Cass Gilbert Collection
name: label: Creator
content: Valentine, P. O. (33 Homestead, Park, Newark)
label: Creator
content: Gilbert, Cass, 1859-1934
label: Creator
content: Belden & Company (45 Clinton Street, Newark, N.J.)
label: Former owner
content: National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering
label: Names
content: New York Life Insurance Building.
label: Names
content: Seaside Sanatorium (Waterford, Conn)
label: Names
content: Supreme Court Building (Washington, D.C.)
label: Names
content: Woolworth Building (New York, N.Y.)
topic: label: Topic
content: Engineering -- 1890-1940 -- U.S.
label: Topic
content: Bridges -- 1890-1940
label: Topic
content: Civil engineering -- 1890-1940 -- U.S.
label: Topic
content: Civil engineers
label: Topic
content: Commercial buildings -- 1890-1940 -- U.S.
label: Topic
content: Architects -- 1890-1940
label: Topic
content: Architecture -- 1890-1940 -- United States
label: Topic
content: Public architecture -- 1890-1940 -- U.S.
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Gift of Emily Gilbert and Cass Gilbert, Jr. through Mr. Silvio Bedini, November 30, 1961, January 15, 1962, and later in 1962.
creator: label: Creator
content: Valentine, P. O. (33 Homestead, Park, Newark)
label: Creator
content: Gilbert, Cass, 1859-1934
label: Creator
content: Belden & Company (45 Clinton Street, Newark, N.J.)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Cass Gilbert Collection
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Cass Gilbert, 1859-1934, was a prominent American architect best known for his commercial and public buildings.
 
Gilbert was born in Zanesville, Ohio and educated in St. Paul, Minnesota.  After only a year of study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and subsequent travels in Europe, he began working for the New York firm of McKim, Mead, and White in 1880.
 
In 1883 he returned to St. Paul where he practised briefly with James Knox Taylor, a classmate at M.I.T., designing private homes, churches, and commercial buildings.  His first major commission was the Minnesota State Capitol (1895), which he modeled after the National Capitol and the dome of St. Peter's, Rome.
 
Gilbert returned to New York in 1899 when he won the prized commission for the design of the U.S. Customs House.  This was followed by many other major projects.  The most famous of these was the Woolworth Building in New York (1913); with its fifty‑five stories and Gothic ornament it is considered Gilbert's greatest achievement.         
  	                
Firmly supportive of the European tradition and eastern academic architecture, Gilbert continued his numerous and successful designs until his death in 1934.  Among his many familiar public buildings are the Treasury Annex and the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, the state capitol buildings of West Virginia and Arkansas, and the public libraries of St. Louis and Detroit.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 15 Cubic feet (71 boxes)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1897-1963
label: Date
content: bulk 1897-1936
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: Transferred to the Archives Center from the Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (now the Division of Work and Industry) on July 2, 1986.

Five United States Supreme Court sketches returned to the United States Supreme Court in 2015; 11 United States Supreme Court sketches returned to the United States Supreme Court in 2020.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0214
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Drawings
label: Type
content: Business records
label: Type
content: Clippings
label: Type
content: Contracts
label: Type
content: Personal papers
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Pastels (visual works)
label: Type
content: Pencil works
label: Type
content: Pamphlets
label: Type
content: Booklets
label: Type
content: Specifications
label: Type
content: Correspondence
label: Type
content: Statistics
label: Type
content: Sketchbooks
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Collection arranged into six series. 

Series 1: Correspondence, 1919-1932

Series 2: Personal Papers, 1914-1963

Series 3: New York Life Insurance Building Contracts, 1934-1935

Series 4: Woolworth Building, 1911-1913

Series 5: Sketches and Sketch Books, 1897-1932

Series 6: Photoprints, 1908-1936
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection processed by David Stevens and Robert Harding, 1986.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Drawings -- 1890-1940
label: Genre/Form
content: Business records -- 1880-1950
label: Genre/Form
content: Clippings -- 1900-1950
label: Genre/Form
content: Contracts -- 1890-1940
label: Genre/Form
content: Personal papers -- 1890-1940
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs -- Black-and-white photoprints -- 1900-1950
label: Genre/Form
content: Pastels (visual works)
label: Genre/Form
content: Pencil works
label: Genre/Form
content: Pamphlets
label: Genre/Form
content: Booklets
label: Genre/Form
content: Specifications
label: Genre/Form
content: Correspondence -- 1900-1950
label: Genre/Form
content: Statistics
label: Genre/Form
content: Sketchbooks -- 1890-1940
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The contents of the collection date from 1897 to 1936.  The bulk of the collection consists of loose-leaf binders of photo prints of forty-one Cass Gilbert buildings under construction between 1908 and 1936. (This represents less than half of his firm's total output.) The volumes are arranged alphabetically by name of building.  A few additional photo prints of buildings under construction are found in the unbound materials.

The collection also includes correspondence (1919-1932), contracts, statistical data, news clippings, booklets, and other miscellaneous Gilbert papers.  There are three volumes of correspondence,  specifications and blueprints, 1932-1935, for the construction of the U.S. Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C.  Also included are twenty pencil and pastel sketch books of Gilbert's travels in Europe, 1897 to 1932, and miscellaneous loose sketches (including photo prints and negatives of his studies for the George Washington Bridge.  The photographic prints are mostly mounted on cloth in loose-leaf binders.  Some of the photographers are identified, although many are not.  Photographers included P.O. Valentine of 33 Homestead Park, Newark, New Jersey.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: Materials at Other Organizations

Library of Congress

Cass Gilbert Archive, 1890-1939

Montana Historical Society

Cass Gilbert Papers, 1902-1910

Oberlin College Archives

Cass Gilbert Collection, 1903-1984, 2000

University of Minnesota, Archives and Special Collections

Cass Gilbert Collection, 1909-1910

United States Supreme Court, Office of the Curator