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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
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Title
A name given to the resource
Architects of the Restoration : Perry, Shaw & Hepburn
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Pacific Stereopticon Co.
Identifier
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PSC-003
Rights Holder
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Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Is Part Of
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Pacific Stereopticon Co. Lantern Slide Collection
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Description
An account of the resource
Lantern slide featuring photographic portraits of William Graves Perry, Thomas Mott Shaw, and Andrew Hepburn, the architects selected to oversee the development of Colonial Williamsburg. It is the third in a set produced by the Pacific Stereopticon Co. of Los Angeles, California, now defunct, to illustrate the story of the restoration of a portion of Williamsburg, Virginia to its 18th-century appearance as a shrine to early American ideals.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
ca. 1930s
Subject
The topic of the resource
Perry, William Graves, 1883-1975
Hepburn, Andrew H.
Shaw, Thomas Mott
Andrew Hepburn
Architects
Lantern Slides
Pacific Stereopticon Company
Portraits
Thomas Mott Shaw
William Graves Perry
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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.
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Dublin Core
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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 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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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.
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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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45.5 x 31 cm
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Title
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Wren Building, West Facade
Subject
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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 west elevation of the Wren Building at the College of William and Mary, 1933. 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.
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Shaw, Thomas Mott
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1933
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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-1014-1065
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Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Balconies
Bull's-Eye Windows
Chimneys
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College of William and Mary
Colleges
Colonial Architecture
Cupolas
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Fences
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Historic Buildings
Lampposts
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Thomas Mott Shaw
Virginia
Weather Vanes
Williamsburg
Wren Building
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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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Mixed media on board
Physical Dimensions
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66 x 39.5 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
Proposed Addition to the Williamsburg Inn, View from the South East, 1938
Subject
The topic of the resource
Williamsburg Inn (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 02. Building 65.
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Hotels - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Proposed addition to the Williamsburg Inn, view from the southeast looking northwest, 1938. This proposed addition was never built. "Abby and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. were involved in every aspect of the design, construction, and furnishing of the Williamsburg Inn. They created one of the finest luxury hotels in North America. When the famed philanthropist first built the Inn in 1937, he insisted that 'the most possible has been made of each room as regards comfort, convenience and charm.' In 2001, Colonial Williamsburg continued to fulfill Rockefeller's original vision through the most extensive interior renovation in the Inn's history spanning the landmark's public spaces and guest rooms, reducing the number from 100 to 62. ...The Williamsburg Inn has welcomed hundreds of VIPs, including Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, the Emperor and Empress of Japan, President and Mrs. Jiang Zemin of China, and countless American presidents" and world dignitaries.</p>
<p>(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman,<em> Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg</em> [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 164-165).</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
1938
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
1938
Rights
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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>
Format
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jpeg
Type
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Image
Identifier
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D2008-COPY-1014-1063
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Chimneys
Colonial Architecture
Colonnades
Columns
Gardens
Hipped Roofs
Historic Buildings
Hotels
People
Round-headed Windows
Stairs
Thomas Mott Shaw
Umbrellas
Virginia
Williamsburg
Williamsburg Inn
-
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Omeka Image File
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8
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3
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Dublin Core
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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 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
St. George Tucker House, View Looking East
Subject
The topic of the resource
St. George Tucker House (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 29. Building 02.
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Domestic - Virginia - Williamsburg
Gardens - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
Exterior of the St. George Tucker House, view of the formal boxwood garden and the eastern facade of the Tucker House Kitchen, 1933. The St. George Tucker House is one of the Historic Area's original eighteenth-century structures, and this view depicts the home when it was still occupied by descendants of the original builder. 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, and a 1798 paint agreement specifies the color scheme used on the house. Later additions and outbuildings have since been removed, and new modifications have been made. At the time this sketch was made, Tucker family descendants still lived in the home, as they were granted life tenancy after its restoration. The building now serves as a donor hospitality center.
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
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
D2008-COPY-1014-1061
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Boxwood
Chimneys
Colonial Architecture
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Gardens
Historic Buildings
Kitchens
Outbuildings
Porches
Porticoes
St. George Tucker House
Thomas Mott Shaw
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
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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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Graphite on paper
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47 x 33.5 cm
Dublin Core
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Title
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St. George Tucker House, South Facade
Subject
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St. George Tucker House (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 29. Building 2.
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Domestic - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
Exterior of the St. George Tucker House, viewed from behind the fence of the Roscow-Cole Stable yard across Nicholson Street, 1933. This view of the St. George Tucker property shows the front elevation of one of the Historic Area's original eighteenth-century houses, when it was still occupied by descendants of the original builder. 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, and a 1798 paint agreement specifies the color scheme used on the house. Later additions and outbuildings have since been removed, with new modifications made.
