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Inventory of the John Galen Howard Collection, 1884-1931, (bulk 1891-1927)
1955-4  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Access Points
  • Biographical Note
  • Scope and Content Note
  • Related Collections

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: John Galen Howard Collection,
    Date (inclusive): 1884-1931, (bulk 1891-1927)
    Collection number: 1955-4
    Creator: Howard, John Galen (1864-1931)
    Extent: 11 boxes, 20 flat file drawers, 13 tubes, 2 flat boxes, 5 folios
    Repository: Environmental Design Archives. College of Environmental Design.
    University of California, Berkeley.
    Berkeley, California
    Language: English.

    Administrative Information

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Other Formats

    Microfilm containing selected records and drawings from the collection is available.
    • Contributing Institution: The Bancroft Library:
      Identifier/Call Number: BANC FILM 2554
    • Contributing Institution: Environmental Design Library:
      Identifier/Call Number: MICROFILM 78314 NA

    Publication Rights

    All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the Curator.

    Funding

    Arrangement and description of this collection was funded by a grant from the Getty Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Inventory of the John Galen Howard Collection, (1955-4), Environmental Design Archives. College of Environmental Design. University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, California.

    Access Points

    Architects--California.
    Architecture--California.
    Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (1909:Seattle,WA).
    Ecole nationale superieure des beaux-arts (France).
    Phoebe Hearst Architectural Plan for the University.
    San Francisco--Civic Auditorium.
    University of California, Berkeley--School of Architecture.
    Berkeley Public Library.
    University of California, Berkeley--Buildings.
    Benard, Emile, 1844-.
    Cauldwell, Samuel.
    Galloway, Jon Debo, 1869-1943.
    Howard & Galloway.
    Howard & Cauldwell.

    Biographical Note

    John Galen Howard, (1864-1931)
    John Galen Howard was born May 8, 1864 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. He began his architectural education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the nation's only architectural program at the time, although he left in 1885 before completing his degree. He apprenticed himself to Henry Hobson Richardson in Brookline, Massachusetts, gaining a practical knowledge of drafting. After Richardson's death he left the firm and went to Los Angeles where he worked with the firms Caulkin & Hass, and James M. Wood. Unhappy with the prospects in Los Angeles after a year, Howard left to tour Europe in 1888. Returning to the United States, he went to work for McKim, Mead & White, first in Boston then in New York. Encouraged by the partners of the firm, who offered financial assistance, Howard left for Paris to attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts from 1890 to 1893. Although he left shortly before completing the training, he brought the tradition and style of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts back to the United States.
    In 1893 Howard opened a private practice with Samuel Cauldwell in New York. The partners built residential and commercial buildings in New York and New Jersey. In 1898, Howard & Cauldwell entered the Phoebe Hearst International Competition for the plan for the University of California in Berkeley. Emile Bénard won the competition, however, he did not wish to leave Paris for Berkeley. Howard, whose entry with Cauldwell came in fourth place, was appointed to the Advisory Board of Architects for the Perpetuation of the Phoebe Hearst Architectural Plan for the University of California. Phoebe Hearst hired Howard to design the Hearst Mining Building, sending him on a tour of Europe in 1900 to study University buildings, particularly those relating to mining. Because Bénard proved too difficult for the Regents to work with, President Wheeler, a strong supporter of Howard's talents, offered Howard the position of Supervising Architect of the University in 1901. The Howards moved to California in 1902. In 1903, the University of California provided funding for a department of architecture. Howard was appointed professor at the new school, and settled into life in the Bay Area.
    Because of Howard's work on the University, he soon had a growing private practice. In 1906 he opened an office in San Francisco in partnership with engineer John Debo Galloway. He was also an advisory member of the Reconstruction Committee of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Away from his work at the University, Howard was the supervising architect for the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle. Howard was also involved with the Panama-Pacific Exhibition of 1915 in San Francisco. He was a member of the Exposition advisory committee as well as a member of the board that supervised the plan for the San Francisco Civic Center. He also designed the San Francisco Civic Auditorium for the Exposition. Howard also designed a variety of residential and commercial buildings in Berkeley and San Francisco.
    In 1913 Howard was appointed Director of the School of Architecture at the University. In his capacity as Supervising Architect for the University, Howard completed the Hearst Memorial Mining Building, the Greek Theater, Boalt Hall, California Hall, Agriculture Hall, the University Library, the Sather Tower (known as the Campanile), Sather Gate, Wheeler Hall, Hilgard Hall,
    Gilman Hall, Hesse Hall, Le Conte Hall and Haviland Hall, thoroughly adapting the Phoebe Hearst Architectural plan to display his preferred designs.
    In 1917, Howard took a sabbatical to live and write poetry in Carmel, California. In 1918, he went on "war leave" to Europe. There he helped establish the American Expeditionary Forces University, which was intended to educate soldiers as they awaited transport home. Returning in 1919, he found the University reluctant to spend money and saw his authority as Supervising Architect start to deteriorate. Howard was officially dismissed by the Regents of the University in 1924, and in 1926 resigned as Director of the School of Architecture. He and his wife, Mary Robertson Bradbury, moved to San Francisco, residing on Russian Hill, where Howard continued to write and publish his own poetry. He died suddenly from a heart attack in 1931.

