Description
The Charles Sumner Greene Collection contains a wide variety of materials documenting Greene's life, both personal and professional.
The records, which cover nearly a century, represent almost every period of his life and work but are not complete. The collection
is organized into four series: I. Personal Papers, II. Office Records, III. Project Records (including furniture), and IV.
Additional Donations.
Background
Charles Sumner Greene was born October 12, 1868 to Lelia Ariana and Thomas Sumner Greene in Brighton, Ohio. A year and a half
later on January 23, 1870, Henry Mather Greene was born. The family later moved to St. Louis where Charles and Henry attended
Calvin Woodward's Manual Training School, a revolutionary school with a curriculum based largely on the ideas of John Ruskin
and William Morris. This early training is considered to be the source of the brothers's focus on tools, materials and craftsmanship.
After finishing high school in 1888, the brothers enrolled in the architectural curriculum at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, but in 1890, dissatisfied with the classical emphasis and rigid structure of the program, both brothers left
with Certificates of Partial Course. Instead, the Greenes found apprenticeships with the successor firms of Henry Hobson Richardson:
Charles with H. Langford Warren and Henry with Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge.
Extent
21 boxes, 1 card file box, 1 flat box, 3 flat file drawers
Restrictions
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the
Director.
Availability
Collection is open for research.