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Frankel & Curtis Architectural Collection Research: Digitized Exhibit

Examining the Frankel and Curtis architectural collection. The research focuses on the years between 1920-1960 and the development of the American relationship with materialism/consumerism.

Research/Exhibit Photos

The documents I used for connecting my research to the collection are two sheets for Thomas Smith residence, two for Milton Rauh residence, one for Herschel Weil residence, and two for Leo J. Marks residence. All these residences are indicated to be owned by wealthy individuals. Included in these construction/design development sheet there are servants' rooms, multiple pantries, servants' houses, laundry facilities that indicate mechanized machines (not washing by hand), multiple entertainment rooms (den, living room, smoking room, sun parlour, etc), and grand entranceways and porticos.

These residences demonstrate an increase in American value on showcasing our wealth through entertaining friends/family. Also, Americans desire an immortality through their possessions.

The documents I used for the exhibit are blueprints of a Lexington grandstand, the Dairy Building, Tri-Delta house, Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station (KEAS), and the Third National Bank.

The Lexington grandstand sheet seems to be preliminary drawings for a stand at the stadium at UK. The Dairy Building is now known as the Thomas Poe Cooper Building, which houses the forestry department currently. The Tri-Delta house still stands on Rose Street. KEAS is now known as Scovell Hall and is still tied with agricultural developments. The Third National Bank consolidated with the Phoenix Bank in 1911.

These digitized prints represent before and after affect in the exhibit with the old blueprint pages next to old and new photographs. I used the Kentucky Digital Library and ExploreUK to find old pictures of Scovell Hall, Tri-Delta House, and Thomas Poe. I wanted the exhibit to relate back to my university campus. Also, when thinking about Kentucky as a state, ideas that come to mind are farms, horse farms, tobacco, coal, and also big cities, like Lexington or Louisville. I included the Princess Elkhorn (aka Paintsville mine) for the coal, the tobacco plants from KEAS for tobacco, and the Third National Bank because it is of historic importance in making Lexington more of a city than farmland.

Register of Qualified Architects for Federal Public Works

The Firm