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Wallace Neff Photograph Collection: Finding Aid
photCL 211
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Title: Wallace Neff Photograph
Collection
Dates (inclusive): approximately 1913-1980s
Bulk dates: 1930s-1960s
Collection Number: photCL 211
Creator:
Neff, Wallace,
1895-1982.
Extent:
6 flat boxes
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Photo Archives
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains photographs, papers and published
articles related to Los Angeles architect Wallace Neff (1895-1982) and his work
designing residential and public buildings, primarily in Southern California,
approximately 1913-1960s. The bulk of the collection consists of photographs of
buildings, with some photographs of Neff's sketches, photographs of architectural
drawings, portraits of Neff, and correspondence, patent drawings and other papers
pertaining to airform construction.
Language: English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services
Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to
quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such
activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is
one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item], Wallace Neff Photograph Collection, The Huntington
Library, San Marino, California.
Gift of Wallace Neff and Wallace L. Neff, November 10, 1976, and Wallace Neff,
May 1978.
Los Angeles architect Wallace Neff (1895-1982) designed many residential and public
buildings of note in Southern California from 1919 to 1975. Although best known for
magnificent homes for famous clients such as King Vidor, Edward L. Doheny, Darryl
Zanuck, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, and Amelita Galli-Curci, he also
created and patented a mass-produced and inexpensive dwelling called the Bubble
House. Neff was born in La Mirada, California, on January 28, 1895, though he spent
much of his childhood in the residence of his grandfather Andrew McNally in
Altadena, California. Neff married Louise Updegraff in 1924, and they had three
children: Phyllis (born 1925), Wallace (born 1930), and Arthur (born 1932).
The photographs in this collection are chiefly black-and-white 8 x 10-inch
professional images of residences and other projects designed by Neff, including
interiors, exteriors, and aerial views, as well as photographs of architectural
drawings. The majority of buildings represented are in California, but there are a
few projects in other states and the Virgin Islands. Items in the collection include
photographic prints; photocopies of published images; photographs of sketches and
renderings; published articles and clippings; and some correspondence and patent
documents related to airform construction. Neff appears in several photographs in
portraits and with family members, including a copy photograph showing Neff as a
young boy with his family in Salzburg, Austria. The airform construction or "Bubble
house" materials include correspondence, copies of drawings, clippings and
photographs, including snapshots of airform housing under construction in St.
Thomas, Virgin Islands.
Several of the photographs were made by photographers Julius Padilla, Padilla
Studios, and Maynard L. Parker.
Many of the photographs in this collection were used in
Architecture of Southern California (Rand McNally, 1964), by Wallace
Neff, and later in Alson Clark and Wallace Neff, Jr.'s
Wallace
Neff: Architect of California's Golden Age
(Capra Press, 1986), and
Wallace Neff 1895-1982: The Romance of Regional
Architecture
(The Huntington Library, 1989). An autograph copy of
Architecture of Southern California by Wallace Neff is
part of this collection (Box 6).
Related materials in the Huntington Library
- Wallace Neff Family Collection (photCL 450): contains photographs of Neff and his family as well as photos of architectural works by Neff
- Wallace Neff Architectural Collection (archNeff): contains original drawings and duplicates of many of the photographs in this collection (photCL 211).
For additional photographs of works by Wallace Neff, see also:
Arranged in the following series and subseries:
- Photographs
- Photographs of Residential and Other Building Projects (+ some photographs of drawings)
- Photographs of Sketches and Renderings
- Photographs of Airform Construction
- Portraits of Wallace Neff
- Airform Construction: Correspondence and General Information
- Publications
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Neff, Wallace,
1895-1982 -- Archives.
Neff, Wallace,
1895-1982 -- Photographs.
Architects -- California --
Archives.
Architecture -- California -- Los
Angeles -- Designs and plans.
Architecture, Domestic -- California --
Photographs.
Concrete houses -- Designs and
plans.
Los Angeles (Calif.) --
Buildings, structures, etc. -- Pictorial works.
Photographs.
Clippings.
Correspondence.
Padilla, Julius,
photographer.
Parker, Maynard L., 1900-1976,
photographer.
Padilla Studios,
photographer.