interested parties, or perhaps even for Shaw’s own personal use – but they have since become historically important artifacts and images of Williamsburg’s Restoration period. These illustrations take us back in time to the early days of Williamsburg as a reconstructed historic site and living history museum, capturing views that offer interesting opportunities for insight and reflection into the early research, planning, design, building, and restoration of the town’s landscape, architecture, and character as Virginia’s eighteenth-century colonial capitol.
The earliest sketch in this collection, drawn in 1928, features the Bracken Tenement (also known as the Bracken House) on Francis Street, which was one of the first buildings to be restored in Williamsburg by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn[33] in 1928.[34] The latest sketch, drawn in 1938, depicts a proposed addition to the Williamsburg Inn which was never built. Otherwise, the majority of the drawings – thirty-two in number – were completed in 1933.
In the fall of 1944, Shaw offered this collection of thirty-four sketches to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation “for use in connection with publicity or any other purpose you would like to use them for.”[35] Upon review of the sketches, Colonial Williamsburg’s staff accepted them, stating: “These sketches are something which we definitely should have in our archives….Mr. Shaw has done them from photographs and that in this respect they are not such creative work as might be done on location without the use of photographs….We have not undertaken to determine how best they can be utilized but there are several possibilities which we should like to explore further.”[36]
Though the sketches were thought to be “very good” and might be used in various ways,[37] Colonial Williamsburg’s staff chiefly appreciated the drawings for their “sentimental appeal by virtue of Mr. Shaw’s connection with Colonial Williamsburg”[38] and “the fact that they are the handiwork of Mr. Shaw, which…will make them quite valuable to Colonial Williamsburg in the future.”[39]
Shaw’s sketches were purchased and accepted into the research archives of Colonial Williamsburg’s Architectural Department between November 1945 and January 1946. These drawings are now part of the Architectural Drawings Collection in the Special Collections wing of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library. While a separate collection of Shaw’s personal papers and drawings also reside within the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C.,[40] the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is proud to possess the majority of Mr. Shaw’s drawings and correspondence associated with his meticulous and pioneering work on Williamsburg’s restoration.
ENDNOTES
[1] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965” unpublished biography, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Henry F. Withey and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects [Deceased] (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970), 381-382.
[4] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[5] George H. Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers (in Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Sarah Quinan Shaw Johnson, Concord, Ma., 1975), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[6] Ibid.; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet on Thomas Mott Shaw, dated 15 March 1947, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[7] George H. Yetter, “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 58.
[8] Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[9] Will Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Autumn 2004), 61.
[10] “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[11] Fred Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun,’” Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), 21 May 1956, page number unknown, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[12] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[13] Ibid. (T.M. Shaw quote excerpted from “Reminiscences of Thomas Mott Shaw,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives, Oral History Collection, 11), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[14] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[15] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[16] Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg,” 63.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[20] Molineux, 63; see also Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[21] Molineux, 63.
[22] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[23] Ibid.
[24] Mary Miley Theobald, “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002), 81.
[25] Ibid., 81.
[26] Ibid., 84.
[27] Ibid., 81.
[28] Ibid., 84.
[29] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[30] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[31] Ibid.
[32] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[33] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[34]Carl Lounsbury, “Bracken Tenement: Block 2, Building 52,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation website, n.d., http://research.history.org/Architectural_Research/Research_Articles/ThemeBldgs/Bracken.cfm (accessed 5 May 2014).
[35] Letter from Thomas Mott Shaw to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 25 October 1944, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[36] Staff memo from B.W. Norton to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 1 November 1945, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[37] Staff memo from J.A. Upshur to Kenneth Chorley of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 12 January 1946, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Ibid.
[40] Letter from Michael A. Grimes (archivist, Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art) to George H. Yetter (Associate Curator of Architectural Drawings, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation), 2 August 1989, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Chappell, Edward A. “Architects of Colonial Williamsburg” in Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, ed. by Charles
Reagan Wilson, William R. Ferris, and Ann J. Adadie. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989, 59-61.
Greenspan, Anders. Creating Colonial Williamsburg: The Restoration of Virginia’s Eighteenth-Century Capitol. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Hosmer, Charles Bridgham, and National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. Preservation Comes of Age: From Williamsburg to the National Trust, 1926-1949, Vol. 1. Charlottesville: Published for the Preservation Press, National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States by the University Press of Virginia, 1981.
Kimball, Fiske, et al. The Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. New York: F.W. Dodge
Corporation, 1935.
Molineux, Will. “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (August 2004): 58-65.
Theobald, Mary Miley. “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002): 81-85.
Yetter, George Humphrey. “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 54-60.
Yetter, George Humphrey. Williamsburg Before and After: The Rebirth of Virginia's Colonial Capital. Williamsburg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1988.
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31 x 45.5 cm
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Title
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Governor's Palace, West Advance Building
Subject
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Governor's Palace (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 20. Building 03A.
Historic Buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public Buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial – Virginia – Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
<p class="MsoNormal">Exterior of the western Advance Building of the Governor's Palace, 1933.<span> </span>Reconstructed between March 1932 and April 1934, the western Advance Building likely served varying functions over time. According to architectural historian Ed Chappel (the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's Shirley and Richard Roberts Director of Architectural and Archaeological Research), the structure probably served originally as a kitchen in the Palace's early years. Based on archaeological evidence found in the western Advance Building's original eighteenth-century foundations, the hearth was found to be of a larger size, which would correspond to the functional needs of a kitchen. Today, the location of the present-day Palace Kitchen correlates closely with the site of what may have been a later eighteenth-century kitchen outbuilding within the Palace complex.<span> <br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Historical documentation also suggests, however, that the building may have been repurposed later as a guardhouse. “In July 1730 the Governor’s House was reported as being ‘very inconvenient for want of a covered way from the offices into the House’ and ‘a Sum not exceeding one Hundred Pounds’ was appropriated ‘for Building a Covered Way from the Offices belonging to the Governor’s House into the said House.”<span> </span>In 1745, historian Henry Howe apparently referred to the Palace’s Advance Buildings as “’…two small brick structures, the remains of the Palace…that on the right was the office, and the one on the left the guard house.’”<span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(Sources: A. Lawrence Kocher and Thomas T. Waterman, “Governor’s Palace Advance Outbuildings: Block 20, Buildings 3B & 3C Architectural Report,” [Williamsburg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1952], 6-7; Ed Chappel, in-person communication in Special Collections Dept., John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, 11 April 2014, Williamsburg, Va.).</p>
Creator
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Shaw, Thomas Mott
Date
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1933
Date Created
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1933
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This material is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). For reproduction queries: <a href="http://research.history.org/JDRLibrary/Visual_Resources/VisualResourcePermission.cfm">Rights and reproductions</a>
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D2008-COPY-1014-1027
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Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Advance Buildings
Brick Walls
Brickwork
Chimneys
Colonial Architecture
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Governor's Palace
Historic Buildings
Hitching Posts
Palace Green
Palace Street
Public Buildings
Thomas Mott Shaw
Virginia
West Advance Building
Williamsburg
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Title
A name given to the resource
An Architect of the Restoration: The Pencil Sketches of Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A.
Description
An account of the resource
BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS MOTT SHAW, F.A.I.A.
Thomas Mott Shaw is best known as one of the founding partners and principal architects of the prominent Boston architectural firm Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, which John D. Rockefeller Jr. hired in 1928 to design, plan, and supervise the groundbreaking historical restoration of Williamsburg, the former eighteenth-century capitol of Virginia.
Born in 1878 in Newport, Rhode Island, Thomas Mott Shaw received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1900 and continued his education at the atelier (workshop) of Jean-Louis Pascal at the Ècole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1900 to 1905.[1] After graduation in 1905, he began working in Boston as a draftsman in the office of Guy Lowell, a prominent American architect and landscape architect who designed the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, as well as numerous other public, commercial, academic, and private buildings and spaces, including many distinguished estates and gardens.[2] Shaw’s connections to Lowell were presumably academic in nature, as Lowell was a former Harvard alumnus who also studied under Pascal at the Ècole, where he graduated just one year before Shaw.[3] In 1908, Shaw left Lowell’s employ and opened his own architectural practice, which he pursued until 1916.[4] During the First World War, he served as a first lieutenant in the 489th Aero Squadron of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF).[5] He was stationed at the U.S. Army’s Air Service Production center at Romorantin, France, where he worked with the Air Service Construction Division #2. During this time, he helped design and build air fields, assembly plants for the fabrication of American aircraft, and barracks for military personnel.[6]
After the war, Shaw returned to the United States and partnered with Andrew H. Hepburn, an MIT graduate and practicing architect who had also worked under Guy Lowell.[7] The two men founded an architectural firm under the name of Shaw and Hepburn, which they managed together from 1918 to 1923.[8] When architect William G. Perry (another alumnus of Harvard, MIT, and the Ècole, as well as a former WWI Army Air Corps captain[9]) joined the partnership in 1923, the firm’s name changed to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[10]
In January 1927, William Perry (representing his partners Shaw and Hepburn) was invited by Reverend William A. R. Goodwin (the rector of Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg) to produce drawings of Williamsburg as it may have looked in the eighteenth century.[11] Goodwin planned to submit the renderings to an unnamed donor who was interested in restoring the town to its former eighteenth-century appearance.[12] Shaw noted: “I worked on those drawings. We all did. We all worked on them (just like a projet in the Ècole des Beaux-Arts) to get them out.” [13] In late November 1927, after spending eleven months working pro bono[14] on a series of illustrations detailing the prospective restoration of the town and the College of William and Mary’s Wren Building, Perry submitted the firm’s drawings to Reverend Goodwin to deliver to his anonymous benefactor for consideration.[15] Soon after reviewing the architects’ work, Goodwin’s patron decided to begin funding the restoration of Williamsburg, and by early December 1927, the firm of Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn was approved “'to proceed with work on [the] Wren Building’ and reconstruction of the colonial Capitol and Governor’s Palace.”[16] It was not until April 1928, however, that the architects finally learned the identity of the secretive individual funding the endeavor.[17] The three men were summoned to New York for a meeting, where Goodwin introduced them to the wealthy businessman and philanthropist, John D. Rockefeller Jr.[18] After meeting the architects in person and discussing the project with them over lunch, Rockefeller decided that he liked what he had seen and heard. On 1 April 1928,[19] he “assigned overall ‘authority and responsibility’” of Williamsburg’s building and restoration to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[20] Soon thereafter, the architects set up a small office in Williamsburg near Bruton Parish Church to manage the project.[21]
The architects “soon found that drawing plans was only a minor part of the [project]. The hard part was finding out what kind of plans should be drawn.”[22] Consequently, they organized a staff of historical researchers to assist them in their efforts to restore and rebuild Williamsburg’s eighteenth-century structures as authentically as possible. “Very early in the project, [the architects] decided to establish the highest possible standards for the job. ‘Nothing was ever done without a good reason,’ Shaw once stated. ‘If there were no documented reasons for doing a particular thing, we didn’t do it.’”[23]
Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn’s dedication to the ideals of historic preservation at Williamsburg also paralleled a larger “preservation fever” that was sweeping the nation in the 1920s, called the Colonial Revival.[24] “Historic preservation formed the core of the Colonial Revival, a social and stylistic mindset that peaked during the 1920s [25]…fueled by the usual turmoil – a world war, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Red Scare, and another spike in immigration, all of which increased the nostalgia for the good old colonial days.[26] ….Creating museums from historic buildings became a preferred philanthropy for the wealthy…and John D. Rockefeller Jr. launched the single largest preservation project the country had seen: Colonial Williamsburg.” [27]
In the wake of the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent national economic collapse of the Great Depression, the fervor of the movement waned, as “only the wealthiest could afford to indulge in antiques, art, and architectural restoration.”[28] As one of the wealthiest men in the country, however, John D. Rockefeller Jr. was one of the few people who could indeed afford to finance his interests in the Colonial Revival. Despite the economic strife of the times, Rockefeller’s infusion of funds into Williamsburg not only helped support the research and restoration of this sleepy southern town back to its former eighteenth-century appearance as the colonial capitol of Virginia, but also provided Williamsburg with much-needed jobs during the worst years of the Depression. By the late 1930s, Rockefeller’s restoration had positioned the town as an architectural and cultural cornerstone of the Colonial Revival movement, fueled Colonial Revival sentiments in spite of the nation’s social and economic woes, and established Williamsburg as a pioneering example of historical preservation relating to the nation’s colonial and revolutionary past.
In time, Thomas Mott Shaw was eventually “placed on [a] consulting basis” with Williamsburg’s Restoration “when an architectural department was established by Colonial Williamsburg” on 1 October 1934.[29] In 1938, Shaw was recognized by the American Institute of Architects for his work on the Williamsburg Inn, “chosen for its excellency of design wedded to the sensitive appreciation of location.”[30] He was awarded the Institute’s Bronze Medal of Honor, the highest award given to a practicing architect in the country.[31] In 1939, Shaw was placed on an annual retainer with the Restoration, though he continued working as a consultant for Colonial Williamsburg on various design and restoration projects.
