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Aymar Embury II Papers

An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: DW
Date: 1980



Biographical History

Aymar Embury II (1880-1966) was an American architect.

Born in New York City, Embury graduated from Princeton University in 1900 with a bachelor's degree in engineering. He earned a master's degree the same subject in 1901, and began practicing architecture in New York City that same year. Embury taught architecture at Princeton while also working for various firms in New York City, including Cass Gilbert, George B. Post, Howells & Stokes, and Palmer and Hornbostel. During the First World War he served as a captain with the 40th Engineers of the United States Army, and designed the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal (Army).

Embury's specialties were college buildings, urban and country houses, hotels, library buildings, banks, clubs and community buildings. He was the architect for college buildings at Princeton University, Kalamazoo College, and Hofstra College and created two housing developments. His most significant efforts, however, were in connection with Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, with whom he worked as architect and supervisor of a design and construction team that executed more than six hundred projects for the city of New York, including the Triborough Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel, the Henry Hudson Memorial Bridge, the Whitestone Bridge, the Rainbow Bridge, the Jamaica Bay Bridge and The Port of New York Authority Terminal Building. Embury was also the architect for the New York City and Argentine Pavilions at the 1939 World's Fair held in New York City.

Embury was a member of the President's Advisory Committee on Architecture from 1934-1943. He was also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the New York Society of Architects. Mr. Embury wrote a number of books, including 100 Country Houses (1901), The Dutch Colonial House (1911), Country Houses (1914), Early American Churches (1914), The Liveable House (1917), and The Esthetics of Engineering Construction (1943).


Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Aymar Embury II Papers contains writings, photographs, prints, sketches, shop drawings, and published material. Material was received in two separate accessions (1967 and 1980), which have been integrated.

Correspondence contains one incoming and one outgoing piece of correspondence between Evans Kerrigan and Embury.

Memorabilia consists of a photographic portrait of Embury, a Christmas drawing, lithographs of bridges designed by Embury and various scrapbooks of his work, including bridges, churches, country clubs, residences, etc..

The Projects by Embury series contains contract documents, drawings and photographs for buildings designed by Embury or for which he served as a consulting architect.

Projects by other architects includes photographs and information on buildings not constructed by Embury. It also includes stock designs for post offices for the President's Advisory Committee on Architecture. Embury served as the Chairman of this committee. Projects designed by other architects under his leadership can be found here. Post offices designed by Embury for this committee are found under Projects by Embury.

Writings by Embury consists of manuscripts and published versions of articles on architecture, engineering, design and a limited number of short stories and autobiographical writings by Embury.

Writings on Embury includes articles in various trade journals and pamphlets on his work.

Writings on other architects includes articles on architectural plates and on William Jensen, an employee of Embury's office.


Arrangement of the Collection

All series are arranged alphabetically, by type where relevant, and then by title. Because the scrapbooks contain materials related to several projects, they have been placed in Memorabilia rather than Projects by Embury. Stock post office designs produced under the aegis of the President's Committee on Architecture, for which Embury served as chairman, have been divided between two series, Projects by Embury and Projects by other architects.


Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.


Related Material

A parallel of architecture by Jean-Louis-Nicolas Durand was transferred to Rare Books for cataloging. Please refer to the Classic Catalog to locate this item.


Subject Headings

Persons

Adams, Ansel, 1902-1984.
Chrystie, Edward F.
Embury, Aymar, 1880-1966.
Embury, Edward Coe.
Jensen, William.
Klauder, Charles A.
Rowe, J. Richard.

Corporate Bodies

Amann and Whitney.
Embury and Lucas.
Sigmond and Farkas.

Subjects

Architects -- United States.
Architectural design.
Architectural drawing -- 20th century -- United States.
Architectural firms.
Architecture -- Designs and plans.
Architecture -- New York (State)
Architecture -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
Architecture -- United States.
Architecture, American.
Bridges -- Design and construction.

Genres and Forms

Architectural drawings (visual works)
Articles.
Clippings (information artifacts)
Correspondence.
Drawings (visual works)
Essays.
Photographs.
Slides (photographs)

Occupations

Architects.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Aymar Embury II Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries


Table of Contents

Correspondence

Memorabilia

Projects by Embury

Projects by other architects

Writings by Embury

Writings on Embury

Writings on other architects


Inventory