At the time this sketch was made, Tucker family descendants still lived in the home, as they were granted life tenancy after its restoration. The building now serves as a donor hospitality center.
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-1014-1059
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Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Chimneys
Colonial Architecture
Dentils
Domestic Architecture
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Fences
Gable Roofs
Gardens
Gates
Historic Buildings
Hitching Posts
Nicholson Street
Pediments
Porches
Porticoes
Shutters
St. George Tucker House
Stairs
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
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
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29 x 43.5 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
George Reid House
Subject
The topic of the resource
George Reid House (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 11. Building 11.
Architecture, Domestic - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Exterior of the George Reid House, western facade, viewed from Duke of Gloucester Street, 1933. Built around 1790, it served as a residence for a merchant who owned a shop further up the street. "Archaeological excavations revealed that a path near the house was paved with fragments of clay pipes that might have been broken in shipment to Williamsburg. Matching pieces have also been found at the Prentis Store across the street." The George Reid House is an example of a typical colonial home, constructed with one and a half stories and a central passage.</p>
<p>(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, <em>Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg</em> [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 52).</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
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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>
Format
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jpeg
Type
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Image
Identifier
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D2008-COPY-1014-1056
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
Chimneys
Colonial Architecture
Domestic Architecture
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Duke of Gloucester Street
Exteriors
Fences
Gable Roofs
George Reid House
Historic Buildings
Shutters
Thomas Mott Shaw
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.
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8
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3
Height
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
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
Raleigh Tavern Entrance
Subject
The topic of the resource
Raleigh Tavern (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 17. Building 06.
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Taverns (Inns) - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Exterior of the Raleigh Tavern, view of the front entrance looking north from across Duke of Gloucester Street, 1933. The tavern's signboard stands in the foreground to the left, while in the background, a gowned female costumed interpreter (once referred to as a "hostess") is shown standing to the right of the building's entrance. A lead bust of Sir Walter Raleigh, the noted navigator-explorer, is featured in the broken pediment above the tavern's front doors.</p>
<p>The Raleigh Tavern was the frequent scene of both jollity and consequence, and was "....the foremost of Williamsburg's taverns in the eighteenth century. Established about 1717, the Raleigh Tavern grew in size and reputation through the years. Letters, diaries, newspaper advertisements, and other records indicate that the Raleigh was one of the most important taverns in colonial Virginia. It served as a center for social, commercial, and political gatherings; small private and large public dinners; lectures and exhibitions; and auctions of merchandise, land, and the enslaved." Burned to the ground in 1859, the tavern was reconstructed from published illustrations, insurance policies, and archaeology that uncovered most of the original foundations.</p>
<p>(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, <em>Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg</em> [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 60).</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-1014-1054
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
Busts
Chimneys
Colonial Architecture
Costumed Interpreters
Dentils
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Duke of Gloucester Street
Exteriors
Historic Buildings
Hitching Posts
Hostesses
Inns
Ordinaries
Pediments
Raleigh Tavern
Shutters
Signboards
Signs
Sir Walter Raleigh
Stairs
Taverns
Thomas Mott Shaw
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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3
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699
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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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Graphite on paper
Physical Dimensions
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44.5 x 30.5 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
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Raleigh Tavern, View Looking Northeast
Subject
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Raleigh Tavern (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 17. Building 06.
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Taverns (Inns) - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Exterior of the Raleigh Tavern, view looking northeast from across Duke of Gloucester Street, 1933. The Raleigh Tavern was the frequent scene of both jollity and consequence, and was "....the foremost of Williamsburg's taverns in the eighteenth century. Established about 1717, the Raleigh Tavern grew in size and reputation through the years. Letters, diaries, newspaper advertisements, and other records indicate that the Raleigh was one of the most important taverns in colonial Virginia. It served as a center for social, commercial, and political gatherings; small private and large public dinners; lectures and exhibitions; and auctions of merchandise, land, and the enslaved." Burned to the ground in 1859, the tavern was reconstructed from published illustrations, insurance policies, and archaeology that uncovered most of the original foundations.</p>
<p>(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, <em>Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg</em> [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 60).</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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Image
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D2008-COPY-1014-1052
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Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Benches
Cellars
Chimneys
Colonial Architecture
Dentils
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Duke of Gloucester Street
Exteriors
Fences
Gates
Hipped Roofs
Historic Buildings
Hitching Posts
Inns
Ordinaries
Raleigh Tavern
Shutters
Signboards
Signs
Taverns
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
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29 x 43.5 cm
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
John Orrell House
Subject
The topic of the resource
Orrell House (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 02. Building 38.