After a long and accomplished career, Thomas Mott Shaw died on 17 February 1965.[32]
THE THOMAS MOTT SHAW COLLECTION
This collection consists of thirty-four graphite and mixed media sketches drawn by architect Thomas Mott Shaw during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg from the late 1920s through 1930s, depicting various architectural exteriors and interiors of historic buildings in and around Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area. It is not known precisely why these drawings were created – whether for in-house or external purposes by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, for Colonial Williamsburg’s staff or other interested parties, or perhaps even for Shaw’s own personal use – but they have since become historically important artifacts and images of Williamsburg’s Restoration period. These illustrations take us back in time to the early days of Williamsburg as a reconstructed historic site and living history museum, capturing views that offer interesting opportunities for insight and reflection into the early research, planning, design, building, and restoration of the town’s landscape, architecture, and character as Virginia’s eighteenth-century colonial capitol.
The earliest sketch in this collection, drawn in 1928, features the Bracken Tenement (also known as the Bracken House) on Francis Street, which was one of the first buildings to be restored in Williamsburg by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn[33] in 1928.[34] The latest sketch, drawn in 1938, depicts a proposed addition to the Williamsburg Inn which was never built. Otherwise, the majority of the drawings – thirty-two in number – were completed in 1933.
In the fall of 1944, Shaw offered this collection of thirty-four sketches to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation “for use in connection with publicity or any other purpose you would like to use them for.”[35] Upon review of the sketches, Colonial Williamsburg’s staff accepted them, stating: “These sketches are something which we definitely should have in our archives….Mr. Shaw has done them from photographs and that in this respect they are not such creative work as might be done on location without the use of photographs….We have not undertaken to determine how best they can be utilized but there are several possibilities which we should like to explore further.”[36]
Though the sketches were thought to be “very good” and might be used in various ways,[37] Colonial Williamsburg’s staff chiefly appreciated the drawings for their “sentimental appeal by virtue of Mr. Shaw’s connection with Colonial Williamsburg”[38] and “the fact that they are the handiwork of Mr. Shaw, which…will make them quite valuable to Colonial Williamsburg in the future.”[39]
Shaw’s sketches were purchased and accepted into the research archives of Colonial Williamsburg’s Architectural Department between November 1945 and January 1946. These drawings are now part of the Architectural Drawings Collection in the Special Collections wing of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library. While a separate collection of Shaw’s personal papers and drawings also reside within the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C.,[40] the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is proud to possess the majority of Mr. Shaw’s drawings and correspondence associated with his meticulous and pioneering work on Williamsburg’s restoration.
ENDNOTES
[1] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965” unpublished biography, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Henry F. Withey and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects [Deceased] (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970), 381-382.
[4] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[5] George H. Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers (in Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Sarah Quinan Shaw Johnson, Concord, Ma., 1975), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[6] Ibid.; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet on Thomas Mott Shaw, dated 15 March 1947, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[7] George H. Yetter, “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 58.
[8] Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[9] Will Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Autumn 2004), 61.
[10] “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[11] Fred Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun,’” Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), 21 May 1956, page number unknown, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[12] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[13] Ibid. (T.M. Shaw quote excerpted from “Reminiscences of Thomas Mott Shaw,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives, Oral History Collection, 11), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[14] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[15] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[16] Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg,” 63.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[20] Molineux, 63; see also Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[21] Molineux, 63.
[22] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[23] Ibid.
[24] Mary Miley Theobald, “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002), 81.
[25] Ibid., 81.
[26] Ibid., 84.
[27] Ibid., 81.
[28] Ibid., 84.
[29] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[30] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[31] Ibid.
[32] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[33] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[34]Carl Lounsbury, “Bracken Tenement: Block 2, Building 52,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation website, n.d., http://research.history.org/Architectural_Research/Research_Articles/ThemeBldgs/Bracken.cfm (accessed 5 May 2014).
[35] Letter from Thomas Mott Shaw to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 25 October 1944, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[36] Staff memo from B.W. Norton to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 1 November 1945, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[37] Staff memo from J.A. Upshur to Kenneth Chorley of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 12 January 1946, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Ibid.
[40] Letter from Michael A. Grimes (archivist, Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art) to George H. Yetter (Associate Curator of Architectural Drawings, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation), 2 August 1989, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Chappell, Edward A. “Architects of Colonial Williamsburg” in Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, ed. by Charles
Reagan Wilson, William R. Ferris, and Ann J. Adadie. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989, 59-61.
Greenspan, Anders. Creating Colonial Williamsburg: The Restoration of Virginia’s Eighteenth-Century Capitol. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Hosmer, Charles Bridgham, and National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. Preservation Comes of Age: From Williamsburg to the National Trust, 1926-1949, Vol. 1. Charlottesville: Published for the Preservation Press, National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States by the University Press of Virginia, 1981.
Kimball, Fiske, et al. The Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. New York: F.W. Dodge
Corporation, 1935.
Molineux, Will. “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (August 2004): 58-65.
Theobald, Mary Miley. “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002): 81-85.
Yetter, George Humphrey. “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 54-60.
Yetter, George Humphrey. Williamsburg Before and After: The Rebirth of Virginia's Colonial Capital. Williamsburg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1988.
Still Image
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Graphite on paper
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31 x 45 cm
Dublin Core
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Title
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Governor's Palace Smokehouse and Laundry
Subject
The topic of the resource
Governor’s Palace (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 20. Building 03.
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Gardens - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
Exterior view of the Smokehouse, Laundry, Salthouse, and Bagnio outbuildings flanking the Governor's Palace to the west, 1933. In the foreground is the Palace Smokehouse (depicted by a whitewashed wooden structure with a shingled roof), where meat was smoked for preservation purposes. Barely visible behind the Smokehouse is the Salthouse (also depicted as a whitewashed wooden structure with a shingled roof). The brick building visible to the left of the Smokehouse is the Palace Laundry, where the Palace's linens were washed. The small, tent-roofed, brick hexagonal structure beyond the Laundry is the Bagnio (bathhouse), once used by the Governor for bathing purposes. In the background, the Palace's facade, roof, and cupola are visible above the roofline of the outbuildings.
Creator
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Shaw, Thomas Mott
Date
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1933
Date Created
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1933
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This material is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). For reproduction queries: <a href="http://research.history.org/JDRLibrary/Visual_Resources/VisualResourcePermission.cfm">Rights and reproductions</a>
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D2008-COPY-1014-1036
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Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Bagnio
Barrels
Bathhouse
Bathhouses
Bricks
Brickwork
Chimneys
Colonial Architecture
Cupolas
Dentils
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Exteriors
Governor's Palace
Historic Buildings
Outbuildings
Palace Laundry
Palace Salthouse
Palace Smokehouse
Public Buildings
Railings
Shingles
Thomas Mott Shaw
Virginia
Weatherboarding
Williamsburg
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Title
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An Architect of the Restoration: The Pencil Sketches of Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A.
Description
An account of the resource
BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS MOTT SHAW, F.A.I.A.
Thomas Mott Shaw is best known as one of the founding partners and principal architects of the prominent Boston architectural firm Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, which John D. Rockefeller Jr. hired in 1928 to design, plan, and supervise the groundbreaking historical restoration of Williamsburg, the former eighteenth-century capitol of Virginia.
Born in 1878 in Newport, Rhode Island, Thomas Mott Shaw received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1900 and continued his education at the atelier (workshop) of Jean-Louis Pascal at the Ècole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1900 to 1905.[1] After graduation in 1905, he began working in Boston as a draftsman in the office of Guy Lowell, a prominent American architect and landscape architect who designed the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, as well as numerous other public, commercial, academic, and private buildings and spaces, including many distinguished estates and gardens.[2] Shaw’s connections to Lowell were presumably academic in nature, as Lowell was a former Harvard alumnus who also studied under Pascal at the Ècole, where he graduated just one year before Shaw.[3] In 1908, Shaw left Lowell’s employ and opened his own architectural practice, which he pursued until 1916.[4] During the First World War, he served as a first lieutenant in the 489th Aero Squadron of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF).[5] He was stationed at the U.S. Army’s Air Service Production center at Romorantin, France, where he worked with the Air Service Construction Division #2. During this time, he helped design and build air fields, assembly plants for the fabrication of American aircraft, and barracks for military personnel.[6]
After the war, Shaw returned to the United States and partnered with Andrew H. Hepburn, an MIT graduate and practicing architect who had also worked under Guy Lowell.[7] The two men founded an architectural firm under the name of Shaw and Hepburn, which they managed together from 1918 to 1923.[8] When architect William G. Perry (another alumnus of Harvard, MIT, and the Ècole, as well as a former WWI Army Air Corps captain[9]) joined the partnership in 1923, the firm’s name changed to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[10]
In January 1927, William Perry (representing his partners Shaw and Hepburn) was invited by Reverend William A. R. Goodwin (the rector of Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg) to produce drawings of Williamsburg as it may have looked in the eighteenth century.[11] Goodwin planned to submit the renderings to an unnamed donor who was interested in restoring the town to its former eighteenth-century appearance.[12] Shaw noted: “I worked on those drawings. We all did. We all worked on them (just like a projet in the Ècole des Beaux-Arts) to get them out.” [13] In late November 1927, after spending eleven months working pro bono[14] on a series of illustrations detailing the prospective restoration of the town and the College of William and Mary’s Wren Building, Perry submitted the firm’s drawings to Reverend Goodwin to deliver to his anonymous benefactor for consideration.[15] Soon after reviewing the architects’ work, Goodwin’s patron decided to begin funding the restoration of Williamsburg, and by early December 1927, the firm of Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn was approved “'to proceed with work on [the] Wren Building’ and reconstruction of the colonial Capitol and Governor’s Palace.”[16] It was not until April 1928, however, that the architects finally learned the identity of the secretive individual funding the endeavor.[17] The three men were summoned to New York for a meeting, where Goodwin introduced them to the wealthy businessman and philanthropist, John D. Rockefeller Jr.[18] After meeting the architects in person and discussing the project with them over lunch, Rockefeller decided that he liked what he had seen and heard. On 1 April 1928,[19] he “assigned overall ‘authority and responsibility’” of Williamsburg’s building and restoration to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[20] Soon thereafter, the architects set up a small office in Williamsburg near Bruton Parish Church to manage the project.[21]
The architects “soon found that drawing plans was only a minor part of the [project]. The hard part was finding out what kind of plans should be drawn.”[22] Consequently, they organized a staff of historical researchers to assist them in their efforts to restore and rebuild Williamsburg’s eighteenth-century structures as authentically as possible. “Very early in the project, [the architects] decided to establish the highest possible standards for the job. ‘Nothing was ever done without a good reason,’ Shaw once stated. ‘If there were no documented reasons for doing a particular thing, we didn’t do it.’”[23]
Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn’s dedication to the ideals of historic preservation at Williamsburg also paralleled a larger “preservation fever” that was sweeping the nation in the 1920s, called the Colonial Revival.[24] “Historic preservation formed the core of the Colonial Revival, a social and stylistic mindset that peaked during the 1920s [25]…fueled by the usual turmoil – a world war, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Red Scare, and another spike in immigration, all of which increased the nostalgia for the good old colonial days.[26] ….Creating museums from historic buildings became a preferred philanthropy for the wealthy…and John D. Rockefeller Jr. launched the single largest preservation project the country had seen: Colonial Williamsburg.” [27]
In the wake of the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent national economic collapse of the Great Depression, the fervor of the movement waned, as “only the wealthiest could afford to indulge in antiques, art, and architectural restoration.”[28] As one of the wealthiest men in the country, however, John D. Rockefeller Jr. was one of the few people who could indeed afford to finance his interests in the Colonial Revival. Despite the economic strife of the times, Rockefeller’s infusion of funds into Williamsburg not only helped support the research and restoration of this sleepy southern town back to its former eighteenth-century appearance as the colonial capitol of Virginia, but also provided Williamsburg with much-needed jobs during the worst years of the Depression. By the late 1930s, Rockefeller’s restoration had positioned the town as an architectural and cultural cornerstone of the Colonial Revival movement, fueled Colonial Revival sentiments in spite of the nation’s social and economic woes, and established Williamsburg as a pioneering example of historical preservation relating to the nation’s colonial and revolutionary past.
In time, Thomas Mott Shaw was eventually “placed on [a] consulting basis” with Williamsburg’s Restoration “when an architectural department was established by Colonial Williamsburg” on 1 October 1934.[29] In 1938, Shaw was recognized by the American Institute of Architects for his work on the Williamsburg Inn, “chosen for its excellency of design wedded to the sensitive appreciation of location.”[30] He was awarded the Institute’s Bronze Medal of Honor, the highest award given to a practicing architect in the country.[31] In 1939, Shaw was placed on an annual retainer with the Restoration, though he continued working as a consultant for Colonial Williamsburg on various design and restoration projects.
After a long and accomplished career, Thomas Mott Shaw died on 17 February 1965.[32]
THE THOMAS MOTT SHAW COLLECTION
This collection consists of thirty-four graphite and mixed media sketches drawn by architect Thomas Mott Shaw during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg from the late 1920s through 1930s, depicting various architectural exteriors and interiors of historic buildings in and around Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area. It is not known precisely why these drawings were created – whether for in-house or external purposes by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, for Colonial Williamsburg’s staff or other interested parties, or perhaps even for Shaw’s own personal use – but they have since become historically important artifacts and images of Williamsburg’s Restoration period. These illustrations take us back in time to the early days of Williamsburg as a reconstructed historic site and living history museum, capturing views that offer interesting opportunities for insight and reflection into the early research, planning, design, building, and restoration of the town’s landscape, architecture, and character as Virginia’s eighteenth-century colonial capitol.
