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SWEETBRIAR COLLEGE MARY HELENCOCHRAN l.ibuARY SWEETBRIAR COi'tGE SWEET Lr>l.-,i', ,7. 24595 T7/5<€5 i>.~Bt« 9».HTsa4^•*it.^ I , U^T^a ."TT»».aeT»*~ '7n Virginia ...we are slowly constructing a great college for women. ..." — Ralph AdamsCram,"Recent UniversityArctiitecture in tfie United Siaies,"JournaluttheRoyalInstituteofBritishArchitects {1911-12) WEET DRIAR COLLEGE AHD RALFn ADAHS CRAH: M) DIlEAnS REALITT A Sweet Briar College Centennial Exhibition From theCramand Ferguson Collection, FineArtsDepartment, Boston Public Library LoanedcourtesyofTheTrusteesofthe Boston Public Library, andtheCramCollection,SweetBriarCollege AlLEEN H.LaING Sweet BriarCollegeArt Gallery Anne Gary Pannell Center Sweet Briar,Virginia September20- December 14, 2001 TheextiibitionandcataloguetiavebeenmadepossibleIhroughthegenerosityoftheSweetBriarCollegeCentennialCommission,theAlumnaeAssociationandtheSweetBriarCollegeFacullj'GrantsCommittee. win DRinR COLLEGE ART GALLERT ilAEE & rilOJECL CREDlIi AileenH.Laing,GuestCuratorandCatalogueEssayist RebeccaMassieLane.DirectorofSweetBriar CollegeArtGallery&ArtsManagementProgram NancyMcDearmon,RegistrarialAssistant, SweetBriarCollegeArtGallery ExhibitionAssistants.EmilyNictiols'01.MeredithTaylor '01.ChathamMonk,TractSorrells,MaggieMcDearmon. ElizabethB.Taylor"02 EugeneMyers.ArtGalleryCaretaker CatalogueCredits: DianeD.Moran Editor DouglasHarnsberger & SusanSmither Glossary JuliaParis ResearchAssistant CharlesGrubbs Photographer NancyMarion Graphic Design Colophon: Cram'sassociateandfriend.BertramGoodhue,de- signedtheCheltenhamfont,usedinthebodyofthis catalog,forIngallsKimballofCheltenhamPress. First usedtopresentCramandGoodhue'splansforWest Point.Cheltenhamwasintroducedin 1904andwas probablythefirsttypefacedesigned forbothhand-set- tingandLinotypemachinetypesetting.Thisversatile typefacehasalsoadaptedwelltocomputertypesetting usage. 2 coniEnn Foreword 4 Elisabeth S.Muhlenfekl,President, SweetBriarCollege Acknowledgements 5 Sweet BriarCollegeand RalphAdamsCram: Dreamsand Reality ASweet Briar College CentennialExhibition 7 Aileen H.Laing,Professor. HistoryofArt,SweetBriarCollege Notes 47 SweetBriarCollege BuildingChronology 52 . Exhibition Catalogueand Pl^iTEReferences. 53 Glossary 59 DouglasHarnsberger, SweetBriarHistoric DistrictArchitect,andSusan Smither 3 FOREWORD MarkC.Taylor, Cluett Professorof Humanities nity asessential toourmission. and Religion of Williams College has said, Cram insisted on "honest and enduring important exhibition, rich with de- "Whatyouthinkisinnosmallmeasurea func- construction," the only option, he believed, This tailedimagesfromanexcitingperiodof tion of where you think." She knew that the whenoneis"dealingwiththeeternalverities." American architecture, focuses our at- gorgeous foothills of the Blue Ridge consti- Tills, his legacy to us, has become ourcredo tentionon notonlythe impactofRalph tuted an extensive canvas on which young aswehaveworkedinrecentyearstorestoreor Adams Cram on the development of a women would be able to paint their futures. renewtheCrambuildingswithin ourNational distinguished college, but also how his ongo- And Cram, forwhom Sweet Briarwas his first HistoricDistrict,andtodesignexpansionsand ing work atSweet Briarinfluenced his profes- majorcollegiate project, found the breadth of renovationsto newerbuildingson campus. sional life. The exhibit thus constitutes a sig- the canvasonwhich hecouldwork inspiring. For Cram, architecture was "an unerring nificant addition to Cram scholarship, and to Today'sSweetBriariswhatitisin largepart thoughperishablerecord ofcivilization, more the historical record ofSweet BriarCollege. because of its architecture. The campus that exact than written history" (We can, for ex- It is fitting that within six months of the Cramdesigned reflected hishomagetotheold ample,see in hisresplendentdesign ofa"pro- chartering of Sweet Briar Institute in January English concept of the residential college fessor's house" how highly regarded was the 1901, to be built on the beautiful estate left by ("the early the perfect, the indestructible facultymemberin 1900.) And forCram,Sweet Indiana FletcherWilliams for the purpose of type") which in his view so deeply impacted Briar became an important strand of his own foundingacollegeforwomen,thefirsttru,stees "character building"that without it"no inten- unerring record.What betterwaytocelebrate determined to employ a supremely talented sivescholarshipcanevermakeamends." One our Centennial than to illuminate