The Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives contain the papers of artists, architects, galleries, designers, and more.
This collection holds more than 5,000 linear feet of artists’ and architects’ papers that illuminate the development of art and architecture in Chicago and the Midwest from the 1870s to the present.
Complementing the museum’s art collection, the archive is renowned for the caliber of its holdings related to the First and Second Chicago Schools, the Prairie School, development of the skyscraper, Chicago urban planning, the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, and 20th-century local art galleries.
Architects such as Edward Bennett, Daniel Burnham, Bruce Goff, Bertrand Goldberg, Ludwig Hilberseimer, Mies van der Rohe, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright and events such as the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the 1933 Century of Progress International Exposition are represented in a broad range of graphic and textual records. The Archives also collect the papers of artists, designers and scholars such as Ivan Albright, Irving Penn, André Mellerio, and Richard Ten Eyck. View resources for the Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives.
Archival collections are accessible by appointment in the Research Center’s Franke Reading Room. Find additional information about our access policies and procedures here.
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For information regarding our archival collections, please contact us via our Contact Form.
