Archives and Museums
OTHER RESOURCES
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Donald D. Walker Collection
A diverse and extensive group of materials related to Frank Lloyd Wright were brought together by architect Donald D. Walker, who worked as a drafter for Wright at Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and at Ocatilla camp near Chandler, Arizona, from 1928 to 1931. When Wright failed to pay his wages, Walker claimed in lieu of his money a substantial number of Japanese prints and important Wright architectural drawings. Walker remained interested in Wright designs for the rest of his life and continued to accumulate photographs, correspondence, ephemera, and other forms of documentation. This significant collection was donated to the Library of Congress (LOC) in segments between 1987 and 1992.
|
John Geiger examined in detail the catalog descriptions and accompanying reference images of the Walker materials. He entered the architectural drawings into his database and applied speculative inventory numbers consistent with other drawings for the same projects held in the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives. Geiger was also very interested in an extensive group of Japanese prints, as well, since they served to illustrate his thesis that during the early decades of the 20th century Wright paid the costs of maintaining an architectural practice largely through the ongoing sale of Asian art objects. Finding the on-line catalog search returns at LOC less than easy to navigate, Geiger wished to make access to information about the Walker materials more quickly and easily understandable through his own website. The LOC catalog provides an overall description of 129 items titled Visual Materials from the Donald D. Walker Collection, although this does not include approximately 260 Japanese prints noted elsewhere in Library of Congress records as being part of the collection. A finding aid provided by LOC gives additional information concerning correspondence, clippings, and other documents related to Wright and Taliesin Fellowship member and longtime Geiger friend Edgar Tafel. A special finding aid of the architectural drawings or graphical visual materials available online at LOC was created for Geiger in 2010 PDF. The Walker materials are organized here into 3 groups: Drawings and Graphical Designs The Walker collection holds 106 drawings for buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and an additional 8 drawings for graphic design projects for Liberty Magazine and a Japanese Arts society. A small group of images consists of three photographs, including two views of Ocatillo Camp, and one portrait of Frank Lloyd Wright. The appearance of ukiyo-e woodcut prints in the Walker materials represents a particular moment in the life of Frank Lloyd Wright as a collector and dealer of Asian artworks. As well as demonstrating connoisseurship as selections by Wright, John Geiger believed that the income generated from the sales of these artworks was a principal souce of financial support for Wright to continue his architectural practice during times when commissions were intermittent. |