The earliest sketch in this collection, drawn in 1928, features the Bracken Tenement (also known as the Bracken House) on Francis Street, which was one of the first buildings to be restored in Williamsburg by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn[33] in 1928.[34] The latest sketch, drawn in 1938, depicts a proposed addition to the Williamsburg Inn which was never built. Otherwise, the majority of the drawings – thirty-two in number – were completed in 1933.
In the fall of 1944, Shaw offered this collection of thirty-four sketches to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation “for use in connection with publicity or any other purpose you would like to use them for.”[35] Upon review of the sketches, Colonial Williamsburg’s staff accepted them, stating: “These sketches are something which we definitely should have in our archives….Mr. Shaw has done them from photographs and that in this respect they are not such creative work as might be done on location without the use of photographs….We have not undertaken to determine how best they can be utilized but there are several possibilities which we should like to explore further.”[36]
Though the sketches were thought to be “very good” and might be used in various ways,[37] Colonial Williamsburg’s staff chiefly appreciated the drawings for their “sentimental appeal by virtue of Mr. Shaw’s connection with Colonial Williamsburg”[38] and “the fact that they are the handiwork of Mr. Shaw, which…will make them quite valuable to Colonial Williamsburg in the future.”[39]
Shaw’s sketches were purchased and accepted into the research archives of Colonial Williamsburg’s Architectural Department between November 1945 and January 1946. These drawings are now part of the Architectural Drawings Collection in the Special Collections wing of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library. While a separate collection of Shaw’s personal papers and drawings also reside within the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C.,[40] the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is proud to possess the majority of Mr. Shaw’s drawings and correspondence associated with his meticulous and pioneering work on Williamsburg’s restoration.
ENDNOTES
[1] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965” unpublished biography, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Henry F. Withey and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects [Deceased] (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970), 381-382.
[4] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[5] George H. Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers (in Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Sarah Quinan Shaw Johnson, Concord, Ma., 1975), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[6] Ibid.; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet on Thomas Mott Shaw, dated 15 March 1947, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[7] George H. Yetter, “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 58.
[8] Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[9] Will Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Autumn 2004), 61.
[10] “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[11] Fred Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun,’” Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), 21 May 1956, page number unknown, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[12] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[13] Ibid. (T.M. Shaw quote excerpted from “Reminiscences of Thomas Mott Shaw,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives, Oral History Collection, 11), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[14] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[15] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[16] Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg,” 63.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[20] Molineux, 63; see also Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[21] Molineux, 63.
[22] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[23] Ibid.
[24] Mary Miley Theobald, “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002), 81.
[25] Ibid., 81.
[26] Ibid., 84.
[27] Ibid., 81.
[28] Ibid., 84.
[29] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[30] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[31] Ibid.
[32] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[33] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[34]Carl Lounsbury, “Bracken Tenement: Block 2, Building 52,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation website, n.d., http://research.history.org/Architectural_Research/Research_Articles/ThemeBldgs/Bracken.cfm (accessed 5 May 2014).
[35] Letter from Thomas Mott Shaw to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 25 October 1944, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[36] Staff memo from B.W. Norton to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 1 November 1945, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[37] Staff memo from J.A. Upshur to Kenneth Chorley of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 12 January 1946, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Ibid.
[40] Letter from Michael A. Grimes (archivist, Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art) to George H. Yetter (Associate Curator of Architectural Drawings, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation), 2 August 1989, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Chappell, Edward A. “Architects of Colonial Williamsburg” in Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, ed. by Charles
Reagan Wilson, William R. Ferris, and Ann J. Adadie. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989, 59-61.
Greenspan, Anders. Creating Colonial Williamsburg: The Restoration of Virginia’s Eighteenth-Century Capitol. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Hosmer, Charles Bridgham, and National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. Preservation Comes of Age: From Williamsburg to the National Trust, 1926-1949, Vol. 1. Charlottesville: Published for the Preservation Press, National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States by the University Press of Virginia, 1981.
Kimball, Fiske, et al. The Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. New York: F.W. Dodge
Corporation, 1935.
Molineux, Will. “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (August 2004): 58-65.
Theobald, Mary Miley. “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002): 81-85.
Yetter, George Humphrey. “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 54-60.
Yetter, George Humphrey. Williamsburg Before and After: The Rebirth of Virginia's Colonial Capital. Williamsburg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1988.
Still Image
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Original Format
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Graphite on paper
Physical Dimensions
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31 x 45 cm
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Governor's Palace Kitchen Interior
Subject
The topic of the resource
Governor's Palace (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 20. Building 03.
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Kitchens - Virginia - Williamsburg
Furniture - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
Interior view of the Governor’s Palace Kitchen, featuring a female costumed interpreter in the role of an enslaved cook or scullery maid, 1933. The Governor's Palace (and its outbuildings, like the Palace Kitchen) opened to the public in 1934. In addition to viewing the lavish public rooms and private quarters of Virginia's colonial governors, visitors could also learn about colonial domestic life and cooking techniques in the Palace Kitchen. Costumed interpreters added commentary and demonstrated food preparation.
Interior furnishings and decor reflect curators' views in the 1930s as to how Williamsburg's historic interiors may have looked in the eighteenth century. Nevertheless, with new research advancements over the years, the interior furnishings of the Governor’s Palace Kitchen have changed to reflect a more authentic and accurate view of the building’s likely contents and room arrangements.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Shaw, Thomas Mott
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1933
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
1933
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This material is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). For reproduction queries: <a href="http://research.history.org/JDRLibrary/Visual_Resources/VisualResourcePermission.cfm">Rights and reproductions</a>
Format
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jpeg
Type
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Image
Identifier
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D2008-COPY-1014-1039
Rights Holder
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Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Armchairs
Brickwork
Chairs
Colonial Architecture
Cooks
Copper
Costumed Interpreters
Cupboards
Fireplaces
Furniture
Governor's Palace
Gridirons
Historic Buildings
Hostesses
Interiors
Iron
Kitchens
Ladles
Pails
Pewter
Sconces
Scullery Maids
Slaves
Spice Boxes
Spoons
Tables
Thomas Mott Shaw
Virginia
Williamsburg
-
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Omeka Image File
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3
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Title
A name given to the resource
An Architect of the Restoration: The Pencil Sketches of Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A.
Description
An account of the resource
BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS MOTT SHAW, F.A.I.A.
Thomas Mott Shaw is best known as one of the founding partners and principal architects of the prominent Boston architectural firm Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, which John D. Rockefeller Jr. hired in 1928 to design, plan, and supervise the groundbreaking historical restoration of Williamsburg, the former eighteenth-century capitol of Virginia.
Born in 1878 in Newport, Rhode Island, Thomas Mott Shaw received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1900 and continued his education at the atelier (workshop) of Jean-Louis Pascal at the Ècole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1900 to 1905.[1] After graduation in 1905, he began working in Boston as a draftsman in the office of Guy Lowell, a prominent American architect and landscape architect who designed the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, as well as numerous other public, commercial, academic, and private buildings and spaces, including many distinguished estates and gardens.[2] Shaw’s connections to Lowell were presumably academic in nature, as Lowell was a former Harvard alumnus who also studied under Pascal at the Ècole, where he graduated just one year before Shaw.[3] In 1908, Shaw left Lowell’s employ and opened his own architectural practice, which he pursued until 1916.[4] During the First World War, he served as a first lieutenant in the 489th Aero Squadron of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF).[5] He was stationed at the U.S. Army’s Air Service Production center at Romorantin, France, where he worked with the Air Service Construction Division #2. During this time, he helped design and build air fields, assembly plants for the fabrication of American aircraft, and barracks for military personnel.[6]
After the war, Shaw returned to the United States and partnered with Andrew H. Hepburn, an MIT graduate and practicing architect who had also worked under Guy Lowell.[7] The two men founded an architectural firm under the name of Shaw and Hepburn, which they managed together from 1918 to 1923.[8] When architect William G. Perry (another alumnus of Harvard, MIT, and the Ècole, as well as a former WWI Army Air Corps captain[9]) joined the partnership in 1923, the firm’s name changed to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[10]
In January 1927, William Perry (representing his partners Shaw and Hepburn) was invited by Reverend William A. R. Goodwin (the rector of Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg) to produce drawings of Williamsburg as it may have looked in the eighteenth century.[11] Goodwin planned to submit the renderings to an unnamed donor who was interested in restoring the town to its former eighteenth-century appearance.[12] Shaw noted: “I worked on those drawings. We all did. We all worked on them (just like a projet in the Ècole des Beaux-Arts) to get them out.” [13] In late November 1927, after spending eleven months working pro bono[14] on a series of illustrations detailing the prospective restoration of the town and the College of William and Mary’s Wren Building, Perry submitted the firm’s drawings to Reverend Goodwin to deliver to his anonymous benefactor for consideration.[15] Soon after reviewing the architects’ work, Goodwin’s patron decided to begin funding the restoration of Williamsburg, and by early December 1927, the firm of Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn was approved “'to proceed with work on [the] Wren Building’ and reconstruction of the colonial Capitol and Governor’s Palace.”[16] It was not until April 1928, however, that the architects finally learned the identity of the secretive individual funding the endeavor.[17] The three men were summoned to New York for a meeting, where Goodwin introduced them to the wealthy businessman and philanthropist, John D. Rockefeller Jr.[18] After meeting the architects in person and discussing the project with them over lunch, Rockefeller decided that he liked what he had seen and heard. On 1 April 1928,[19] he “assigned overall ‘authority and responsibility’” of Williamsburg’s building and restoration to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[20] Soon thereafter, the architects set up a small office in Williamsburg near Bruton Parish Church to manage the project.[21]
The architects “soon found that drawing plans was only a minor part of the [project]. The hard part was finding out what kind of plans should be drawn.”[22] Consequently, they organized a staff of historical researchers to assist them in their efforts to restore and rebuild Williamsburg’s eighteenth-century structures as authentically as possible. “Very early in the project, [the architects] decided to establish the highest possible standards for the job. ‘Nothing was ever done without a good reason,’ Shaw once stated. ‘If there were no documented reasons for doing a particular thing, we didn’t do it.’”[23]
Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn’s dedication to the ideals of historic preservation at Williamsburg also paralleled a larger “preservation fever” that was sweeping the nation in the 1920s, called the Colonial Revival.[24] “Historic preservation formed the core of the Colonial Revival, a social and stylistic mindset that peaked during the 1920s [25]…fueled by the usual turmoil – a world war, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Red Scare, and another spike in immigration, all of which increased the nostalgia for the good old colonial days.[26] ….Creating museums from historic buildings became a preferred philanthropy for the wealthy…and John D. Rockefeller Jr. launched the single largest preservation project the country had seen: Colonial Williamsburg.” [27]
In the wake of the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent national economic collapse of the Great Depression, the fervor of the movement waned, as “only the wealthiest could afford to indulge in antiques, art, and architectural restoration.”[28] As one of the wealthiest men in the country, however, John D. Rockefeller Jr. was one of the few people who could indeed afford to finance his interests in the Colonial Revival. Despite the economic strife of the times, Rockefeller’s infusion of funds into Williamsburg not only helped support the research and restoration of this sleepy southern town back to its former eighteenth-century appearance as the colonial capitol of Virginia, but also provided Williamsburg with much-needed jobs during the worst years of the Depression. By the late 1930s, Rockefeller’s restoration had positioned the town as an architectural and cultural cornerstone of the Colonial Revival movement, fueled Colonial Revival sentiments in spite of the nation’s social and economic woes, and established Williamsburg as a pioneering example of historical preservation relating to the nation’s colonial and revolutionary past.
In time, Thomas Mott Shaw was eventually “placed on [a] consulting basis” with Williamsburg’s Restoration “when an architectural department was established by Colonial Williamsburg” on 1 October 1934.[29] In 1938, Shaw was recognized by the American Institute of Architects for his work on the Williamsburg Inn, “chosen for its excellency of design wedded to the sensitive appreciation of location.”[30] He was awarded the Institute’s Bronze Medal of Honor, the highest award given to a practicing architect in the country.[31] In 1939, Shaw was placed on an annual retainer with the Restoration, though he continued working as a consultant for Colonial Williamsburg on various design and restoration projects.
After a long and accomplished career, Thomas Mott Shaw died on 17 February 1965.[32]
THE THOMAS MOTT SHAW COLLECTION
This collection consists of thirty-four graphite and mixed media sketches drawn by architect Thomas Mott Shaw during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg from the late 1920s through 1930s, depicting various architectural exteriors and interiors of historic buildings in and around Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area. It is not known precisely why these drawings were created – whether for in-house or external purposes by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, for Colonial Williamsburg’s staff or other interested parties, or perhaps even for Shaw’s own personal use – but they have since become historically important artifacts and images of Williamsburg’s Restoration period. These illustrations take us back in time to the early days of Williamsburg as a reconstructed historic site and living history museum, capturing views that offer interesting opportunities for insight and reflection into the early research, planning, design, building, and restoration of the town’s landscape, architecture, and character as Virginia’s eighteenth-century colonial capitol.
