Northwestern Terra Cotta Company collection of visual materials, ca. 1910-1930

 

Descriptive Inventory for the Collection at Chicago History Museum

By Elizabeth Reilly, 2009

 

Please address questions to:

Chicago History Museum, Research Center

1601 North Clark Street

Chicago, IL 60614-6038

Telephone: 312-642-4600

Web-site: www.chicagohistory.org/research

 

© Copyright 2009, Chicago Historical Society

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Title: Northwestern Terra Cotta Company collection of visual materials, ca. 1910-1930.

Main entry: Northwestern Terra Cotta Company

Inclusive dates: ca. 1910-1930

Size: 13 boxes, 2 folders

Call number: 2008.0155.2 PPL

646 photographic prints : b&w ; 22 x 18 in. and smaller

474 photographic prints : b&w ; 11 x 14 in. and smaller

3 albums (photographic prints) : b&w ; 11.25 x 16 in. and smaller

2 portfolios (24 plates) : b&w ; 11 x 14 in.

Call number: 2008.0155.2 PCP-242

43 photographic prints: col. ; 8 x 10 in. and smaller

Call number: 2008.0155.2 PCT

83 transparencies : col., slide ; 35 mm.

35 transparencies : col. ; 8 x 10 in. and smaller

Call number: 2008.0155.2 PFL

1 photographic print : b&w, hand-colored ; 7.5 x 32 in.

Call number: 2008.0155.2 PNG

Non-graphic material (news clippings, memos, photocopies of photographs on album pages before disassembled)

 

Restriction: Advance appointment required to view color materials in cold storage.

Accession numbers: 2000.0201, 2008.0155.2

Provenance statement: Gift of Ms. Grace Kristiansen (2000.0201) and the Grace Kristiansen Trust (2008.0155).

Terms governing use: Copyright may be retained by the creators of items, or their descendents, as stipulated by United States copyright law, unless otherwise noted.

Please cite this collection as: Northwestern Terra Cotta Company collection of visual materials, ca. 1910-1930 (Chicago History Museum).

 

This descriptive inventory contains the following sections:

Biographical/historical note,

Summary description of the collection,

Description of some material related to the collection,

List of online catalog headings about the collection,

Arrangement of the collection,

Detailed description of archival series in the collection,

List of contents of the collection.

 

Biographical/historical note:

Northwestern Terra Cotta Company (NWTC) was Chicago's largest manufacturer of architectural terra cotta ornament. With headquarters at 1750 Wrightwood Avenue in Chicago, NWTC operated from ca. 1877 until its last factory, located in Denver, Colorado, closed its doors in 1965. The firm was a leader in development of the architectural terra cotta industry and provided decorative building elements for numerous Chicago buildings, including the Wrigley Building, Chicago Theatre, and Civic Opera House.

 

Summary description of the collection:

Photographs of terra-cotta products and many of the buildings for which Northwestern Terra Cotta Company (NWTC) products were used; views and portraits of NWTC plants and workers, designers, modelers, and executives; and other miscellaneous materials. A few black-and-white photographs have hand-coloring to indicate glazes used on the molded decorative items, and many photographs have handwritten annotations. Many photographs of buildings with terra-cotta decoration made by NWTC are identified by name, location, architectural firm, and descriptions of the types of materials and glazes used by NWTC. Some photographs of terra cotta architectural ornaments are identified with job number and name of the building for which they were created.

 

Other items in the collection include photographs of Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) used as reference for creating terra cotta murals for the Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma (also pictured); photographs of sculptures by Edgardo Simone (1890-1948), including a few portraits of the sculptor with his work; photographs of panels made for the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colorado; a hand-colored photograph of a panoramic terra cotta mural depicting Aesop's Fables, created for a school in Kalamazoo, Michigan; an original design of a tile mural for the Isaly Dairy Plant in Youngstown, Ohio, by artist Carlo Ciampaglia (1891-1975); portfolios of 12 plates entitled, Portfolio of Architectural Ornament Vol. 1 Modern; and a scrapbook of photographs entitled: Alleged failures of building materials. Non-graphic materials include news clippings, memos, and photocopies of photographs on album pages before being disassembled for preservation.

 

Description of some material related to the collection:

Related materials at Chicago History Museum, Research Center, include the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company records and several publications and newsletters cataloged by title.

 

List of online catalog headings about the collection:

The following headings were placed in the online catalog for this collection.

Subjects:

Northwestern Terra Cotta Company--Photographs.

Wrigley Building (Chicago, Ill.)

Aesop's fables--Pictorial works.

Buildings--Illinois--Chicago--1900-1960.

Buildings--United States--1900-1960.