and honor and thoughtful young architect and architec- hundredyears later, thousandsofalumnaeat- Ralph Adams Cram as one of Sweet Briar's — tural theorist to create a campus of classic test that the intense interaction both social true founders'.' — Georgian design. Indiana Fletcher Williams and intellectual of this community is un- had herselfbeendeeplysensitivetothebeauty usual, distinctive, and hasbeen fostered from ElisabethS.Muhlenfeld of Sweet Briar Plantation, and to the impor- the first by the placement of buildings, the President,SweetBriarCollege tance ofaesthetics in life and in architecture. shelter of arcades and the conversation be- (Inherearlytwenties,shehadpersonallyover- tween an"academical village"and thesweep- seenthe realizationofherdream totransform ingviewsacrossthedells. Todayasweshape Sweet Briar House into a handsome Tuscan an educational program for the twenty-first villa.) She, like Cram, understood that, as century we focus on our residential commu- ncKnowLEDOcncnii AdamsCrammayhavebeenthede^ chitect,hasprovidedinvaluablehelp,from.shar- Ralph signing architect of Sweet Briar, but the ing his knowledge of the historic structures on College would never have been built campusto providing a glossaryofarchitectural President'sOffice,thecorrespondencebetween withouttheeffortsofmanypeople,from terms forthecatalogue. Susan SmitherofCom- Meta Glass and Ralph Adams Cram was un- themenwholaidthebricktothedonors monwealthArchitectsassistedinthecompletion earthed. Karen SummersandTlieresa McNabb whomadetheconstmctionpossible.Inthesame of the glossaiy and in the creation of a com- werealwayson hand to provideworkingspace vein, thisexhibition would neverhaveseen the panionexhibitionwhichdocumentsthere.stora- toexaminetherecordsand to helpwith photo- lightofdaywithoutthecontributionsofmanyin- tionoftheCram buildingsatSweet Briar copying. dividuals. Bothweretrulyteam efforts. Without thestaffofCochran Librarythiscat- In thesummerof 1995Julia Parisworked as Financialsupportfortheexhibitionhascome aloguewould neverhavebeenwritten.JoeMal- our research assistant, poking around various primarily from the Faculty Grants Committee loymusthavecalledinallhisfavorstogetbooks nooksandcrannieson campusforanysignsof and The Centennial Commission. Generous and photocopied material from sources that Cram'sdrawingsorearlyphotographsoftheCol- grants from the Faculty Grants Committee over don't ordinarily lend material. Lisa Johnston lege. She went through numerous microfilmed several years made it possible to explore the found theanswerstoquestionsboth trivial and copiesof TheLynchburgNews forany mention idea and search for appropriate material. We serious. of the college during the earlyyearsof itscon- made several forays to Boston to examine the Thenitty-grittyofactuallygettingthematerial struction.EdwardGibson,archivistandDirector Cram material intheBoston PublicLibraryJan- framed and hung on the walls of Pannell Art ofTheJonesMemorialLibraryprovidedherand ice Chadbourne, Curator of Fine Arts, and her GalleryisduetoNancyMcDearmon,Registrarial uswith invaluablehelpaswesoughtCram'sde- teamwerealwaysbothefficientandgraciousas Assistant,andherstaff,EmilyNichols'01,Mered- signs forSweet Briar Monica Dean, former Di- we pored over hundreds of drawings made by ith Taylor '01, Elizabeth B. Taylor '02, Chatham rectorofPublicRelations,providedfundstodu- thefirm ofCram. Goodhueand Ferguson (later Monk, Traci Sorrells, and Maggie McDearmon. plicateCramdrawingsfortheJonesMemorialLi- Cram and Ferguson) agonizing overwhattose- Largelinendrawingsthathavebeenrolledupfor braryCollection. lect forthe exhibition.We thanktheTrusteesof years are not easy to persuade to lie flat while Severalyearsago,CharlesKestner, formerDi- the Boston Public Library forso generouslyap- theyare being framed. Norare theyeasily pho- rectorof Buildingsand GroundsatSweet Briar, provingthe loan ofthesedrawingsforourexhi- tographed.The crisp imagesthatappearin this realizedthehistoricalimportanceofsomeofthe bition.The Centennial Commission has under- cataloguearetheworkofCharlesGrubbs,oneof materialinhiscareandbroughtthemtotheArt writtenthepublicationofthecatalogueandthe the area's most gifted professional photogra- Galleryforsafekeeping.Theseform the nucleus mountingoftheexhibit, itself,asamajorpartof phers.Paperconservator,MaryStudt,wasofpar- ofSweetBriar'sCramarchivesandareamongthe thecentennialcelebrationoftheCollege Louise ticularassistance in providingadvice aboutthe most prized works of art in the Sweet BriarArt Zingaro, Director