Access
Custodial History note
Preferred Citation
Biographical/Historical note
Scope and Content note
Title: Thornton M. Abell papers
Identifier/Call Number: 0000102
Contributing Institution:
Architecture and Design Collection, Art, Design & Architecture Museum
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
65.0 Linear feet
(14 record storage boxes, 16 flat file drawers, and 1 model)
Date (inclusive): 1928-1983
creator:
Abell, Thornton M., (Thornton Montaigne), 1906-1984
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Custodial History note
Gift of Jared Abell, 1985.
Preferred Citation
Thornton M. Abell papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California,
Santa Barbara.
Biographical/Historical note
Thorton Abell was born in 1906. He attended the University of Michigan, University of California Berkeley, and finally the
University of Southern California where he graduated in 1931 with his bachelors degree in architecture. Abell worked as a
designer for Clare C. Hosmer from 1925-1926, as a designer for Joseph J. Kucera from 1926-1927, and as a designer and chief
draftsman for Marsh, Smith, and Powell from 1930-1942. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Abell taught architecture and design
at the Chouinard Art Institute and at the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture. During this time Thorton
Abell was also asked to participate in the Case Study House Program. Abell built Case Study House 7 which was completed in
1949. Thorton Abell died in 1984.
Scope and Content note
This collection spans 95 linear feet and dates from 1928-1983. The Thornton Abell papers is composed primarily of correspondence,
course and research notes, photographs, scrapbooks, sketches, drawings, reprographic copies, clippings, appointment books,
awards, certificates, agreements, and a model of the Plateau Beaubourg Center.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Abell, Thornton M., (Thornton Montaigne), 1906-1984
Abell, Thornton M., (Thornton Montaigne), 1906-1984
Schindler, R. M., (Rudolph M. ), 1887-1953
Architects -- California
Architectural drawings
Architectural photographs
Architecture -- California
Architecture -- California -- 20th century
Architecture -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th Century
Architecture -- United States -- 20th century -- Sources
Architecture, Modern -- 20th century -- California
Blueprints
Correspondence
Modern movement (Architecture) -- California
Photographic prints
Reprographic copies
Sketches