THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT ARCHIVES

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives is said to be the largest and most complete collection of materials related to a single artist housed under one roof anywhere in the world. Impressive as this is for the materials permanently housed in the archives building at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, it overlooks the additional fact that hundreds of art objects and pieces of Wright-designed furniture as well as a number of historic architectural models are on display at Taliesin and nearby Hillside in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Assembled largely by the architect himself, the organization of these remarkable and diverse collections into the important Archives’ collection it has become today is due largely to the early efforts of Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, who began cataloguing it shortly after Wright’s death in 1959, and the ongoing work of a small, dedicated staff.

The centerpiece of the Archives is the architectural drawing collection, which numbers over 22,000 documents dating from the 1880’s through 1959. This collection is augmented by 40,000 study and research photographs, 600 manuscripts, and 300,000 pieces of correspondence. This material, in addition to an extensive oral history collection made up of interviews with Fellowship members, friends, clients, and architects, make the Archives the primary and most comprehensive resource for the study of Frank Lloyd Wright and his work. An important related resource is the extensive correspondence of Wright’s wife, Olgivanna, currently being catalogued.  The Archives also houses much of Wright’s personal art collection, which includes Japanese and Chinese sculpture, textiles, screens, scrolls and prints, Asian and Native American ceramics, European lithographs and engravings, rare books and ephemera.

In addition to its principal responsibility of caring for the collections, many publications originate in the Archives, making much of the collection widely available to students and Wright aficionados throughout the world.  Due out this year is the exhaustive three volume Frank Lloyd  Wright: The Complete Work by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer to be released by Taschen beginning in early spring and Frank Lloyd Wright: The Heroic Years 1920-1932, also by Pfeiffer, due to be published by Rizzoli in May. Two important volumes published last year include The Essential Frank Lloyd Wright; Critical Writings on Architecture and a facsimile reprint of Modern Architecture: Being the Kahn Lectures, both from Princeton University Press.

Scholarship and Exhibitions

In keeping with the Foundation’s mission to promote the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, the Archives staff devotes a great deal of time working with scholars, researchers, curators, architects and Wright homeowners as well as with publications and television and documentary programming worldwide. Furthermore, it is the policy of the Foundation to cooperate in the exhibition of works in its care through loans to museums with shared ideals and standards of scholarship and display.

Recently, the Archives and other Foundation programs worked in close collaboration with colleagues at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation on a major Exhibition held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York May 15 to August 23, 2009. Marking the golden anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum, Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward celebrated Wright’s belief in the potential of architecture to change and enrich our lives. The exhibition is currently on show at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao Spain.

Archives Access

While not open to the general public, the Archives does welcome qualified guest researchers for specifically identified research purposes and is open, by appointment only, Wednesday through Friday from 10:00am until 5:00pm. All appointments must be requested in writing and reservations should be made as much in advance as possible as study space is limited. All requests for access should include full name, address, telephone number, institutional affiliation and reason for the request.

A large percentage of the collection has been photographed, photocopied, or copied to microfilm. Researchers will have access to the 8x10" copy prints of drawings and historic photographs, the correspondence microfiche, manuscript photocopies, miscellaneous ephemera files on each project, and books in a non-circulating library. In order to protect the collection, the Archives reserves the right to restrict and/or prohibit access to original material.

Photo Requests

Due to the high number of publication image requests received by the Archives each year, it has recently entered into agreements with Art Resource and the Artists Rights Society in New York City. Publication requests for images should be directed to: requests@artres.com. Requests for permission to use images should be directed to info@arsny.com . Please note that these materials provided by the Archives do not include contemporary professional photographs. Archives staff can direct inquiries to a number of photographers with excellent Wright building images.

Archives Contacts

At Taliesin West, Arizona:

1. Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Director 
   

2. 480-860-2700, ext 434
   

3. Email: bpfeiffer@franklloydwright.org
   

4. 
   

5. Oskar Muñoz, Assistant Director
   

6. 480-860-2700, ext 462
   

7. Email: omunoz@franklloydwright.org
   

8. 
   

9. Margo Stipe, Curator & Registrar of Collections
   

10. 480-860-2700, ext 432
    

11. Email: mstipe@franklloydwright.org
    

12. 
    

13. Indira Berndtson, Administrator, Historic Studies
    

14. 480-860-2700, ext 406
    

15. Email: iberndtson@franklloydwright.org
    

At Taliesin, Spring Green, Wisconsin:

1. Tom Waddell, Artifact Collection Manager
   

2. twaddell@franklloydwright.org
   

Additional Study Resource:

Copies of all the Frank Lloyd Wright correspondence, manuscripts and drawings held at Taliesin West are available for study at The Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, in Los Angeles, California. For appointments or inquiries please write to:

1. Frank Lloyd Wright Requests
   

2. Research Services
   

3. Getty Research Institute
   

4. 1200 Getty Center Dr
   

5. Suite 1100
   

6. Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688
   

7.  
   

8. http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/special_collections/wright_form.html
   

Photocopies of the Frank Lloyd Wright correspondence as catalogued in the Garland publication Frank Lloyd Wright: Index to the Taliesin Correspondence, edited by Anthony Alofsin, must be ordered from The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities. See above for contact information.