Oral history interview with Esther McCoy
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 8 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 15 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hrs., 22 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: McCoy, Esther
label: Interviewer
content: Giovannini, Joseph
label: Names
content: Dreiser, Theodore, 1871-1945
label: Names
content: Neutra, Richard Joseph, 1892-1970
label: Names
content: Robert, Tim
topic: label: Occupation
content: Architectural historians -- California -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Architectural writing -- California
label: Topic
content: Architecture -- California
label: Topic
content: Latino and Latin American artists
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: These interviews are part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: McCoy, Esther
label: Interviewer
content: Giovannini, Joseph
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Esther McCoy (1904-1989) was an architectural historian from Santa Monica, California. McCoy was interested in both Italian and Mexican architecture as well as the folk art and crafts of Mexico and South America. Although her professional interests ranged from writing fiction to studying the folk architecture and crafts of Mexico, McCoy achieved her most notable success for her numerous articles, books, and exhibitions about Southern California architecture and the architects associated with the modernist movement.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 97 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1987 June 7-Nov. 14
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.mccoy87
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Esther McCoy conducted 1987 June 7-Nov. 14, by Joseph Giovannini, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: McCoy speaks of her childhood and early education; moving to New York in the 1920s; meeting and getting to know various writers including Theodore Dreiser; beginning her own writing career; her involvement in radical politics; the beginning of her interest in architecture; working as a free-lance writer; working with the builder, Tim Robert, as a draftsman; writing a novel about architecture; southern California's role in the development of modernism; writing for magazines in the 1940s; writing several books on architecture, including one on Richard Neutra; current trends in architecture.