CCAHA

The Fabrication of Architectural Drawings to 1950

Lois Olcott Price

Abstract

Because drawings were not created as an end in themselves but as graphic documents to construct a building, sell a project or explore a design concept, the materials and techniques chosen by the drafter are often particular to the function of the drawing as well as the period in which it was created. The interpretation and preservation of architectural drawings depends upon an understanding of their varied functions in architectural practice and on a working knowledge of drafting materials and techniques. This presentation will present an overview of the fabrication of architectural drawings and explore what this reveals about the changing role of drawings in American architectural practice from the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century.

Lois Olcott Price is Senior Conservator for Library Collections at the Winterthur Museum, Gardens and Library near Wilmington, DE and assistant Winterthur Professor of Art Conservation in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. Before beginning at Winterthur in 1994, she was senior conservator at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifact in Philadelphia, PA, where she co-managed the lab and supervised the treatment of library and archival material and several grant funded conservation assessment programs. As increasing numbers of architectural drawings arrived at CCAHA for treatment, unanswered questions about the materials and techniques used to fabricate them piqued her interest and resulted in research that has now spanned almost two decades.  Lois has published, lectured and consulted widely about architectural drawings.  She has received several grants to support her research resulting in a monograph to be published by Oak Knoll Press in the fall of 2007.