    Note

    Sources:

    • Partridge, Loren. John Galen Howard and the Berkeley Campus: Beaux-Arts Architecture in the "Athens of the West," Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, Berkeley, CA 1978.
    • Moss, Stacey. The Howards: First Family of Bay Area Modernism, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA 1988.

    Scope and Content Note

    The collection, which spans the years 1884-1931 (bulk 1891-1927), consists of records, drawings, and photographs relating to John Galen Howard's architectural career. The collection comprehensively documents the buildings for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exhibition in Seattle, Washington. It also shows Howard's architectural influence on the University of California, Berkeley campus beginning with the Phoebe Hearst Competition and continuing through his 22 years as Supervising Architect. This collection contains no records pertaining to his work as a Professor or as the Director of the School of Architecture. The collection is organized into seven series: Personal papers, Professional papers, Office records, Project records, University of California, Berkeley records, Art and Artifacts, and Additional Donations.
    Notable papers in the first series are the assignments and student drawings from his studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. This series also contains examples of his watercolors, pastels, and sketches, a hobby he pursued for much of his life. The professional papers series is small with the most significant group of correspondence relating to the San Francisco American Institute of Architects "trial" and chapter reorganization.
    The office records contain scrapbooks and clipbooks, with a few photographs collected for research purposes. The scrapbooks contain photographs of completed buildings, project sketches, terrazzo sketches, newspaper clippings about projects, and obituaries of Howard. The clipbooks were books of architectural journal clippings used as idea books in Beaux-Arts offices. Included in Howard's books are drawings and illustrations of exterior and interior views, plans, plates, and articles, generally taken from The Architectural Review, The Brickbuilder, and American Country Homes. (Please note: Clipbooks are stored off site at NLRF. Call number: ENVI \f\ NA 737.H6 S37).
    The project records include specifications, photographs, and drawings from the private commissions and the public buildings from his architectural career. Projects in this series include the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exhibition Complex, commercial and residential buildings for the Spreckles family, and the Gregory family residences.
    The fifth series focuses on the planning and design work by Howard for the University of California, Berkeley. The records begin with the designs for the Phoebe Hearst Architectural Competition and go through his retirement as Supervising Architect for the University in 1923. The project records include drawings for the Competition, as well as files and designs for numerous buildings including California Hall, Boalt Hall (original), Gilman Hall, the Hearst Mining Building, and the Agricultural building.
    The final series is an additional donation of a watercolor of an unidentified rendering for a proposed hotel.
    Guide to the Project Index:
    The Project Index is a way to organize the various formats of architectural records from the same project. Each horizontal row holds information about a project and the location of the project records.
    Client Name/Project Name:
    The first column lists the Client or Project name. The client name is always listed first. If the project has a name, this may be listed with a see reference to the client. This is the most likely way that researchers will wish to find a project.
    Collaborator/Role:
    Often architects worked with other architects, engineers, or landscape architects. The name of the collaborator is listed, Last name, and first initial. The role of the collaborator follows in the same column in parenthesis.