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Domestic - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Exterior of the John Orrell House, viewed on the south side of Francis Street, 1933. "Probably built between 1750 and 1775, the Orrell House takes its name from John Orrell, who acquired the property about 1810. The entrance hall, or 'passage,' of the house, an otherwise typical gambrel-roofed dwelling, is not centered, so all the living quarters are to one side of the passage. The house forms on plan an exact square whose sides measure twenty-eight feet, and, because the roof ridge is twenty-eight feet above the top of the basement wall, it is proportioned as an ideal geometric cube. Today, it is a hotel facility."</p>
<p>(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, <em>Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg</em> [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 132).</p>
Creator
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Shaw, Thomas Mott
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1933
Date Created
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1933
Rights
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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-1014-1050
Rights Holder
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Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Chimneys
Colonial Architecture
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Fences
Francis Street
Gambrel Roofs
Historic Buildings
John Orrell House
Shutters
Thomas Mott Shaw
Virginia
Williamsburg
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Omeka Image File
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8
Channels
3
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697
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1024
Dublin Core
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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.
43.5 x 29 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
Ewing House and Josias Moody House
Subject
The topic of the resource
Moody House (Williamsburg, Va.)
Ewing House (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 02. Building 28.
Block 02. Building 31.
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Domestic - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Exterior of the Ewing House and Josias Moody House, viewed to the south on Francis Street, 1933. The Ewing House (on the left) "...is named for Ebenezer Ewing, a Scottish merchant. When he died in 1795, Ewing left the house to Elizabeth Ashton, the mother of his illegitimate son Thomas, with the proviso that 'the moment she marries...it becomes the property of my son.' Elizabeth remained single until her death four years later, when young Thomas inherited the dwelling. In 1805, the Williamsburg Hustings Court ordered the boy's legal guardian 'to bond out Thomas Ewing for three years to learn the art of seaman or mariner'; Thomas disappeared before completing his apprenticeship. The Ewing House and Shop are now hotel accommodations.</p>
<p>Josias Moody, a blacksmith, owned the unpretentious house next door [to the right of the Ewing House] from 1794 until he died about 1810. Architectural evidence suggests that the Moody House dates from 1725 to 1750. The house was altered several times before reaching its present size and appearance by 1782. The long lean-to roof on the back indicates that additions were made to an earlier structure. The kitchen behind the house is now a hotel facility."</p>
<p>(Source: Michael Olmert and Suzanne Coffman, <em>Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg</em> [Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2007], 130-131).</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-1014-1048
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Chimneys
Colonial Architecture
Dentils
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Ewing House
Fences
Francis Street
Gambrel Roofs
Historic Buildings
Josias Moody House
Shingles
Shutters
Stairs
Thomas Mott Shaw
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
Channels
3
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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
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
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<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>
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Shaw, Thomas Mott
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1933
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1933
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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
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Original Format
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Graphite on paper
Physical Dimensions
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43.5 x 29 cm
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Magazine, View Looking Southwest
Subject
The topic of the resource
Powder Magazine (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 12. Building 09.
Powder Magazines - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic Buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Public Buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
Exterior of the Powder Magazine, looking southwest toward the building's entrance, 1933. Among Williamsburg's original eighteenth-century buildings, the octagonal Powder Magazine has taken on many different functions over time. Constructed in 1715 under the orders of Governor Spotswood, the Magazine was used as a secure storage site for arms, ammunition, and military equipment sent by Queen Anne for protection of the colony. The surrounding wall was added during the French and Indian War for added security.
The Magazine reprised its role during the Civil War, when Confederate soldiers again stored gunpowder inside. In the late nineteenth century, town residents repurposed the building for use as a market house, Baptist church, dancing school, and livery stable. Efforts by the A.P.V.A. to protect the historic structure led to its preservation as an early tourist attraction in Williamsburg prior to the birth of Colonial Williamsburg.
Creator
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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
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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>
Format
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jpeg
Type
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Image
Identifier
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D2008-COPY-1014-1044
Rights Holder
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Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Arsenals
Brick Walls
Chimneys
Colonial Architecture
Duke of Gloucester Street
Historic Buildings
Market Square
Powder Magazine
Public Buildings
Round-headed Windows
Thomas Mott Shaw
Virginia
Williamsburg
-
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Omeka Image File
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8
Channels
3
Height
768
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Dublin Core
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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 x 45 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
Ludwell-Paradise Stable
Subject
The topic of the resource
Ludwell-Paradise House (Williamsburg, Va.)