The earliest sketch in this collection, drawn in 1928, features the Bracken Tenement (also known as the Bracken House) on Francis Street, which was one of the first buildings to be restored in Williamsburg by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn[33] in 1928.[34] The latest sketch, drawn in 1938, depicts a proposed addition to the Williamsburg Inn which was never built. Otherwise, the majority of the drawings – thirty-two in number – were completed in 1933.
In the fall of 1944, Shaw offered this collection of thirty-four sketches to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation “for use in connection with publicity or any other purpose you would like to use them for.”[35] Upon review of the sketches, Colonial Williamsburg’s staff accepted them, stating: “These sketches are something which we definitely should have in our archives….Mr. Shaw has done them from photographs and that in this respect they are not such creative work as might be done on location without the use of photographs….We have not undertaken to determine how best they can be utilized but there are several possibilities which we should like to explore further.”[36]
Though the sketches were thought to be “very good” and might be used in various ways,[37] Colonial Williamsburg’s staff chiefly appreciated the drawings for their “sentimental appeal by virtue of Mr. Shaw’s connection with Colonial Williamsburg”[38] and “the fact that they are the handiwork of Mr. Shaw, which…will make them quite valuable to Colonial Williamsburg in the future.”[39]
Shaw’s sketches were purchased and accepted into the research archives of Colonial Williamsburg’s Architectural Department between November 1945 and January 1946. These drawings are now part of the Architectural Drawings Collection in the Special Collections wing of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library. While a separate collection of Shaw’s personal papers and drawings also reside within the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C.,[40] the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is proud to possess the majority of Mr. Shaw’s drawings and correspondence associated with his meticulous and pioneering work on Williamsburg’s restoration.
ENDNOTES
[1] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965” unpublished biography, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Henry F. Withey and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects [Deceased] (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970), 381-382.
[4] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[5] George H. Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers (in Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Sarah Quinan Shaw Johnson, Concord, Ma., 1975), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[6] Ibid.; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet on Thomas Mott Shaw, dated 15 March 1947, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[7] George H. Yetter, “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 58.
[8] Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[9] Will Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Autumn 2004), 61.
[10] “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[11] Fred Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun,’” Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), 21 May 1956, page number unknown, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[12] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[13] Ibid. (T.M. Shaw quote excerpted from “Reminiscences of Thomas Mott Shaw,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives, Oral History Collection, 11), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[14] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[15] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[16] Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg,” 63.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[20] Molineux, 63; see also Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[21] Molineux, 63.
[22] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[23] Ibid.
[24] Mary Miley Theobald, “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002), 81.
[25] Ibid., 81.
[26] Ibid., 84.
[27] Ibid., 81.
[28] Ibid., 84.
[29] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[30] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[31] Ibid.
[32] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[33] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[34]Carl Lounsbury, “Bracken Tenement: Block 2, Building 52,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation website, n.d., http://research.history.org/Architectural_Research/Research_Articles/ThemeBldgs/Bracken.cfm (accessed 5 May 2014).
[35] Letter from Thomas Mott Shaw to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 25 October 1944, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[36] Staff memo from B.W. Norton to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 1 November 1945, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[37] Staff memo from J.A. Upshur to Kenneth Chorley of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 12 January 1946, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Ibid.
[40] Letter from Michael A. Grimes (archivist, Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art) to George H. Yetter (Associate Curator of Architectural Drawings, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation), 2 August 1989, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Chappell, Edward A. “Architects of Colonial Williamsburg” in Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, ed. by Charles
Reagan Wilson, William R. Ferris, and Ann J. Adadie. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989, 59-61.
Greenspan, Anders. Creating Colonial Williamsburg: The Restoration of Virginia’s Eighteenth-Century Capitol. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Hosmer, Charles Bridgham, and National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. Preservation Comes of Age: From Williamsburg to the National Trust, 1926-1949, Vol. 1. Charlottesville: Published for the Preservation Press, National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States by the University Press of Virginia, 1981.
Kimball, Fiske, et al. The Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. New York: F.W. Dodge
Corporation, 1935.
Molineux, Will. “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (August 2004): 58-65.
Theobald, Mary Miley. “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002): 81-85.
Yetter, George Humphrey. “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 54-60.
Yetter, George Humphrey. Williamsburg Before and After: The Rebirth of Virginia's Colonial Capital. Williamsburg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1988.
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Graphite on paper
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
45.5 x 31 cm
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Grissel Hay Kitchen
Subject
The topic of the resource
Grissell Hay Lodging House (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 29. Building 03.
Kitchens - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Exterior of the Grissell Hay Kitchen, viewed from North England Street, 1933. The one and a half story structure with a large chimney is a typical form for a colonial kitchen, and provided a freestanding building for cooks to work in. This allowed the home to stay cooler during summer months and helped to prevent fires from spreading beyond the outbuilding. The Grissell Hay Kitchen stands behind the Grissell Hay Lodging House (not pictured here), which "…may be one of the first houses on Market Square."</p>
<p>The Grissell Hay Lodging House, Kitchen, and other outbuildings are located on the corner of Nicholson and North England Street, and are original structures dating to the eighteenth century. “The core of the house may date from around 1720, when it belonged to Dr. Archibald Blair, a Scottish physician and a partner in Williamsburg’s leading mercantile business, the Prentis Store. The present exterior probably dates from the second half of the eighteenth century. Apothecary Peter Hay, whose shop on Duke of Gloucester Street burned in 1756, lived here in the 1760s. After Hay’s death, his widow, Grissell, operated the dwelling as a lodging house. Widows who needed to support themselves and their children often kept lodging houses (the equivalent of today’s bed-and-breakfasts).”</p>
<p>(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, <em>Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg</em> [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 48).</p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Shaw, Thomas Mott
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1933
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
1933
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This material is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). For reproduction queries: <a href="http://research.history.org/JDRLibrary/Visual_Resources/VisualResourcePermission.cfm">Rights and reproductions</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
D2008-COPY-1014-1041
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Brickwork
Chimneys
Colonial Architecture
Domestic Architecture
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Fences
Grissel Hay Kitchen
Grissel Hay Lodging House
Historic Buildings
Kitchens
Shutters
Thomas Mott Shaw
Virginia
Williamsburg
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
An Architect of the Restoration: The Pencil Sketches of Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A.
Description
An account of the resource
BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS MOTT SHAW, F.A.I.A.
Thomas Mott Shaw is best known as one of the founding partners and principal architects of the prominent Boston architectural firm Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, which John D. Rockefeller Jr. hired in 1928 to design, plan, and supervise the groundbreaking historical restoration of Williamsburg, the former eighteenth-century capitol of Virginia.
Born in 1878 in Newport, Rhode Island, Thomas Mott Shaw received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1900 and continued his education at the atelier (workshop) of Jean-Louis Pascal at the Ècole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1900 to 1905.[1] After graduation in 1905, he began working in Boston as a draftsman in the office of Guy Lowell, a prominent American architect and landscape architect who designed the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, as well as numerous other public, commercial, academic, and private buildings and spaces, including many distinguished estates and gardens.[2] Shaw’s connections to Lowell were presumably academic in nature, as Lowell was a former Harvard alumnus who also studied under Pascal at the Ècole, where he graduated just one year before Shaw.[3] In 1908, Shaw left Lowell’s employ and opened his own architectural practice, which he pursued until 1916.[4] During the First World War, he served as a first lieutenant in the 489th Aero Squadron of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF).[5] He was stationed at the U.S. Army’s Air Service Production center at Romorantin, France, where he worked with the Air Service Construction Division #2. During this time, he helped design and build air fields, assembly plants for the fabrication of American aircraft, and barracks for military personnel.[6]
After the war, Shaw returned to the United States and partnered with Andrew H. Hepburn, an MIT graduate and practicing architect who had also worked under Guy Lowell.[7] The two men founded an architectural firm under the name of Shaw and Hepburn, which they managed together from 1918 to 1923.[8] When architect William G. Perry (another alumnus of Harvard, MIT, and the Ècole, as well as a former WWI Army Air Corps captain[9]) joined the partnership in 1923, the firm’s name changed to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[10]
In January 1927, William Perry (representing his partners Shaw and Hepburn) was invited by Reverend William A. R. Goodwin (the rector of Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg) to produce drawings of Williamsburg as it may have looked in the eighteenth century.[11] Goodwin planned to submit the renderings to an unnamed donor who was interested in restoring the town to its former eighteenth-century appearance.[12] Shaw noted: “I worked on those drawings. We all did. We all worked on them (just like a projet in the Ècole des Beaux-Arts) to get them out.” [13] In late November 1927, after spending eleven months working pro bono[14] on a series of illustrations detailing the prospective restoration of the town and the College of William and Mary’s Wren Building, Perry submitted the firm’s drawings to Reverend Goodwin to deliver to his anonymous benefactor for consideration.[15] Soon after reviewing the architects’ work, Goodwin’s patron decided to begin funding the restoration of Williamsburg, and by early December 1927, the firm of Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn was approved “'to proceed with work on [the] Wren Building’ and reconstruction of the colonial Capitol and Governor’s Palace.”[16] It was not until April 1928, however, that the architects finally learned the identity of the secretive individual funding the endeavor.[17] The three men were summoned to New York for a meeting, where Goodwin introduced them to the wealthy businessman and philanthropist, John D. Rockefeller Jr.[18] After meeting the architects in person and discussing the project with them over lunch, Rockefeller decided that he liked what he had seen and heard. On 1 April 1928,[19] he “assigned overall ‘authority and responsibility’” of Williamsburg’s building and restoration to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[20] Soon thereafter, the architects set up a small office in Williamsburg near Bruton Parish Church to manage the project.[21]
The architects “soon found that drawing plans was only a minor part of the [project]. The hard part was finding out what kind of plans should be drawn.”[22] Consequently, they organized a staff of historical researchers to assist them in their efforts to restore and rebuild Williamsburg’s eighteenth-century structures as authentically as possible. “Very early in the project, [the architects] decided to establish the highest possible standards for the job. ‘Nothing was ever done without a good reason,’ Shaw once stated. ‘If there were no documented reasons for doing a particular thing, we didn’t do it.’”[23]
Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn’s dedication to the ideals of historic preservation at Williamsburg also paralleled a larger “preservation fever” that was sweeping the nation in the 1920s, called the Colonial Revival.[24] “Historic preservation formed the core of the Colonial Revival, a social and stylistic mindset that peaked during the 1920s [25]…fueled by the usual turmoil – a world war, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Red Scare, and another spike in immigration, all of which increased the nostalgia for the good old colonial days.[26] ….Creating museums from historic buildings became a preferred philanthropy for the wealthy…and John D. Rockefeller Jr. launched the single largest preservation project the country had seen: Colonial Williamsburg.” [27]
In the wake of the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent national economic collapse of the Great Depression, the fervor of the movement waned, as “only the wealthiest could afford to indulge in antiques, art, and architectural restoration.”[28] As one of the wealthiest men in the country, however, John D. Rockefeller Jr. was one of the few people who could indeed afford to finance his interests in the Colonial Revival. Despite the economic strife of the times, Rockefeller’s infusion of funds into Williamsburg not only helped support the research and restoration of this sleepy southern town back to its former eighteenth-century appearance as the colonial capitol of Virginia, but also provided Williamsburg with much-needed jobs during the worst years of the Depression. By the late 1930s, Rockefeller’s restoration had positioned the town as an architectural and cultural cornerstone of the Colonial Revival movement, fueled Colonial Revival sentiments in spite of the nation’s social and economic woes, and established Williamsburg as a pioneering example of historical preservation relating to the nation’s colonial and revolutionary past.
In time, Thomas Mott Shaw was eventually “placed on [a] consulting basis” with Williamsburg’s Restoration “when an architectural department was established by Colonial Williamsburg” on 1 October 1934.[29] In 1938, Shaw was recognized by the American Institute of Architects for his work on the Williamsburg Inn, “chosen for its excellency of design wedded to the sensitive appreciation of location.”[30] He was awarded the Institute’s Bronze Medal of Honor, the highest award given to a practicing architect in the country.[31] In 1939, Shaw was placed on an annual retainer with the Restoration, though he continued working as a consultant for Colonial Williamsburg on various design and restoration projects.
After a long and accomplished career, Thomas Mott Shaw died on 17 February 1965.[32]
THE THOMAS MOTT SHAW COLLECTION
This collection consists of thirty-four graphite and mixed media sketches drawn by architect Thomas Mott Shaw during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg from the late 1920s through 1930s, depicting various architectural exteriors and interiors of historic buildings in and around Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area. It is not known precisely why these drawings were created – whether for in-house or external purposes by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, for Colonial Williamsburg’s staff or other interested parties, or perhaps even for Shaw’s own personal use – but they have since become historically important artifacts and images of Williamsburg’s Restoration period. These illustrations take us back in time to the early days of Williamsburg as a reconstructed historic site and living history museum, capturing views that offer interesting opportunities for insight and reflection into the early research, planning, design, building, and restoration of the town’s landscape, architecture, and character as Virginia’s eighteenth-century colonial capitol.
The earliest sketch in this collection, drawn in 1928, features the Bracken Tenement (also known as the Bracken House) on Francis Street, which was one of the first buildings to be restored in Williamsburg by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn[33] in 1928.[34] The latest sketch, drawn in 1938, depicts a proposed addition to the Williamsburg Inn which was never built. Otherwise, the majority of the drawings – thirty-two in number – were completed in 1933.