    e.g. Maybeck, B. (architect) = Maybeck as a collaborating architect
    Date:
    The date of the project. May be a single year, a range of years, or a circa date.
    Physical Location of Materials:

    Manuscript Records, Drawings, Detail Drawings, Photographs

    • The next set of fields are used to designate the physical location of any materials related to the project. Materials may include records, files, correspondence, and papers, drawings, detail drawings, or photographs.
    • The location of the materials is formatted to have the box number, then folder number.

      e.g. Box # | Folder # - one box, one folder: 5 | 2
    • Folders in consecutive order, but the same box will be hyphenated. e.g. additional folders - same box, consecutive: 5 | 6-9
    • Folders not in consecutive order, but in the same box will be separated by a comma.

      e.g. additional folders - same box, not consecutive: 5 | 6, 11
    • Materials that reside in more than one box are separated in the cell with a comma.

      e.g. additional folders - different box: 4 | 3, 5 | 2
    • If the material is not a box, but actually a Tube, a T will be entered before the tube number, or if the oversize folder is in a Flat File, FF before the folder number.
    Location and State:
    The geographical location of the project.
    Project Type:
    The general term for the category of building.

    e.g. a commercial building or a residence.
    Microfilm:
    This column will appear if the collection has been microfilmed. The column tracks the amount of material microfilmed for each project: all, selected or none.

    Related Collections

    Title: Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition Collection
     
    Contributing Institution: Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Washington
    Title: Architectural Drawings of University of California Buildings
    Identifier/Call Number: CU-402
    Contributing Institution: The Bancroft Library, University Archives
    UC Berkeley
    Berkeley, CA
    Title: Inventory of the John Galen Howard Pictorial Collection, 1885-1920.
    Identifier/Call Number: BANC PIC 1967.016-.018--PIC
    Contributing Institution: Pictorial Collection, The Bancroft Library
    UC Berkeley
    Berkeley, CA
    Title: Inventory of the Specifications, Contracts, and Bids for Construction of University of California, Berkeley Buildings, 1896-[ongoing]
    Identifier/Call Number: CU-13
    Contributing Institution: The Bancroft Library, University Archives
    UC Berkeley
    Berkeley, CA
    Title: John Debo Galloway Papers
    Identifier/Call Number: GALLOWAY
    Contributing Institution: The Water Resources Center Archives, University of California, Berkeley
    Title: John Debo Galloway Papers, 1920-1940
    Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 67/40
    Contributing Institution: The Bancroft Library
    UC Berkeley
    Berkeley, CA
    Title: John Galen Howard collection of progress photographs, ca. 1905-1910
    Identifier/Call Number: f308xH849pr
    Contributing Institution: The Bancroft Library, University Archives
    UC Berkeley
    Berkeley, CA
    Title: John Galen Howard Papers, 1874-1954 (bulk 1888-1931)
    Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 67/35
    Contributing Institution: The Bancroft Library
    UC Berkeley
    Berkeley, CA
    Title: Records of the President of the University of California
    Identifier/Call Number: CU-5
    Contributing Institution: The Bancroft Library, University Archives
    UC Berkeley
    Berkeley, CA
    Title: Records of the Regents of the University of California, 1896-1933
    Identifier/Call Number: CU-1
    Contributing Institution: The Bancroft Library, University Archives
    UC Berkeley
    Berkeley, CA