Decoration and ornament, Architectural--1900-1960.

Decoration and ornament, Architectural--Illinois--Chicago--1900-1960.

Designers--Illinois--Chicago--1900-1960.

Terra-cotta--Illinois--Chicago--1900-1960.

Terra-cotta industry--United States--1900-1960.

Terra-cotta sculpture--1900-1960.

Chicago (Ill.)--Buildings, structures, etc.--1900-1960.

United States--Buildings, structures, etc.--1900-1960.

 

Forms/genre:

Gelatin silver prints.

Group portraits.

Illustrations.

Photograph albums.

Photographic prints--Color.

Photomechanical prints.

Photomechanical prints--Color.

Portrait photographs.

Slides--Color.

Transparencies--Color.

 

List of contents of the collection:

 

Call#: 2008.155.2 PPL: black & white photographs, 8 x 10 in. and smaller (box 1-5):

Box 1 Modern copy print photographs of NWTC plant, artisans, architectural ornaments, buildings, ca. 1900-1920s (77 items)

 

Box 2 Architectural ornaments & Chicago buildings, ca. 1900-1920s (57 items)

Folders

1          Decorative terra cotta panels: 36 items

2          Ashland Block building: 1 item

3          4036-4042 N. Ashland Ave: 2 items

4          20 E. Cedar Street: 2 items

5          Fullerton Avenue: 2 items

6          S.W. corner Fullerton & Kenneth: 2 items

7          1502 Jarvis Avenue: 1 item

8          442 N. LaSalle Street: 1 item

9          4531-4537 N. Pauling Street: 4 items

10        3356 W. Roosevelt Road: 1 item

11        Sunnyside & Malden: 1 item

12        1144-1148 Milwaukee Avenue: 1 item

13        S.E. corner Washington & Menard: 1 item

14        State-Lake building: 1 item

15        Uptown theatre: 1 item

 

Box 3 NWTC work in buildings outside of Chicago in U.S. states: "A"-"L" (57 items)

Folders

1          Aladdin theatre (Denver, Col.): 2 items

2          Denver churches: 8 items

3          Mountain States Telephone Company: 1 item

4          Sindelar building, 6140 W. 26th Street (Cicero, Ill.): 1 item

5          Store, 605 Davis Street (Evanston, Ill.): 1 item

6          Montgomery Ward Company (Galesburg, Ill.): 1 item

7          North & Lombard (Oak Park, Ill.): 2 items

8          Clark & Co. (Peoria, Ill.): 1 item

9          Hotel Pere Marquette (Peoria, Ill.): 9 items

10        Medical Arts building (Oak Park, Ill.): 4 items

11        Sweeney school: 2 items

12        Indianapolis Athletic Club (Indianapolis, Ind.): 1 item

13        Olin-Wilmeth Co. (Indianapolis, Ind.): 2 items

14        F.D. Miller building (Kokomo, Ind.): 1 item

15        Richmond-Leland hotel (Richmond, Ind.): 5 items

16        State Line Generating Co. (Hammond, Ind.): 3 items

17        Hotel Roosevelt (Cedar Rapids, Iowa): 2 items

18        Municipal building (Leavenworth, Kan.): 1 item

19        Santa Fe R.R. Office building (Topeka, Kan.): 1 item

20        Kosair temple (Louisville, Ky.): 1 item

21        Cloverland Dairy Products Co. (New Orleans, La.): 8 items

 

Box 4 NWTC work in buildings outside of Chicago in U.S. states: "M" (66 items)

Folders

1          Detroit Fire Dept. (Detroit, Mich.): 4 items

2          David Whitney building (Detroit, Mich.): 2 items

3          Clara Scherer building (Detroit, Mich.): 4 items

4          Banker's Trust Co. (Detroit, Mich.): 1 item

5          Fine Arts building (Grand Rapids, Mich.): 3 items

6          Nurses lodge, Butterworth Hosp. (Grand Rapids, Mich.): 2 items

7          Gately's store (Detroit, Mich.): 2 items

8          Detroit, Mich. (Book Tower, gas station): 2 items

9          Baden Bank (St. Louis, Mo.): 6 items

10        Kansas City Athletic Club (Kansas City, Mo.): 1 item

11        Main Street Theatre (Kansas City, Mo.): 1 item

12        Orpheum Theatre (Kansas City, Mo.): 4 items

13        Palace Clothing Co. (Kansas City, Mo.): 1 item

14        Pioneer Trust Co. building (Kansas City, Mo.): 1 item

15        Price building (Kansas City, Mo.): 3 items

16        Professional building (Kansas City, Mo.): 5 items

17        Southwestern Bell Telephone (Kansas City, Mo.): 2 items

18        Tower Building, Spanish Plaza (Kansas City, Mo.): 1 item

19        Kirkwood S.W. Bell Tel. Co. (Kirkwood, Mo.): 3 items

20        U.S. post office (Sedalia, Mo.): 4 items

21        Gillioz theater (Springfield, Mo.): 1 items

22        J.F. Dickman real estate Co. (St. Louis, Mo.): 3 items

23        Highland Central office building (St. Louis, Mo.): 3 items

24        C.E. Vrooman residence (St. Louis, Mo.): 6 items

 