In the fall of 1944, Shaw offered this collection of thirty-four sketches to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation “for use in connection with publicity or any other purpose you would like to use them for.”[35] Upon review of the sketches, Colonial Williamsburg’s staff accepted them, stating: “These sketches are something which we definitely should have in our archives….Mr. Shaw has done them from photographs and that in this respect they are not such creative work as might be done on location without the use of photographs….We have not undertaken to determine how best they can be utilized but there are several possibilities which we should like to explore further.”[36]
Though the sketches were thought to be “very good” and might be used in various ways,[37] Colonial Williamsburg’s staff chiefly appreciated the drawings for their “sentimental appeal by virtue of Mr. Shaw’s connection with Colonial Williamsburg”[38] and “the fact that they are the handiwork of Mr. Shaw, which…will make them quite valuable to Colonial Williamsburg in the future.”[39]
Shaw’s sketches were purchased and accepted into the research archives of Colonial Williamsburg’s Architectural Department between November 1945 and January 1946. These drawings are now part of the Architectural Drawings Collection in the Special Collections wing of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library. While a separate collection of Shaw’s personal papers and drawings also reside within the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C.,[40] the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is proud to possess the majority of Mr. Shaw’s drawings and correspondence associated with his meticulous and pioneering work on Williamsburg’s restoration.
ENDNOTES
[1] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965” unpublished biography, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Henry F. Withey and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects [Deceased] (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970), 381-382.
[4] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[5] George H. Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers (in Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Sarah Quinan Shaw Johnson, Concord, Ma., 1975), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[6] Ibid.; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet on Thomas Mott Shaw, dated 15 March 1947, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[7] George H. Yetter, “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 58.
[8] Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[9] Will Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Autumn 2004), 61.
[10] “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[11] Fred Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun,’” Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), 21 May 1956, page number unknown, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[12] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[13] Ibid. (T.M. Shaw quote excerpted from “Reminiscences of Thomas Mott Shaw,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives, Oral History Collection, 11), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[14] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[15] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[16] Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg,” 63.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[20] Molineux, 63; see also Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[21] Molineux, 63.
[22] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[23] Ibid.
[24] Mary Miley Theobald, “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002), 81.
[25] Ibid., 81.
[26] Ibid., 84.
[27] Ibid., 81.
[28] Ibid., 84.
[29] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[30] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[31] Ibid.
[32] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[33] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[34]Carl Lounsbury, “Bracken Tenement: Block 2, Building 52,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation website, n.d., http://research.history.org/Architectural_Research/Research_Articles/ThemeBldgs/Bracken.cfm (accessed 5 May 2014).
[35] Letter from Thomas Mott Shaw to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 25 October 1944, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[36] Staff memo from B.W. Norton to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 1 November 1945, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[37] Staff memo from J.A. Upshur to Kenneth Chorley of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 12 January 1946, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Ibid.
[40] Letter from Michael A. Grimes (archivist, Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art) to George H. Yetter (Associate Curator of Architectural Drawings, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation), 2 August 1989, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Chappell, Edward A. “Architects of Colonial Williamsburg” in Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, ed. by Charles
Reagan Wilson, William R. Ferris, and Ann J. Adadie. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989, 59-61.
Greenspan, Anders. Creating Colonial Williamsburg: The Restoration of Virginia’s Eighteenth-Century Capitol. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Hosmer, Charles Bridgham, and National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. Preservation Comes of Age: From Williamsburg to the National Trust, 1926-1949, Vol. 1. Charlottesville: Published for the Preservation Press, National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States by the University Press of Virginia, 1981.
Kimball, Fiske, et al. The Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. New York: F.W. Dodge
Corporation, 1935.
Molineux, Will. “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (August 2004): 58-65.
Theobald, Mary Miley. “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002): 81-85.
Yetter, George Humphrey. “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 54-60.
Yetter, George Humphrey. Williamsburg Before and After: The Rebirth of Virginia's Colonial Capital. Williamsburg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1988.
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29.5 x 24.5
Dublin Core
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Title
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Masonic Lodge
Subject
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Block 11. Building 3A.
Freemasons - Virginia - Williamsburg - Buildings
Freemasons - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings – Virginia – Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial – Virginia – Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Exterior of the Masonic Lodge, viewed from Francis Street, 1933. "The...Masonic Lodge on the north side of Francis Street stands where 'the ancient and loyal society of free and accepted Masons' met in the late eighteenth century. The Williamsburg chapter, which had been meeting at local taverns since mid-century, received a new charter in 1773. Its members included Peyton Randolph, Peter Pelham, Bishop James Madison, St. George Tucker, and James Monroe. In the 1770s, the lodge held its regular meetings at Market Square Tavern and patronized Christiana Campbell's Tavern for balls and special entertainments. The Masons leased a portion of this lot and met in a building on this property from the 1780s onward."</p>
<p>(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, <em>Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg</em> [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 133).</p>
Creator
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Shaw, Thomas Mott
Date
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1933
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1933
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D2008-COPY-1014-1046
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Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Brickwork
Chimneys
Colonial Architecture
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Fences
Francis Street
Freemasons
Historic Buildings
Masonic Lodge
Thomas Mott Shaw
Virginia
Williamsburg
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An Architect of the Restoration: The Pencil Sketches of Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A.
Description
An account of the resource
BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS MOTT SHAW, F.A.I.A.
Thomas Mott Shaw is best known as one of the founding partners and principal architects of the prominent Boston architectural firm Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, which John D. Rockefeller Jr. hired in 1928 to design, plan, and supervise the groundbreaking historical restoration of Williamsburg, the former eighteenth-century capitol of Virginia.
Born in 1878 in Newport, Rhode Island, Thomas Mott Shaw received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1900 and continued his education at the atelier (workshop) of Jean-Louis Pascal at the Ècole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1900 to 1905.[1] After graduation in 1905, he began working in Boston as a draftsman in the office of Guy Lowell, a prominent American architect and landscape architect who designed the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, as well as numerous other public, commercial, academic, and private buildings and spaces, including many distinguished estates and gardens.[2] Shaw’s connections to Lowell were presumably academic in nature, as Lowell was a former Harvard alumnus who also studied under Pascal at the Ècole, where he graduated just one year before Shaw.[3] In 1908, Shaw left Lowell’s employ and opened his own architectural practice, which he pursued until 1916.[4] During the First World War, he served as a first lieutenant in the 489th Aero Squadron of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF).[5] He was stationed at the U.S. Army’s Air Service Production center at Romorantin, France, where he worked with the Air Service Construction Division #2. During this time, he helped design and build air fields, assembly plants for the fabrication of American aircraft, and barracks for military personnel.[6]
After the war, Shaw returned to the United States and partnered with Andrew H. Hepburn, an MIT graduate and practicing architect who had also worked under Guy Lowell.[7] The two men founded an architectural firm under the name of Shaw and Hepburn, which they managed together from 1918 to 1923.[8] When architect William G. Perry (another alumnus of Harvard, MIT, and the Ècole, as well as a former WWI Army Air Corps captain[9]) joined the partnership in 1923, the firm’s name changed to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[10]
In January 1927, William Perry (representing his partners Shaw and Hepburn) was invited by Reverend William A. R. Goodwin (the rector of Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg) to produce drawings of Williamsburg as it may have looked in the eighteenth century.[11] Goodwin planned to submit the renderings to an unnamed donor who was interested in restoring the town to its former eighteenth-century appearance.[12] Shaw noted: “I worked on those drawings. We all did. We all worked on them (just like a projet in the Ècole des Beaux-Arts) to get them out.” [13] In late November 1927, after spending eleven months working pro bono[14] on a series of illustrations detailing the prospective restoration of the town and the College of William and Mary’s Wren Building, Perry submitted the firm’s drawings to Reverend Goodwin to deliver to his anonymous benefactor for consideration.[15] Soon after reviewing the architects’ work, Goodwin’s patron decided to begin funding the restoration of Williamsburg, and by early December 1927, the firm of Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn was approved “'to proceed with work on [the] Wren Building’ and reconstruction of the colonial Capitol and Governor’s Palace.”[16] It was not until April 1928, however, that the architects finally learned the identity of the secretive individual funding the endeavor.[17] The three men were summoned to New York for a meeting, where Goodwin introduced them to the wealthy businessman and philanthropist, John D. Rockefeller Jr.[18] After meeting the architects in person and discussing the project with them over lunch, Rockefeller decided that he liked what he had seen and heard. On 1 April 1928,[19] he “assigned overall ‘authority and responsibility’” of Williamsburg’s building and restoration to Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn.[20] Soon thereafter, the architects set up a small office in Williamsburg near Bruton Parish Church to manage the project.[21]
The architects “soon found that drawing plans was only a minor part of the [project]. The hard part was finding out what kind of plans should be drawn.”[22] Consequently, they organized a staff of historical researchers to assist them in their efforts to restore and rebuild Williamsburg’s eighteenth-century structures as authentically as possible. “Very early in the project, [the architects] decided to establish the highest possible standards for the job. ‘Nothing was ever done without a good reason,’ Shaw once stated. ‘If there were no documented reasons for doing a particular thing, we didn’t do it.’”[23]
Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn’s dedication to the ideals of historic preservation at Williamsburg also paralleled a larger “preservation fever” that was sweeping the nation in the 1920s, called the Colonial Revival.[24] “Historic preservation formed the core of the Colonial Revival, a social and stylistic mindset that peaked during the 1920s [25]…fueled by the usual turmoil – a world war, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Red Scare, and another spike in immigration, all of which increased the nostalgia for the good old colonial days.[26] ….Creating museums from historic buildings became a preferred philanthropy for the wealthy…and John D. Rockefeller Jr. launched the single largest preservation project the country had seen: Colonial Williamsburg.” [27]
In the wake of the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent national economic collapse of the Great Depression, the fervor of the movement waned, as “only the wealthiest could afford to indulge in antiques, art, and architectural restoration.”[28] As one of the wealthiest men in the country, however, John D. Rockefeller Jr. was one of the few people who could indeed afford to finance his interests in the Colonial Revival. Despite the economic strife of the times, Rockefeller’s infusion of funds into Williamsburg not only helped support the research and restoration of this sleepy southern town back to its former eighteenth-century appearance as the colonial capitol of Virginia, but also provided Williamsburg with much-needed jobs during the worst years of the Depression. By the late 1930s, Rockefeller’s restoration had positioned the town as an architectural and cultural cornerstone of the Colonial Revival movement, fueled Colonial Revival sentiments in spite of the nation’s social and economic woes, and established Williamsburg as a pioneering example of historical preservation relating to the nation’s colonial and revolutionary past.
In time, Thomas Mott Shaw was eventually “placed on [a] consulting basis” with Williamsburg’s Restoration “when an architectural department was established by Colonial Williamsburg” on 1 October 1934.[29] In 1938, Shaw was recognized by the American Institute of Architects for his work on the Williamsburg Inn, “chosen for its excellency of design wedded to the sensitive appreciation of location.”[30] He was awarded the Institute’s Bronze Medal of Honor, the highest award given to a practicing architect in the country.[31] In 1939, Shaw was placed on an annual retainer with the Restoration, though he continued working as a consultant for Colonial Williamsburg on various design and restoration projects.
After a long and accomplished career, Thomas Mott Shaw died on 17 February 1965.[32]
THE THOMAS MOTT SHAW COLLECTION
This collection consists of thirty-four graphite and mixed media sketches drawn by architect Thomas Mott Shaw during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg from the late 1920s through 1930s, depicting various architectural exteriors and interiors of historic buildings in and around Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area. It is not known precisely why these drawings were created – whether for in-house or external purposes by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn, for Colonial Williamsburg’s staff or other interested parties, or perhaps even for Shaw’s own personal use – but they have since become historically important artifacts and images of Williamsburg’s Restoration period. These illustrations take us back in time to the early days of Williamsburg as a reconstructed historic site and living history museum, capturing views that offer interesting opportunities for insight and reflection into the early research, planning, design, building, and restoration of the town’s landscape, architecture, and character as Virginia’s eighteenth-century colonial capitol.
The earliest sketch in this collection, drawn in 1928, features the Bracken Tenement (also known as the Bracken House) on Francis Street, which was one of the first buildings to be restored in Williamsburg by Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn[33] in 1928.[34] The latest sketch, drawn in 1938, depicts a proposed addition to the Williamsburg Inn which was never built. Otherwise, the majority of the drawings – thirty-two in number – were completed in 1933.
In the fall of 1944, Shaw offered this collection of thirty-four sketches to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation “for use in connection with publicity or any other purpose you would like to use them for.”[35] Upon review of the sketches, Colonial Williamsburg’s staff accepted them, stating: “These sketches are something which we definitely should have in our archives….Mr. Shaw has done them from photographs and that in this respect they are not such creative work as might be done on location without the use of photographs….We have not undertaken to determine how best they can be utilized but there are several possibilities which we should like to explore further.”[36]
Though the sketches were thought to be “very good” and might be used in various ways,[37] Colonial Williamsburg’s staff chiefly appreciated the drawings for their “sentimental appeal by virtue of Mr. Shaw’s connection with Colonial Williamsburg”[38] and “the fact that they are the handiwork of Mr. Shaw, which…will make them quite valuable to Colonial Williamsburg in the future.”[39]
Shaw’s sketches were purchased and accepted into the research archives of Colonial Williamsburg’s Architectural Department between November 1945 and January 1946. These drawings are now part of the Architectural Drawings Collection in the Special Collections wing of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library. While a separate collection of Shaw’s personal papers and drawings also reside within the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C.,[40] the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is proud to possess the majority of Mr. Shaw’s drawings and correspondence associated with his meticulous and pioneering work on Williamsburg’s restoration.
