Marcel Breuer Architectural
Drawings and Sketches

This digitization project was supported by Regional Bibliographic Databases and Interlibrary Resources Sharing Program funds, awarded by the New York State Library.

Using the Collection:

The collection of 668 images can be accessed via the Library's CONTENTdm server and can be browsed as well as being fully searchable by keyword or project title / subject.

Cape Cod Cottage

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About the Collection:

A remarkable visual source - not yet explored - these mostly unpublished and little known architectural drawings and sketches by Marcel Breuer (1902 1981), architect, designer and Bauhaus legend who was named one of the "Form Givers" of Modernism have now been made available online. The drawings were donated to Syracuse University Library by Breuer's widow a few years before her death (2002) to augment the Library's already established premier collection of Marcel Breuer Papers.

Rocking Horses

Breuer was born in Hungary and taught at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany. After emigrating to the United States he was Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design for nine years. His subsequent career as a practicing architect brought him international recognition, a gold medal from the American Institute of Architects, and a place in the pantheon of twentieth century "greats."

Breuer's drawings are of particular interest to students, scholars, and researchers because, contrary to what might have been expected, Breuer was self taught as an architect and received no technical training as an architectural draftsman. His first ambition as a student at the Bauhaus was to be a painter or a sculptor. As an artist he had a great facility for freehand drawing throughout his life. His architectural sketches and drawings are, therefore, spontaneous creative expressions of design intentions and experimentation that the draftsmen in his office would then transform into perspectives and measured drawings. Breuer called his drawings "recipes for the draftsman."

Previously unknown, these drawings have not been available for study or publication. Many represent Breuer's innovative thinking about space, use, planning and engineering. They represent a process of creative thought and the architect's personal and instinctive "handwriting"; in some cases, they illustrate the complex evolution of a design idea from the most basic graphic suggestion to a finished concept.

Architectural drawings are primary source materials and they are rare; historians have always recognized their value and highly prize them when they are to be found. They are indicators of a personal approach to design and they graphically document the trajectory of an architect's career.

Much has been done to prepare this collection for digitization. The very emphemeral and brittle drawings were conserved by having them deacidified, encapsulated, and bound. Isabelle Hyman and Joachim Driller, noted Breuer researchers, have contributed the identification of many of the drawings and creation of the database.

Technical Information:

2006-01-31
Importation of collection into CONTENTdm database and project completion
Peter D. Verheyen, Project Manager
J. Michael Puckett, Subject Headings and Authority Control
Ryan Charboneau, Digital Imaging

For more information about the collection, please contact the Special Collections Research Center