Box 5 NWTC work in buildings outside of Chicago in U.S. states: "N"-"W" (76 items)

Folders

1          Omaha Union passenger station (Omaha, Neb.): 5 items

2          YMCA building (Akron, Ohio): 1 item

3          Union Central Life Insurance Co. (Cincinnati, Ohio): 19 items

4          Union Trust building (Cincinnati, Ohio): 2 items

5          H.A. Kangesser building (Cleveland, Ohio): 2 items

6          Schofield building (Cleveland, Ohio): 1 item

7          Tatra Savings & Loan Co. (Cleveland, Ohio): 2 items

8          Walnut Building (Cleveland, Ohio): 1 item

9          Chittenden hotel (Columbus, Ohio): 5 items

10        Montgomery Ward (Columbus, Ohio): 5 items

11        Richland bank (Mansfield, Ohio): 4 items

12        Stambaugh-Thompson Co. (Youngstown, Ohio): 2 items

13        Atlas Life Insurance Co. (Tulsa, Okla.): 1 item

14        First National Bank (Tulsa, Okla.): 1 item

15        Municipal airport (Tulsa, Okla.): 2 items

16        Lowenstein's department store (Memphis, Tenn.): 2 items

17        Memphis Cotton Exchange (Memphis, Tenn.): 1 item

18        Memphis Steam Laundry (Memphis, Tenn.): 3 items

19        Peabody hotel (Memphis, Tenn.): 3 items

20        Corpus Christi Trust Co. (Corpus Christi, Tex.): 1 item

21        Gray County court house (Pampa, Tex.): 2 items

22        State Capital building (Salt Lake City, Utah): 1 item

23        American National Bank (Milwaukee, Wis.): 2 items

24        Kunzelman-Esser Co. store (Milwaukee, Wis.): 2 items

25        Riverside pumping station (Milwaukee, Wis.): 1 item

26        Schroeder hotel (Milwaukee, Wis.): 2 items

27        Strauss building (Milwaukee, Wis.): 2 items

28        Wisconsin Telephone Co. (Milwaukee, Wis.): 1 item

 

Call#: 2008.155.2 PPL continued

Box 6 NWTC work in buildings outside of Chicago (51 items, 11 x 14 in. and smaller)

Folders

1          Telocvina Jednota Sokol Slavsky of Cicero (Cicero, Ill.): 3 items

2          Main Street hotel (Evanston, Ill.): 2 items

3          Rubin's department store (Waukegan, Ill.): 3 items

4          Equitable Life Insurance Co. of Iowa (Des Moines, Iowa): 2 items

5          Buhl building (Detroit, Mich.): 3 items

6          First National Bank building (Kalamazoo, Mich.): 2 items

7          Ford building (Detroit, Mich.): 2 items

8          Michigan Bell Telephone (Detroit, Mich.): 1 item

9          Fox Theatre (St. Louis, Mo.): 3 items

10        Father Flanagan's Boys Home (Boys Town, Neb.): 4 items

11        World Theatre (Omaha, Neb.): 7 items

12        Cleveland Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio): 1 item

13        Cook Realty & Investment Co. (Cleveland, Ohio): 2 items

14        General Tire Co. (Cleveland, Ohio): 2 items

15        Goodyear service station (Cleveland, Ohio): 7 items

16        Studebaker building (Cleveland, Ohio): 1 item

17        Apartment building (Columbus, Ohio): 2 items

18        S.S. Kresge Building (Columbus, Ohio): 4 items

 

Box 7 NWTC work in buildings in Chicago, Ill., and nearby (90 items, 11 x 14 in. and smaller)