ENDNOTES
[1] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965” unpublished biography, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Henry F. Withey and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects [Deceased] (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970), 381-382.
[4] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[5] George H. Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers (in Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Sarah Quinan Shaw Johnson, Concord, Ma., 1975), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[6] Ibid.; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet on Thomas Mott Shaw, dated 15 March 1947, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[7] George H. Yetter, “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 58.
[8] Yetter, handwritten notes compiled from Thomas Mott Shaw Papers; see also “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[9] Will Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Autumn 2004), 61.
[10] “Colonial Williamsburg Logbook” biographical sheet.
[11] Fred Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun,’” Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), 21 May 1956, page number unknown, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[12] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[13] Ibid. (T.M. Shaw quote excerpted from “Reminiscences of Thomas Mott Shaw,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archives, Oral History Collection, 11), Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[14] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[15] George H. Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
[16] Molineux, “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg,” 63.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[20] Molineux, 63; see also Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[21] Molineux, 63.
[22] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[23] Ibid.
[24] Mary Miley Theobald, “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002), 81.
[25] Ibid., 81.
[26] Ibid., 84.
[27] Ibid., 81.
[28] Ibid., 84.
[29] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw” typewritten research notes.
[30] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[31] Ibid.
[32] Yetter, “Thomas Mott Shaw, F.A.I.A., 1878-1965.”
[33] Frechette, “Work on Restoration Started as ‘Bit of Fun.’”
[34]Carl Lounsbury, “Bracken Tenement: Block 2, Building 52,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation website, n.d., http://research.history.org/Architectural_Research/Research_Articles/ThemeBldgs/Bracken.cfm (accessed 5 May 2014).
[35] Letter from Thomas Mott Shaw to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 25 October 1944, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[36] Staff memo from B.W. Norton to Vernon Geddy of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 1 November 1945, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[37] Staff memo from J.A. Upshur to Kenneth Chorley of Williamsburg Restoration, Inc., 12 January 1946, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Ibid.
[40] Letter from Michael A. Grimes (archivist, Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art) to George H. Yetter (Associate Curator of Architectural Drawings, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation), 2 August 1989, Thomas Mott Shaw research folder, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Chappell, Edward A. “Architects of Colonial Williamsburg” in Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, ed. by Charles
Reagan Wilson, William R. Ferris, and Ann J. Adadie. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989, 59-61.
Greenspan, Anders. Creating Colonial Williamsburg: The Restoration of Virginia’s Eighteenth-Century Capitol. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Hosmer, Charles Bridgham, and National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. Preservation Comes of Age: From Williamsburg to the National Trust, 1926-1949, Vol. 1. Charlottesville: Published for the Preservation Press, National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States by the University Press of Virginia, 1981.
Kimball, Fiske, et al. The Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. New York: F.W. Dodge
Corporation, 1935.
Molineux, Will. “The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (August 2004): 58-65.
Theobald, Mary Miley. “The Colonial Revival: The Past that Never Dies,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Summer 2002): 81-85.
Yetter, George Humphrey. “Designers of Beauty: Academic Training and Williamsburg’s Architectural Restoration,” Colonial Williamsburg Journal (Winter 2012): 54-60.
Yetter, George Humphrey. Williamsburg Before and After: The Rebirth of Virginia's Colonial Capital. Williamsburg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1988.
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Graphite on paper
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
31 x 45.5 cm
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wren Building, Exterior Entrance to Great Hall
Subject
The topic of the resource
Wren Building (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 16. Building 3.
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
Exterior view of the entrance to the Great Hall of the Wren Building at the College of William and Mary, 1933. Professors and students gathered in the Great Hall at long tables and benches to dine and converse during the colonial era. The room also served as a place to hold meetings, and members of the colonial House of Burgesses also occasionally met in this room when the Capitol building underwent renovations.
Begun in 1695, the construction of the Wren Building marked the birth of an academic center in colonial Virginia. One of the oldest academic structures in the United States, the Wren Building was damaged by several fires in 1705, 1859, and 1862, but still retains a large portion of its original outside walls. The building's features are thought to be based upon an adaptation of a Sir Christopher Wren design.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Shaw, Thomas Mott
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1933
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
1933
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This material is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). For reproduction queries: <a href="http://research.history.org/JDRLibrary/Visual_Resources/VisualResourcePermission.cfm">Rights and reproductions</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
D2008-COPY-1014-1067
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Brickwork
Bull's-Eye Windows
Circular Windows
College of William and Mary
Colleges
Colonial Architecture
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Fences
Gates
Historic Buildings
Oculus Windows
Railings
Stairs
Thomas Mott Shaw
Virginia
Williamsburg
Wren Building
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Omeka Image File
The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files.
Bit Depth
8
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3
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IPTC Array
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slides
Description
An account of the resource
Produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Company of Los Angeles, this collection of forty-five lantern slides depicts individuals involved in the restoration of Williamsburg, as well as some of the restored buildings. The slides are a mixture of black and white and color images taken by various photographers in the late 1930s. Many are copies based upon photos taken by contract professionals hired to document the appeal of the architecture and landscapes of Colonial Williamsburg. Several of the black and white slides are derived from photos taken by noted architectural photographer F.S. Lincoln, whose collection is also available for viewing on this site.
The lantern slides are significant because they document early efforts to publicize the newly opened museum. California architect Reginald Davis Johnson utilized the set to lecture to students and colleagues about the massive efforts undertaken to bring Williamsburg's historic district back to its 18th-century appearance. Noted for his contributions to the development of the Spanish-Southern California architecture of Santa Barbara, Reginald Davis Johnson resided in Pasadena and operated an architectural design studio. Some of his best known projects include the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel, the Santa Barbara Post Office, and the Harbor Hills, Rancho San Pedro, and Baldwin Hills communities in Los Angeles.
A precursor of 35mm slides, lantern slides are large format positive transparencies, usually 3.25 x 4 inches, sandwiched between two pieces of glass. Many were hand-colored. A projector allowed the slides to be viewed on a wall or screen. Instead of automatically advancing from one slide to the next, the lantern slides had to be manually placed into a slot on the projector.
Invented in 1848, lantern slides evolved from those associated with magic lanterns in the late 19th-century to the format represented in this collection. Between 1848-1870, oil lamps served as the light source for magic lantern projectors. By the 1890s, the carbon arc lamp offered a better lighting method. The introduction of electricity in the 20th-century allowed the projection of lantern slides to become common in schools and universities. Lantern slides became obsolete in the 1950s when the Kodachrome three-color process brought about the introduction of 35mm slides.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Lantern slides - Hand-colored - 1930-1940
Johnson, Reginald Davis, 1882-1952
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
ca. 1935
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Lantern slide
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
2 x 3 inches
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Restored Brickwork : James City County Courthouse
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PSC-007
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Description
An account of the resource
Lantern slide featuring a close-up photo of the brickwork on the James City County Courthouse. It is the seventh slide in a set produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Co. of Los Angeles, California, now defunct, to illustrate the story of Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin's dream to restore a portion of Williamsburg, Virginia to its 18th-century appearance as a shrine to early American ideals.
This slide offers a close-up view of the arched brick colonnade on the new courthouse built to relocate municipal activities outside of the restored area of Williamsburg in the 1930s. The brick headers and stretchers of the walls are arranged in a Flemish bond pattern.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
ca. 1930s
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slide Collection
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Subject
The topic of the resource
James City County Courthouse (Williamsburg, Va.)
Brickwork - Virginia - Williamsburg
Block 04. Building 04.
Brickwork
Flemish Bond
James City County Couthouse
Lantern Slides
Pacific Stereopticon Company
Virginia
Williamsburg
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slides
Description
An account of the resource
Produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Company of Los Angeles, this collection of forty-five lantern slides depicts individuals involved in the restoration of Williamsburg, as well as some of the restored buildings. The slides are a mixture of black and white and color images taken by various photographers in the late 1930s. Many are copies based upon photos taken by contract professionals hired to document the appeal of the architecture and landscapes of Colonial Williamsburg. Several of the black and white slides are derived from photos taken by noted architectural photographer F.S. Lincoln, whose collection is also available for viewing on this site.
The lantern slides are significant because they document early efforts to publicize the newly opened museum. California architect Reginald Davis Johnson utilized the set to lecture to students and colleagues about the massive efforts undertaken to bring Williamsburg's historic district back to its 18th-century appearance. Noted for his contributions to the development of the Spanish-Southern California architecture of Santa Barbara, Reginald Davis Johnson resided in Pasadena and operated an architectural design studio. Some of his best known projects include the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel, the Santa Barbara Post Office, and the Harbor Hills, Rancho San Pedro, and Baldwin Hills communities in Los Angeles.
A precursor of 35mm slides, lantern slides are large format positive transparencies, usually 3.25 x 4 inches, sandwiched between two pieces of glass. Many were hand-colored. A projector allowed the slides to be viewed on a wall or screen. Instead of automatically advancing from one slide to the next, the lantern slides had to be manually placed into a slot on the projector.
Invented in 1848, lantern slides evolved from those associated with magic lanterns in the late 19th-century to the format represented in this collection. Between 1848-1870, oil lamps served as the light source for magic lantern projectors. By the 1890s, the carbon arc lamp offered a better lighting method. The introduction of electricity in the 20th-century allowed the projection of lantern slides to become common in schools and universities. Lantern slides became obsolete in the 1950s when the Kodachrome three-color process brought about the introduction of 35mm slides.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Lantern slides - Hand-colored - 1930-1940
Johnson, Reginald Davis, 1882-1952
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
ca. 1935
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Lantern slide
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
2 x 3 inches
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Williamsburg Post Office
Description
An account of the resource
Hand-colored lantern slide featuring a photo of the Williamsburg Post Office on Merchants Square taken by F.S. Lincoln in 1935. It is the thirteenth slide in a set produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Co. of Los Angeles, California, now defunct, to illustrate the story of Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin's dream to restore a portion of Williamsburg, Virginia to its 18th-century appearance as a shrine to early American ideals.
This image of the Williamsburg Post Office, in what is known as the Arcade Building, shows the evolution of uses on Merchant's Square. Among the earliest in the shopping mall genre, the area has had a variety of tenants. Initially the town's post office, this building now also houses a portion of today's Trellis Restaurant.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lincoln, F.S.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1935
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PSC-013
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slide Collection
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Subject
The topic of the resource
Block 23. Building 32.
Post offices - Virginia - Williamsburg
Merchants Square (Williamsburg, Va.)
Cental business districts - Virginia - Williamsburg
Arcade Building
Benches
Brickwork
Business Districts
Chimneys
Cornices
F.S. Lincoln
Lantern Slides
Merchants Square
Pacific Stereopticon Company
Pediments
Post Offices
Round-headed Windows
Semi-circular Windows
Virginia
Williamsburg
Williamsburg Post Office
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slides
Description
An account of the resource
Produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Company of Los Angeles, this collection of forty-five lantern slides depicts individuals involved in the restoration of Williamsburg, as well as some of the restored buildings. The slides are a mixture of black and white and color images taken by various photographers in the late 1930s. Many are copies based upon photos taken by contract professionals hired to document the appeal of the architecture and landscapes of Colonial Williamsburg. Several of the black and white slides are derived from photos taken by noted architectural photographer F.S. Lincoln, whose collection is also available for viewing on this site.
The lantern slides are significant because they document early efforts to publicize the newly opened museum. California architect Reginald Davis Johnson utilized the set to lecture to students and colleagues about the massive efforts undertaken to bring Williamsburg's historic district back to its 18th-century appearance. Noted for his contributions to the development of the Spanish-Southern California architecture of Santa Barbara, Reginald Davis Johnson resided in Pasadena and operated an architectural design studio. Some of his best known projects include the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel, the Santa Barbara Post Office, and the Harbor Hills, Rancho San Pedro, and Baldwin Hills communities in Los Angeles.
A precursor of 35mm slides, lantern slides are large format positive transparencies, usually 3.25 x 4 inches, sandwiched between two pieces of glass. Many were hand-colored. A projector allowed the slides to be viewed on a wall or screen. Instead of automatically advancing from one slide to the next, the lantern slides had to be manually placed into a slot on the projector.
Invented in 1848, lantern slides evolved from those associated with magic lanterns in the late 19th-century to the format represented in this collection. Between 1848-1870, oil lamps served as the light source for magic lantern projectors. By the 1890s, the carbon arc lamp offered a better lighting method. The introduction of electricity in the 20th-century allowed the projection of lantern slides to become common in schools and universities. Lantern slides became obsolete in the 1950s when the Kodachrome three-color process brought about the introduction of 35mm slides.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Lantern slides - Hand-colored - 1930-1940
Johnson, Reginald Davis, 1882-1952
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
ca. 1935
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Lantern slide
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
2 x 3 inches
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Ludwell-Paradise House Entrance
Subject
The topic of the resource
Ludwell-Paradise House (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 18-1. Building 07.
