The Jim Charlton papers span 7.5 linear feet and date from 1938 to 1985. Box 1 of the collection contains newspaper articles organized by architectural project, correspondence, speeches, Charlton’s business cards from Los Angeles and Hawaii, small sketches, photocopied pages from a scrapbook of Charlton’s projects, 3 x 5 in. color photographs of houses he designed in Hawaii, black-and-white 8 x 10 in. photographs of the De Mille house, and color photographs of a kinetic sculpture he designed in Hawaii.

James (Jim) Charlton was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on April 8, 1919. At State Teachers’ College, Charlton discovered the work of Frank Lloyd Wright at the school’s library. Inspired by Wright, Jim packed his bags and hitchhiked to Spring Green, Wisconsin where Frank Lloyd Wright was residing at the time. Charlton managed to arrange a meeting with Wright and later joined the Taliesin Fellowship. Charlton worked under Wright on building Taliesin West in Arizona. When WWII began Charlton joined the Air Corps and was stationed in England as part of a bomber escort. Out of the service in 1945, Charlton moved to Los Angeles and found work with John Lautner. By 1950, he was collaborating with architects Whitney Smith, Archibald Quincy Jones, Wayne Williams, and Edgardo Contini on the Mutual Housing Association, a 500-home cooperative financed by the Federal Housing Administration built in Brentwood, California. In 1956, Jim established his own practice. In 1962 Charlton and his wife moved to Hawaii where he began to design steel-framed houses. Charlton retired in 1990 and died March 28, 1998.

3.5 Linear feet (1/2 record storage box, 3 flat file folders, plus 4 ADD boxes)

Partially processed collection, open for use by qualified researchers.