Folders

1          Miscellaneous Chicago buildings: 14 items

2          Broadway Motor Sales: 1 item

3          Sam Burnstein, 1731-5 W. Chicago Avenue: 1 item

4          Chicago Theatre: 3 items

5          Chicago Title-Trust Co.: 1 item

6          Apartment building, Drexel Blvd & 49th Street: 1 item

7          19 Street apartment building: 3 items

8          Evanston Motor Sales, Ridge Ave. (Evanston, Ill.): 3 items

9          Apartment building, 401 Fullerton Parkway: 3 items

10        2542 S. Michigan Avenue: 1 item

11        Apartment building, S.W. corner Morse & Greenview: 1 item

12        Northshore Theatre, 1749-1771 Howard Street: 2 items

13        Apartment building, 542-544 N. Pine Avenue: 2 items

14        Hotel St. Clair, Ohio & St. Clair Street: 3 items

15        Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, Kimbark Ave. near 55th St.: 3 items

16        Jonathan Young Scammon School, Henderson St. & Keeler Ave.: 4 items

17        Selwyn & Harris theatres: 6 items

18        Seneca hotel, Chestnut & Seneca Streets: 1 item

19        Sheridan Beach hotel, Chase & Sheridan Road: 2 items

20        Sherman hotel: 1 item

21        Shoreland hotel, 5450 S. Shore Drive: 3 items

22        Southmoor hotel: 4 items

23        Roger Sullivan Jr. High School, North Shore & Bosworth: 1 item

24        Stockman's Trust & Savings Bank, Garfield Blvd. & S. Halsted: 2 items

 

Box 8 Photographs of works by sculptor Edgardo Simone, including three portraits of the artist with his sculptures (82 photographs, 8 x 10 in. and smaller)

 

Box 9 NWTC buildings, employees, garden pottery, Booker T. Washington, Mother Cabrini Shrine, and fire test results (156 items, 8 x 10 in. and smaller)

Folders

1          Snapshot and group portrait photographs removed from an album; many people identified on print versos: 21 items

2          Photographs of architectural models, building exteriors and school interiors: 14 items

3          Booker T. Washington School (Tulsa, Okla.): 7 items

4          Booker T. Washington: 8 items

5          Garden pottery: 19 items

6          Mother Cabrini Shrine (Colorado): 14 items

7          Oklahoma buildings: 28 items

8          Terra cotta research testing: 39 items

9          Texas buildings: 6 items

 

Box 10 NWTC buildings, plant, workers, terra cotta panels, modeling, and ornaments (230 items, 11 x 14 in. and smaller)

Folders:

1          Photomechanical reproductions: 4 items

2          NWTC buildings and plants: 45 items

3          Miscellaneous (Chicago, Ill.): 15 items

4          Miscellaneous buildings: 59 items

5          Miscellaneous (photographs of men working on building exterior, removed from a scrapbook): 23 items

6          Miscellaneous buildings (photographs removed from a binder): 42 items

7          Modeling: 42 items

 

Box 11 Scrapbook albums (3 volumes, 12 x 16 in. and smaller)

Volumes:

1          Photographs of NWTC decorative moldings: 23 items

2          Alleged failures of building materials: approx. 150 items

3          Modern Stock: approx. 140 items

 

Box 12 Portfolios, mounted and oversized photographs (40 items, 16 x 21 in. and smaller)

folders

1          Our Lady of Good Councel church: 1 item

2          Building exterior: 1 photograph mounted to board

3          Building and columns exterior: 1 item

4          Ancient Doorway, by A.E. Howarth: 1 print

5          The Progress Club of the Northwester Terra Cotta Company, 1925: 1 composite photograph

6          Portfolio of Architectural Ornament Vol. 1 Modern: 10 plates

7          Portfolio of Architectural Ornament Vol. 1 Modern: 12 plates, 1 item

8          Terra Cotta panels depicting various athletics: 8 items

9          Building exterior: 1 photograph mounted to board

10        Aerial view of terra cotta plant: 1 item

11        Aesop's Fables terra cotta panel (Kalamazoo, Mich.): 1 photograph mounted to board

12        Tile mural for the Isaly Dairy Plant by Carlo Ciampaglia: 1 hand-painted illustration

 

Call#: 2008.155.2 PCP-242 (Color items in 1 box)

Box 1 NWTC buildings, decorative panels, employees & executives (152 items, 8 x 10 in. and smaller)

folders

1          Color prints: 40 items, 3 x 5 in. and smaller

2          Color slides: 83 slides, 35 mm.

3          Color transparencies: 26 transparencies, 8 x 10 in. and smaller

4          Color prints, 8 x 10: 3 items, 8 x 10 in.

 

Call#: 2008.155.2 PFL

Panoramic photograph, hand-colored, of Aesop's Fables terra cotta mural (7 1/2 x 32 in.)

 

Call#: 2008.155.2 (1 folder)

Folder 1           Non-graphic materials (newspaper clippings, handwritten notes, memos, photocopies of photo album pages before being disassembled, etc.) relating to NWTC photographs.