Architecture, Domestic - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
Hand-colored lantern slide featuring a photo of the entrance of the Ludwell-Paradise House taken by F.S. Lincoln in 1935. It is the fourteenth slide in a set produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Co. of Los Angeles, California, now defunct, to illustrate the story of Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin's dream to restore a portion of Williamsburg, Virginia to its 18th-century appearance as a shrine to early American ideals.
A costumed interpreter stands at the front entrance of Ludwell-Paradise House soon after it opened as one of the early exhibition buildings at Colonial Williamsburg. One of the eighty-eight original eighteenth-century buildings at Colonial Williamsburg, the house played an important role in the museum's founding as the first property purchased by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Members of the Ludwell family resided here in the eighteenth century and Lucy Ludwell Paradise, one of their more eccentric offspring, became a well-known socialite in both London and Virginia. She also became a namesake for this home that is a cornerstone of Williamsburg's restoration.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lincoln, F.S.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1935
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PSC-014
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slide Collection
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Belt Courses
Brickwork
Costumed Interpreters
Domestic Architecture
F.S. Lincoln
Flemish Bond
Hitching Posts
Lantern Slides
Ludwell-Paradise House
Pacific Stereopticon Company
Stairs
Stringcourses
Virginia
Williamsburg
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slides
Description
An account of the resource
Produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Company of Los Angeles, this collection of forty-five lantern slides depicts individuals involved in the restoration of Williamsburg, as well as some of the restored buildings. The slides are a mixture of black and white and color images taken by various photographers in the late 1930s. Many are copies based upon photos taken by contract professionals hired to document the appeal of the architecture and landscapes of Colonial Williamsburg. Several of the black and white slides are derived from photos taken by noted architectural photographer F.S. Lincoln, whose collection is also available for viewing on this site.
The lantern slides are significant because they document early efforts to publicize the newly opened museum. California architect Reginald Davis Johnson utilized the set to lecture to students and colleagues about the massive efforts undertaken to bring Williamsburg's historic district back to its 18th-century appearance. Noted for his contributions to the development of the Spanish-Southern California architecture of Santa Barbara, Reginald Davis Johnson resided in Pasadena and operated an architectural design studio. Some of his best known projects include the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel, the Santa Barbara Post Office, and the Harbor Hills, Rancho San Pedro, and Baldwin Hills communities in Los Angeles.
A precursor of 35mm slides, lantern slides are large format positive transparencies, usually 3.25 x 4 inches, sandwiched between two pieces of glass. Many were hand-colored. A projector allowed the slides to be viewed on a wall or screen. Instead of automatically advancing from one slide to the next, the lantern slides had to be manually placed into a slot on the projector.
Invented in 1848, lantern slides evolved from those associated with magic lanterns in the late 19th-century to the format represented in this collection. Between 1848-1870, oil lamps served as the light source for magic lantern projectors. By the 1890s, the carbon arc lamp offered a better lighting method. The introduction of electricity in the 20th-century allowed the projection of lantern slides to become common in schools and universities. Lantern slides became obsolete in the 1950s when the Kodachrome three-color process brought about the introduction of 35mm slides.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Lantern slides - Hand-colored - 1930-1940
Johnson, Reginald Davis, 1882-1952
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
ca. 1935
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Lantern slide
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
2 x 3 inches
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
St. George Tucker House Kitchen
Description
An account of the resource
Hand-colored lantern slide featuring photo of St. George Tucker House Kitchen taken by F.S. Lincoln in 1935. It is the twentieth slide in a set produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Co. of Los Angeles, California, now defunct, to illustrate the story of Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin's dream to restore a portion of Williamsburg, Virginia to its 18th-century appearance as a shrine to early American ideals.
View looking from the boxwood garden towards the eastern end of the St. George Tucker House. St. George Tucker, a law professor at the College of William and Mary, purchased and moved the central portion of the house from Palace Green to Market Square in 1788. He added wings to enlarge the size.
This formal garden composed of boxwood hedges is situated on the east side of the Tucker House Kitchen.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lincoln, F.S.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1935
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PSC-020
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Subject
The topic of the resource
St. George Tucker House (Williamsburg, Va.)
Kitchens - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Block 29. Building 02.
Gardens - Virginia - Williamsburg
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slide Collection
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Boxwood
Brickwork
Chimneys
Domestic Architecture
Dormers
F.S. Lincoln
Kitchens
Lantern Slides
Outbuildings
Pacific Stereopticon Company
St. George Tucker House
Virginia
Weatherboarding
Williamsburg
-
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00af18ac310724d36f39da4c1edf35f8
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bruton Parish
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bruton Parish Church (Williamsburg, Va.)
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Company
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slides
Description
An account of the resource
Produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Company of Los Angeles, this collection of forty-five lantern slides depicts individuals involved in the restoration of Williamsburg, as well as some of the restored buildings. The slides are a mixture of black and white and color images taken by various photographers in the late 1930s. Many are copies based upon photos taken by contract professionals hired to document the appeal of the architecture and landscapes of Colonial Williamsburg. Several of the black and white slides are derived from photos taken by noted architectural photographer F.S. Lincoln, whose collection is also available for viewing on this site.
The lantern slides are significant because they document early efforts to publicize the newly opened museum. California architect Reginald Davis Johnson utilized the set to lecture to students and colleagues about the massive efforts undertaken to bring Williamsburg's historic district back to its 18th-century appearance. Noted for his contributions to the development of the Spanish-Southern California architecture of Santa Barbara, Reginald Davis Johnson resided in Pasadena and operated an architectural design studio. Some of his best known projects include the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel, the Santa Barbara Post Office, and the Harbor Hills, Rancho San Pedro, and Baldwin Hills communities in Los Angeles.
A precursor of 35mm slides, lantern slides are large format positive transparencies, usually 3.25 x 4 inches, sandwiched between two pieces of glass. Many were hand-colored. A projector allowed the slides to be viewed on a wall or screen. Instead of automatically advancing from one slide to the next, the lantern slides had to be manually placed into a slot on the projector.
Invented in 1848, lantern slides evolved from those associated with magic lanterns in the late 19th-century to the format represented in this collection. Between 1848-1870, oil lamps served as the light source for magic lantern projectors. By the 1890s, the carbon arc lamp offered a better lighting method. The introduction of electricity in the 20th-century allowed the projection of lantern slides to become common in schools and universities. Lantern slides became obsolete in the 1950s when the Kodachrome three-color process brought about the introduction of 35mm slides.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Lantern slides - Hand-colored - 1930-1940
Johnson, Reginald Davis, 1882-1952
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
ca. 1935
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Lantern slide
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
2 x 3 inches
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bruton Parish Church
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bruton Parish Church (Williamsburg, Va.)
Church architecture - Virginia - Williamsburg
Block 21. Building 01.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
ca. 1935
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Description
An account of the resource
Lantern slide featuring a photo of the exterior of Bruton Parish Church as it appeared around 1935. It is the twenty-first slide in a set produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Co. of Los Angeles, California, now defunct, to illustrate the story of Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin's dream to restore a portion of Williamsburg, Virginia to its 18th-century appearance as a shrine to early American ideals.
A smaller seventeenth-century structure stood on the site from 1683 until 1715, when the larger and more elaborate cruciform-style church replaced it. Located at the edge of Palace Green on the corner of Duke of Gloucester Street and Palace Street, the church was originally designed by colonial Governor Alexander Spotswood.
A series of restoration efforts began under Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin's direction between 1903-1907 and continued periodically until completed in 1940. In this 1935 photo of the north facade of Bruton Parish Church, the building retains the Colonial Revival window shutters installed by architect J. Stewart Barney during his 1906 renovation of the exterior, according to how be believed the church appeared in the eighteenth century. The shutters were later removed during final restoration efforts in 1939, given the availability of further research information.
Bruton Parish continues to serve an active Episcopal congregation and has functioned as a site of worship for the community since the parish was first founded in 1674.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slide Collection
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PSC-021
Brickwork
Bruton Parish Church
Cemeteries
Church Architecture
Clock Towers
Cruciform
Lantern Slides
Pacific Stereopticon Company
Round-headed Windows
Shutters
Steeples
Tombstones
Virginia
Williamsburg
-
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972d2c895b32c5247f2c489a3b455377
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slides
Description
An account of the resource
Produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Company of Los Angeles, this collection of forty-five lantern slides depicts individuals involved in the restoration of Williamsburg, as well as some of the restored buildings. The slides are a mixture of black and white and color images taken by various photographers in the late 1930s. Many are copies based upon photos taken by contract professionals hired to document the appeal of the architecture and landscapes of Colonial Williamsburg. Several of the black and white slides are derived from photos taken by noted architectural photographer F.S. Lincoln, whose collection is also available for viewing on this site.
The lantern slides are significant because they document early efforts to publicize the newly opened museum. California architect Reginald Davis Johnson utilized the set to lecture to students and colleagues about the massive efforts undertaken to bring Williamsburg's historic district back to its 18th-century appearance. Noted for his contributions to the development of the Spanish-Southern California architecture of Santa Barbara, Reginald Davis Johnson resided in Pasadena and operated an architectural design studio. Some of his best known projects include the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel, the Santa Barbara Post Office, and the Harbor Hills, Rancho San Pedro, and Baldwin Hills communities in Los Angeles.
A precursor of 35mm slides, lantern slides are large format positive transparencies, usually 3.25 x 4 inches, sandwiched between two pieces of glass. Many were hand-colored. A projector allowed the slides to be viewed on a wall or screen. Instead of automatically advancing from one slide to the next, the lantern slides had to be manually placed into a slot on the projector.
Invented in 1848, lantern slides evolved from those associated with magic lanterns in the late 19th-century to the format represented in this collection. Between 1848-1870, oil lamps served as the light source for magic lantern projectors. By the 1890s, the carbon arc lamp offered a better lighting method. The introduction of electricity in the 20th-century allowed the projection of lantern slides to become common in schools and universities. Lantern slides became obsolete in the 1950s when the Kodachrome three-color process brought about the introduction of 35mm slides.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Lantern slides - Hand-colored - 1930-1940
Johnson, Reginald Davis, 1882-1952
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
ca. 1935
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Courthouse of 1770
Subject
The topic of the resource
Courthouse (Williamsburg, Va.)
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Block 19. Building 03.
Description
An account of the resource
Hand-colored lantern slide featuring photo of Courthouse taken by F.S. Lincoln in 1935. It is the twenty-fourth slide in a set produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Co. of Los Angeles, California, now defunct, to illustrate the story of Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin's dream to restore a portion of Williamsburg, Virginia to its 18th-century appearance as a shrine to early American ideals.
One of the eighty-eight original structures at Colonial Williamsburg, the Courthouse stood on this site from 1770 onwards but underwent a number of minor modifications in the nineteenth century. It was restored to its colonial appearance and opened as an exhibition building in the early 1930s. The Restoration Archaeological Exhibit housed inside offered early museum visitors an opportunity to learn about eighteenth-century artifacts uncovered by archaeologists working in tandem with architectural historians.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lincoln, F.S.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1935
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PSC-024
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Pacific Stereopticon Lantern Slide Collection
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Archaeological Museum
Benches
Brickwork
Chimneys
Cornices
Courthouses
Cupolas
F.S. Lincoln
Hitching Rails
Lampposts
Lantern Slides
Market Square
Pacific Stereopticon Company
Pediments
Round-headed Windows
Virginia
Weathervanes
Williamsburg
-
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b79a182fde9700aa136291e11baa1e7d
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slides
Description
An account of the resource
Produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Company of Los Angeles, this collection of forty-five lantern slides depicts individuals involved in the restoration of Williamsburg, as well as some of the restored buildings. The slides are a mixture of black and white and color images taken by various photographers in the late 1930s. Many are copies based upon photos taken by contract professionals hired to document the appeal of the architecture and landscapes of Colonial Williamsburg. Several of the black and white slides are derived from photos taken by noted architectural photographer F.S. Lincoln, whose collection is also available for viewing on this site.
The lantern slides are significant because they document early efforts to publicize the newly opened museum. California architect Reginald Davis Johnson utilized the set to lecture to students and colleagues about the massive efforts undertaken to bring Williamsburg's historic district back to its 18th-century appearance. Noted for his contributions to the development of the Spanish-Southern California architecture of Santa Barbara, Reginald Davis Johnson resided in Pasadena and operated an architectural design studio. Some of his best known projects include the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel, the Santa Barbara Post Office, and the Harbor Hills, Rancho San Pedro, and Baldwin Hills communities in Los Angeles.
A precursor of 35mm slides, lantern slides are large format positive transparencies, usually 3.25 x 4 inches, sandwiched between two pieces of glass. Many were hand-colored. A projector allowed the slides to be viewed on a wall or screen. Instead of automatically advancing from one slide to the next, the lantern slides had to be manually placed into a slot on the projector.
