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Edward Durell Stone Papers First Accession

 Collection
Identifier: MS St71 236

Scope and Content Note

Edward Durell Stone was a major figure in American Architecture in the 20th Century. He designed projects that received international acclaim including the American Embassy in New Delhi and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. Stone presented a large body of his papers MS St71/236 Stone , the First Accession of the Edward Durell Stone Papers, to the University of Arkansas Libraries in 1975, three years before his death. His widow donated the remainder after his death. The two accessions comprise professional and personal correspondence, memoranda, plans, drawings, models, blueprints, field diaries, construction logs, specifications, contracts, speeches, photographic prints and slides, financial and legal records, and other original unpublished materials documenting Stone's life and career. An estimated twenty-two thousand drawings range from hastily-drawn conceptual sketches on note paper to finished presentation renderings. Approximately four hundred projects are documented in the collection.

Stone regularly corresponded with many cultural figures of his time. The collection includes correspondence with architects Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, the Saarinens, Buckminster Fuller, Philip Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Lloyd Wright, and others; the artists Alexander Calder and Isamu Noguchi; interior designer Donald Deskey; Henry R. Luce and Clare Boothe Luce, William Paley, Salvador Dali, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nelson Rockefeller, and other notables. The collection also includes photographs by some of the 20th century's finest architectural photographers including Ezra Stoller, Julian Shulman.

The Stone firm maintained extensive files of the publicity generated by their projects, daily itineraries, manuscript drafts of Stone's writings, and transactions with publishers. The financial records detail the workings of a major architectural firm of the twentieth century. They cover the period from 1945, when Stone resumed his practice after World War II, until 1974, when he retired from active participation in the management of the firm. RELATED COLLECTION: Edward Durell Stone Second Accession MC 340

Dates

  • 1940-1963

Creator

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Access Information

Please call (479) 575-8444 or email specoll@uark.edu at least two weeks in advance of your arrival to ensure availability of the materials.

Use Information

Reproductions of construction drawings, blueprints and related contractual documents may be limited. Personal financial and medical documents, academic records, and personnel documents are restricted. No Interlibrary Loan. Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17).

Biographical Note

Edward Durell Stone (1902-1978) was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He attended the University of Arkansas from 1920 to 1923, then moved to Boston to take courses at the Boston Architectural Club, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1927, he was awarded the Rotch Scholarship, which enabled him to travel and study architecture in Europe from 1927 to 1929. On his return from Europe in 1929, Stone worked with several architectural firms in New York before establishing his own firm, Edward Durell Stone & Associates in 1936. This firm later expanded to include Edward Durell Stone, Inc., Hicks Drafting Corporation, and Torch Realty. Stone continued to practice architecture and take an active role in the firm's practice until 1974, when his health declined.

Extent

50.25 Linear Feet (86 Boxes)

Arrangement of the Papers

Materials are arranged in nine series by type

  1. Series 1: General
  2. Series 2: U.S. Government Facilities
  3. Series 3: Colleges and Universities
  4. Series 4: Projects, State and Local Governments and Public Facilities
  5. Series 5: Projects, Non-Public Facilities
  6. Series 6: Correspondence, including project related
  7. Series 7: Projects, prospective
  8. Series 8: Model and Standard Houses
  9. Series 9: Miscelleaneous

Acquisition Information

This, the first accession, of the Edward Durell Stone Papers was donated by Edward Durell Stone in November, 1975.

Related Materials

Edward Durell Stone Second Accession MC 340

Processing Information

Processed by Betty Austin in 1998.

Title
Edward Durell Stone Papers
Status
Completed
Author
Betty Austin
Date
1998
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections Department Repository

Contact:
University of Arkansas Libraries
365 N. McIlroy Avenue
Fayetteville AR 72701 United States
(479) 575-8444