of the Alumnae Association appropriatewaytocareforthisfragilematerial. Collection. has been a major cheerieader for the project ThePresident'sOfficemadeitpossibletoex- Even the production ofthe catalogue wasa sinceitsinception. amine the minutesofthe Board of Directorsof teameffort. DianeMoran,ProfessorofHistoryof DouglasHarnsberger, Principal atCommon- Sweet Briar Institute and thanks to the persist- Art,sei^vedasitseditor;hershaipeyeandprecise wealthArchitectsandSweetBriar'srestorationar- ence of Megan Jaffe, student assistant in the attention to detail picked up many errors and 5 clarifiedambiguitiesoflanguage. PresidentEliz- abeth Mutilenfeld took time from tier busy scheduletowritetheForewordandplacethisex- hibitioninthelargercontextofSweetBriar'sCen- tennialcelebration.NancyMarionofTheDesign Groupdesignedthecataloguewithherusualpro- fessionalism but influenced by herpersonal af- fectionforheralmamaterPublicityincludingthe web site (http://www.centennial.sbc.edu/coun- cil/alum_symposiuml.html) has been handled under the expert guidance of Betty van lersel, Dave Blount, and GregMoody LiketheCollege itself, the exhibition, Ralph Adams Cram and SweetBnarCollege:DreamsandRealits', A Cen- tennial Exhibition has been a labor of love by manyindividuals,thosewhosenamesare men- tioned and manyotherunsungheroines. AileenH.Laing ProfessorHistoiyofArt RebeccaMassieIjine DirectorofCcjilegeGalleries LlBR.ARI ^WEET DRIAR COLLEGE AOD HALm ADAHS CRAH: DREAHS AHD REnLITT A Sweet Briar College Centennial Exhibition AileenH.Laing ProfessorofHistoryofArt,SweetBriarCollege existtodayonlyintheformofillustrationsinvar- professional attention by an archivist before iniRODucTion ious architectural publications of the first two moreofthem disappear. It isourhope that this decadesofthetwentiethcentury'andverbalde- exhibition will spur further interest in Cram's exhibition of the architectural proj- scriptions in the local newspapers. Some were work at Sweet Briarand that material will con- The ects, both built and unbuilt, thtit Ralph lostwhen lenttothecelebrationofJamestown's tinuetosurfaceforfuturescholarstouse.In 1911 AdamsCramcreated forSweetBriarCol- Tricentennialin 1907. Othersseemtohavesim- Cram said, "In Virginia...we are slowly con- lege,ispartoftheyear-longcelebrationof plydisappeared. structingagreatcollegeforwomen...:"onehun- the Colleges centennial. Tine exhibition A.search forwritten material to support the dredyears from nowwill we be able tosaywe willbeonviewfromSeptembertoDecemberof visualwasalsonoteasilyobtained,butthemin- havepreservedthewrittenandvisualrecordsof 2001 but itsgestationbegansixyearsago. Only utesoftheBoardofDirectorsrecordedtheeariy this"greatcollege"forthe future? recently has the artistic importance of Sweet yearsoftheCollege insuch rich detail that the Briar's architectural heritage been acknowl- approachthefollowingessaymusttakebecame edged, and records, both written and visual, obvious.They dictated an architectural histoiy ...a part ofourphilosophy ofart was weredifficultto unearth. oftheCollegeduringtheyearsthatRalphAdams that the old and eternal things, of A foray to the Boston Public Library where Cram was the designing architect. After a per- which education was as much one as most of Cram's archives have been housed sistentsearchforotherearlyrecords,awealthof yieldedarichtroveofdrawings:plotplans,floor correspondence between Cram and Sweet was the Church, simply had, by their plans,andelevations,butfewpresentationdraw- Briar's third president, Meta Glass, was un- very nature, to preserve the sense of ings.Thesemoreartisticviewsweredesignedto earthed in the basement of Cochran Library impress a client in contrast to the more func- Various pieces of information came to light in continuity and show in its very forms tionalonesusedfortheactualconstruction.The other parts of the Library but many records not only its close linking up with the plansandelevationsintheCramarchivesareink have been lost or are still hidden from the on linen and were the basis on which blue scholar'sview. past but its high place above whim printsweremadetobeusedbytheconstruction SweetBriarisatreasureworthyoftherestora- and changing fashion. crews. Presentation drawingsintheSweetBriar tionthatherbuildingsareundergoingaspartof — CollegeArtCollectionareallfromthe 1920sand thecentennialcelebration.Herwrittenandpho- RalphAdamsCram, laterThose from the earlyyearsofthe College tographicrecordscryoutforthesameloving,yet "Have I a Philosophy of Design?" PencilPoirjts (1932) 7 ;^ Plate1Bl(icKPlan 8