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Finding Aid for the Fritz Block papers, 1889-1995 0000112
0000112  
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Collection Details
 
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  • Access
  • Custodial History note
  • Preferred Citation note
  • Biographical/Historical note
  • Scope and Content note

  • Title: Fritz Block papers
    Identifier/Call Number: 0000112
    Contributing Institution: Architecture and Design Collection, Art, Design & Architecture Museum
    Language of Material: German
    Physical Description: 7.0 Linear feet (4 record storage boxes and 1 flat file drawer)
    Date (inclusive): circa 1918-circa 1955
    creator: Block, Fritz, 1889-1955

    Access

    Partially processed collection, open for use by qualified researchers.

    Custodial History note

    Gift of Ingrid Levy-Huneberg, 1986.

    Preferred Citation note

    Fritz Block papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.

    Biographical/Historical note

    Fritz Block was born in Hamburg Germany in 1889. He studied under Wilhelm Kreis and in 1921 opened an architectural office in Hamburg with Ernst Hochfeld. Block & Hochfeld were dedicated to the functional building style of the 1920s. Block documented his work extensively with photography. He traveled extensively to North Africa, France, Asia, North America, and the Dalmatian coast producing, with the help of his wife Anna Sophia, travel reportages that were published in Hamburg magazines. In 1938, Block liquidated his architectural firm and moved to Los Angeles, California to focus exclusively on photography. Two years later in 1940, Block started his own color slide company in Hollywood, California called Dr. Block Color Productions where he sold 2 x 2 in. kodachrome sets of slides on the subjects of modern architecture, modern ceramics, and nature. His major clients were museums and universities. Fritz Block died in 1955.

    Scope and Content note

    The Fritz Block papers span 7 linear feet and date circa 1918 to circa 1955. The collection is composed of pencil drawings of furniture designs, presentation and working drawings primarily of apartment residences located in Germany, pencil drawings of tombstone lettering and design, sketches of building exteriors, slides, glass plate negatives, newspaper and magazine clippings, correspondence, scrapbooks, lecture notes, and black-and-white photographs taken by Block documenting architecture, interior design, nature, and people. The Fritz Block papers also include a folder of reprographic copies of other architects work: Ain, Johnson, Day; Clark & Frey; Richard E. Lind; and R.M. Schindler. The majority of material is in German.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Block, Fritz, 1889-1955
    Architectural drawings
    Furniture design
    Photographic prints