Block 18-1. Building 07.
Architecture, Domestic - Virginia - Williamsburg
Architecture, Colonial - Virginia - Williamsburg
Historic buildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Outbuildings - Virginia - Williamsburg
Description
An account of the resource
Exterior of the Ludwell-Paradise Stable, viewed from Nicholson Street, 1933. A dovecote is visible in the gable-end roof of the stable, with holes for pigeons to roost in (though the holes have recently been covered over). The Cooper's Shop is now located in the Ludwell-Paradise Stable, where hogsheads, barrels, casks, buckets, and pails of all sizes are constructed.
The Ludwell-Paradise Stable is behind the Ludwell-Paradise House (not pictured here), one of the eighty-eight original eighteenth-century buildings at Colonial Williamsburg. The Ludwell-Paradise house played an important role in the museum's founding, as it was the first property purchased by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in the early days of Williamsburg's restoration. 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
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-1014-1042
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Carts
Colonial Architecture
Costumed Interpreters
Dovecotes
Fences
Historic Buildings
Lampposts
Ludwell-Paradise House
Ludwell-Paradise Stable
Men
Outbuildings
Stables
Thomas Mott Shaw
Virginia
Visitors
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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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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Graphite on paper
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45.5 x 31 cm
Dublin Core
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Title
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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
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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-1014-1041
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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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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
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 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
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
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
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.
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8
Channels
3
Height
768
Width
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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.
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 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 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
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-1014-1036
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
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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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
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
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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Dublin Core
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Title
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Governor's Palace Gardens, Bird's-Eye View of Boxwood Parterre
Subject
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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
View of the formal gardens behind the Governor's Palace, flanking one side of the Ballroom Wing, 1933. These gardens, designed by Arthur Shurcliff, include boxwood parterres and one dozen large cylindrical shrubs known as the Twelve Apostles, a feature often appearing in eighteenth-century English gardens. Near the top-center of the photo, a pleached hornbeam arbor is visible. In the top-left corner, beyond the arbor, is a small tent-roofed structure built into the garden wall. This building served as a privy (necessary).
Creator
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Shaw, Thomas Mott
Date
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1933
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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-1014-1034
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Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Arbors
Benches
Boxwood
Brick Walls
Colonial Architecture
Gardens
Governor's Palace
Historic Buildings
Necessaries
Parterres
Pleached Hornbeams
Privies
Public Buildings
Thomas Mott Shaw
Virginia
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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32.5 x 47 cm
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Governor's Palace North Facade Through Clairvoyee
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 Governor's Palace Ballroom Wing and formal gardens, north facade, as seen through an elaborate clairvoyée (wrought-iron gate) behind the Palace, 1933. The Ballroom Wing of the Palace, featured in the background, was built as an addition during the 1750s by Governor Robert Dinwiddie. Above its rear doors, a painted carving of the royal coat of arms is mounted within a pedimented gable. The Palace's gardens, designed by Arthur Shurcliff, include boxwood parterres and one dozen large cylindrical shrubs known as the Twelve Apostles, a feature which often appeared in eighteenth-century English gardens.
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-1014-1033
Rights Holder
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Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Ballroom Wing
Boxwood
Chimneys
Clairvoyées
Colonial Architecture
Cupolas
Dormer Windows
Dormers
Exteriors
Fences
Gardens
Gates
Governor's Palace
Historic Buildings
Hostesses
Lead Vases
Pediments
Public Buildings
Round-headed Windows
Royal Coats of Arms
Stairs
Thomas Mott Shaw
Virginia
Weather Vanes
Williamsburg
Wrought Iron
-
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Omeka Image File
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Bit Depth
8
Channels
3
Height
768
Width
516
Dublin Core
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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.
29 x 43.5 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 Gardens With Ballroom Entrance
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 through a wrought-iron gate of the north facade of the Governor's Palace Ballroom Wing and formal gardens, 1933. In the background stands the Ballroom Wing, an addition constructed during the early 1750s by Governor Robert Dinwiddie, and the royal arms are visible in the pedimented gable above the wing's rear entrance. The Palace's gardens, designed by Arthur Shurcliff, include boxwood parterres and one dozen large cylindrical shrubs known as the Twelve Apostles, a feature often appearing in eighteenth-century English gardens.
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-1014-1030
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Ballroom Wing
Boxwood
Colonial Architecture
Dentils
Exteriors
Fences
Gardens
Gates
Governor's Palace
Historic Buildings
Pediments
Public Buildings
Royal Coats of Arms
Thomas Mott Shaw
Virginia
Williamsburg
Wrought Iron