Invented in 1848, lantern slides evolved from those associated with magic lanterns in the late 19th-century to the format represented in this collection. Between 1848-1870, oil lamps served as the light source for magic lantern projectors. By the 1890s, the carbon arc lamp offered a better lighting method. The introduction of electricity in the 20th-century allowed the projection of lantern slides to become common in schools and universities. Lantern slides became obsolete in the 1950s when the Kodachrome three-color process brought about the introduction of 35mm slides.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Lantern slides - Hand-colored - 1930-1940
Johnson, Reginald Davis, 1882-1952
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
ca. 1935
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Lantern slide
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
2 x 3 inches
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Capitol
Subject
The topic of the resource
Capitol (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 08. Building 11.
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
Hand-colored lantern slide featuring photo of the entrance gate leading into the Capitol complex taken by F.S. Lincoln in 1935. It is the thirty-fourth slide in a set produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Co. of Los Angeles, California, now defunct, to illustrate the story of Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin's dream to restore a portion of Williamsburg, Virginia to its 18th-century appearance as a shrine to early American ideals.
The slide shows the Capitol's north facade, from the north gate entrance looking toward the building. The clock and cupola are visible on the clock tower above the entrance to the building. "The H-shaped plan of the Capitol reflects the division of the government between the lower and upper houses of the legislature....As the General Assembly evolved, it comprised the Council [meeting in the west wing, to the right] and the House of Burgesses [in the east wing, to the left], each of which met separately."
(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 68).
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lincoln, F.S.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1935
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PSC-034
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slide Collection
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Arcades
Belt Courses
Brick Pathways
Brickwork
Capitol
Clock Towers
Clocks
Cupolas
Dentils
Dormers
F.S. Lincoln
Flags
Gates
Lantern Slides
Pacific Stereopticon Company
Public Buildings
Stringcourses
Virginia
Williamsburg
-
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29e0f28c4ec0fa781158f74dbc99d0af
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slides
Description
An account of the resource
Produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Company of Los Angeles, this collection of forty-five lantern slides depicts individuals involved in the restoration of Williamsburg, as well as some of the restored buildings. The slides are a mixture of black and white and color images taken by various photographers in the late 1930s. Many are copies based upon photos taken by contract professionals hired to document the appeal of the architecture and landscapes of Colonial Williamsburg. Several of the black and white slides are derived from photos taken by noted architectural photographer F.S. Lincoln, whose collection is also available for viewing on this site.
The lantern slides are significant because they document early efforts to publicize the newly opened museum. California architect Reginald Davis Johnson utilized the set to lecture to students and colleagues about the massive efforts undertaken to bring Williamsburg's historic district back to its 18th-century appearance. Noted for his contributions to the development of the Spanish-Southern California architecture of Santa Barbara, Reginald Davis Johnson resided in Pasadena and operated an architectural design studio. Some of his best known projects include the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel, the Santa Barbara Post Office, and the Harbor Hills, Rancho San Pedro, and Baldwin Hills communities in Los Angeles.
A precursor of 35mm slides, lantern slides are large format positive transparencies, usually 3.25 x 4 inches, sandwiched between two pieces of glass. Many were hand-colored. A projector allowed the slides to be viewed on a wall or screen. Instead of automatically advancing from one slide to the next, the lantern slides had to be manually placed into a slot on the projector.
Invented in 1848, lantern slides evolved from those associated with magic lanterns in the late 19th-century to the format represented in this collection. Between 1848-1870, oil lamps served as the light source for magic lantern projectors. By the 1890s, the carbon arc lamp offered a better lighting method. The introduction of electricity in the 20th-century allowed the projection of lantern slides to become common in schools and universities. Lantern slides became obsolete in the 1950s when the Kodachrome three-color process brought about the introduction of 35mm slides.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Lantern slides - Hand-colored - 1930-1940
Johnson, Reginald Davis, 1882-1952
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
ca. 1935
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Lantern slide
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
2 x 3 inches
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Governor's Palace
Subject
The topic of the resource
Governor's Palace (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 20. Building 03.
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
Hand-colored lantern slide featuring a photo of the northeast elevation of the Governor's Palace taken by F.S. Lincoln in 1935. It is the thirty-ninth slide in a set produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Co. of Los Angeles, California, now defunct, to illustrate the story of Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin's dream to restore a portion of Williamsburg, Virginia to its 18th-century appearance as a shrine to early American ideals.
This image of the Governor's Palace, shown as it was first reconstructed, includes features and details that changed with later research and investigation. Wrought-iron gates and the over-door balcony are now painted white, and louvered exterior doors have been removed as efforts towards authenticity are refined.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lincoln, F.S.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1935
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PSC-039
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slide Collection
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Advance Buildings
Balconies
Brick Walls
Brickwork
Chimneys
Cupolas
Dormer Windows
F.S. Lincoln
Gates
Governor's Palace
Hitching Posts
Lantern Slides
Pacific Stereopticon Company
Palace Street
Public Buildings
Virginia
Weathervanes
Williamsburg
-
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a7356c8db166f633309c3378e024fcd5
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Company Lantern Slides
Description
An account of the resource
Produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Company of Los Angeles, this collection of forty-five lantern slides depicts individuals involved in the restoration of Williamsburg, as well as some of the restored buildings. The slides are a mixture of black and white and color images taken by various photographers in the late 1930s. Many are copies based upon photos taken by contract professionals hired to document the appeal of the architecture and landscapes of Colonial Williamsburg. Several of the black and white slides are derived from photos taken by noted architectural photographer F.S. Lincoln, whose collection is also available for viewing on this site.
The lantern slides are significant because they document early efforts to publicize the newly opened museum. California architect Reginald Davis Johnson utilized the set to lecture to students and colleagues about the massive efforts undertaken to bring Williamsburg's historic district back to its 18th-century appearance. Noted for his contributions to the development of the Spanish-Southern California architecture of Santa Barbara, Reginald Davis Johnson resided in Pasadena and operated an architectural design studio. Some of his best known projects include the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel, the Santa Barbara Post Office, and the Harbor Hills, Rancho San Pedro, and Baldwin Hills communities in Los Angeles.
A precursor of 35mm slides, lantern slides are large format positive transparencies, usually 3.25 x 4 inches, sandwiched between two pieces of glass. Many were hand-colored. A projector allowed the slides to be viewed on a wall or screen. Instead of automatically advancing from one slide to the next, the lantern slides had to be manually placed into a slot on the projector.
Invented in 1848, lantern slides evolved from those associated with magic lanterns in the late 19th-century to the format represented in this collection. Between 1848-1870, oil lamps served as the light source for magic lantern projectors. By the 1890s, the carbon arc lamp offered a better lighting method. The introduction of electricity in the 20th-century allowed the projection of lantern slides to become common in schools and universities. Lantern slides became obsolete in the 1950s when the Kodachrome three-color process brought about the introduction of 35mm slides.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Lantern slides - Hand-colored - 1930-1940
Johnson, Reginald Davis, 1882-1952
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
ca. 1935
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Lantern slide
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
2 x 3 inches
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Coat of Arms on the Governor's Palace
Subject
The topic of the resource
Governor's Palace (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 20. Building 03.
Public buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
Hand-colored lantern slide featuring a photo taken by F.S. Lincoln in 1935 of the royal coat of arms on the pediment of the Governor's Palace ballroom wing. It is the forty-fifth slide in a set produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Co. of Los Angeles, California, now defunct, to illustrate the story of Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin's dream to restore a portion of Williamsburg, Virginia to its 18th-century appearance as a shrine to early American ideals.
The slide shows the exterior of the Governor's Palace, north facade, featuring the rear entrance and ballroom wing of the building. The ballroom wing was built as an addition during the 1750s. Above its doors, a painted carving of the royal coat of arms is mounted within a pedimented gable.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lincoln, F.S.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Pacific Stereopticon Company
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1935
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PSC-045
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Ballroom Wing
Brickwork
Coats of Arms
Dentils
F.S. Lincoln
Governor's Palace
Lantern Slides
Pacific Stereopticon Company
Pediments
Virginia
Williamsburg
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Selections from the Postcard Collection
Description
An account of the resource
The Postcard Collection housed at the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library consists of postcards of Williamsburg and surrounding areas dating from the late 19th-century to the present. It includes examples of early postcards of the town prior to its restoration by John D. Rockefeller Jr. In addition, it encompasses many examples of official postcards produced by Colonial Williamsburg for tourists. A smaller number of postcards of neighboring historic sites, such as Jamestown and Yorktown, are also present.
The selections included here are primarily vintage postcards of Colonial Williamsburg and surrounding tourist attractions ranging in date from 1898 to the 1950s. Early cards in the collection illustrate a range of common postcard types and reproduction techniques. The history of the postcard's development as a souvenir, as well as the growth of tourism in Williamsburg, can be traced via Colonial Williamsburg's Postcard Collection.
During what is known as the Pioneer Era from 1870-1898, the first form of postcard, featuring an illustration on one side and an undivided back on the other, did not allow the sender to include a note, unless it was written across a portion of the image on the front. The majority of pioneering postcard formats served as advertisements up until the 1893 Columbia Exposition, when postcards first appeared as souvenirs for Exposition visitors to purchase.
The Private Mailing Card Era from 1898-1901 is characterized by cards printed with the notice "Private Mailing Card Authorized by Act of Congress on May 19, 1898." Backs of the cards remained undivided and purchasers could mail the cards for a cost of one cent. Several examples of postcards from this era are present in the collection. They include some of the earliest instances of souvenir cards created to promote Williamsburg historic sites, such as the Courthouse, Bruton Parish Church, the Powder Magazine, and the Capitol site. European rather than American printers created many of these postcards due to their superb skills. Chromo-lithograph cards of this era exhibit extremely rich colors.
By the time the Jamestown Exposition took place in 1907, postcard production had entered the Divided Back Era, which continued until 1915. Modified postcard backs offered a segment on the left side for senders to pen a brief message. Production of cards gradually shifted to more American printers. The Jamestown Exposition provided a strong impetus for promotion of other historic sites that attendees might also stop at along the way. A series of postcards commemorating Williamsburg area historic sites in conjunction with the 1907 celebration are excellent examples of very early divided back cards.
The Early Modern Era between 1916-1930 led to an increase in production of souvenir cards relating to the Williamsburg area. One type of format popular in this period is the "White Border Card" characterized by a view surrounded with a white border. Real photo cards also began to appear that featured photographs, rather than prints, of local surroundings. In the era before Colonial Williamsburg operated official gift shops, tourists counted on the Cole News Shop as their source for maps, postcards, travel guides, and souvenirs. Mr. Henry Dennison Cole served as the proprietor. His business stood on the site of the present day Taliaferro-Cole Shop. He produced his own postcards of historic sites in the area being restored by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities and other groups of preservation minded citizens. Several examples of cards published by the Cole Shop can be found in the collection and offer a glimpse of attractions popular with early 20th-century tourists, such as the old Masonic Hall and Custis Kitchen.
Once Colonial Williamsburg opened a core group of exhibition buildings to the public in the early 1930s, a new era dawned in which the museum began production of official postcards as souvenirs for visitors. Photographs by F.S. Lincoln, an architectural photographer hired on a contract basis in 1935 to take some of the first promotional photos of Colonial Williamsburg exhibition buildings, appeared on a number of real photo postcards issued in the late 1930s. Both examples of postcards bearing his photos, as well as his actual photograph collection, reside at the Rockefeller Library.
The Albertype Company of Brooklyn, New York, produced one of the earliest official postcard series highlighting Colonial Williamsburg exhibition buildings, costumed interpreters, Williamsburg Inn and Lodge, and Merchants Square. In addition to holding numerous examples of Albertype cards, the Rockefeller Library also houses the corresponding photographic prints used to generate the postcards. Albertype cards are characterized by sepia toned images that show exterior and interior views of exhibition buildings, as well as some of the earliest scenes of African Americans in costume demonstrating colonial cooking techniques.
For further information about Williamsburg postcards, please consult:
Preacher, Kristopher J. "Williamsburg in Vintage Postcards." Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2002.
Reisweber, Kurt. "Williamsburg in Old Post Cards." Colonial Williamsburg XXI, No.2, (June/July 1999): 52-57.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Postcards - Virginia - Williamsburg
Souvenirs (Keepsakes) - Virginia - Williamsburg - Pictorial works
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Postcard
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image.
3.5 x 5.5 inches
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bruton Parish Church, Oldest Church in Constant Use in America, Williamsburg, Va.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bruton Parish Church (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 21. Building 01.
Church architecture - Virginia - Williamsburg
Postcards - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
Recto and verso of postcard illustrated with a view of the northwest exterior elevation of Bruton Parish Church. The card pre-dates the 1939 restoration of the church which led to the removal of such features as the exterior window shutters and louvered window grills on the tower.
The caption reads: "Built in 1710. Where Washington worshipped in 1781. The Parish dates back from 1632. Four presidents of the United States have worshipped within its walls. The bell which hangs in the tower was made in England and presented to the church in 1761 and summoned the patriots together in Revolutionary Times."
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Louis Kaufmann & Sons
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Postcard Collection
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AV-2003-06-16-R
AV-2003-06-16-V
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Pre-1939
Brick Walls
Brickwork
Bruton Parish Church
Church Architecture
Colonial Architecture
Duke of Gloucester Street
Gates
Louis Kaufmann & Sons
Louvered Window Grills
Oculus Windows
Postcards
Round-headed Windows
Shutters
Steeples
Towers
Virginia
Williamsburg