YEAR DESCRIPTION ST# DOCUMENTS
Frank Lloyd Wright / D. D. Martin / Francis W. Little Loan Papers 1) Frank Lloyd Wright, The Lost Years, 1910-1922. Page 72-73 including footnotes, Anthony Alofsin, 1988. Sub-chapter "Darwin Marin and Finances" goes into detail about these specific loans and his support of Frank Lloyd Wright. 2) Frank Lloyd Wright: A Visual Encyclopedia. Page 208, Iain Thomson, 1999. Francis W. Little was a client and dedicated collector of Japanese prints. Mr. Wright borrowed $10,000 from Little to buy the American rights to the Wasmuth Portfolios. Little held a portfolio of Wright's Japanese prints as collateral. 3) For additional information on these loans see Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography, Page 207-8. Meryle Secrest. 1992. 1911 1) March 10, 1911. This is a demand of payment by the Security National Bank of Minneapolis, of a Promissory note for $4,000 by Frank Lloyd Wright "Maker of said note". Evidently D. D. Martin and Francis W. Little guaranteed the loan, because their names are listed on this notarized collection notice. 1911.00.0501 1911 2) March 18, 1911. A check in the amount of $4,068.72 written by Francis W Little to "Myself", and given to D. D. Martin. This check satisfied the "demand for payment" (#1) shown above. This amount is the first entry on the 4/15/15 note shown below (#3). On the back of this check is written "Pay to the Order of The Security National Bank...", which is shown above. This check is signed and endorsed by Francis W Little's signature. 1911.01.0501 1915 3) April 15, 1915 Summary of debt (Page 1). These two pages summarize the amount owed D. D. Martin. Frank Lloyd Wright to D. D. Martin, Dr. is written at the top with the date 4/15/15. Page 1 includes two loans. The first is in the amount of $24,435.49 including payments and interest incurred from March 20, 1911 through July 1, 1915. This includes two payments to Peabody, Houghtaling & Co. for a total of $6,000 and also a payment to Catherine Wright on Nov. 14, 1911 in the amount of $2,000. The second is a note dated May 1, 1912 in the amount of $4,760.00 including interest incurred from May 1, 1913 through July 1, 1915. 1915.00.0501 1915 4) April 15, 1915 Summary of debt (Page 2). Page 2 includes one more loan dated Nov. 15, 1910 in the amount of $2,500.00 (due six-months from date) including interest incurred from Nov 15, 1910 through July 1, 1915. There is a payment of Japanese Prints which leaves a balance of $1,724.40. There is a total balance owed on July 1, 1915 of $30,919.89 when you add up all three loans. This would indicate Little's ongoing support for Frank Lloyd Wright. There is a note on the back of page 2: "Papers in 4,000 loan on notes secured by Jap. prints." 1915.01.0501 1918 6) Notes for Loan #2. Interest owed on $4,000 from 5/1/13 to 2/21/18 in the amount of $1,395.29. 1918.01.0501 1918 7) Notes for Loan #3. Interest owed on $2,500 from 8/16/11 to 2/21/18 in the amount of $644.62. 1918.00.0501 1922 5) Notes for Loan #1 to D. D. Martin. Interest owed on $4,000 from 5/1/12 to 11/1/22 in the amount of $2,520 and interest owed on $1750 from 11/15/10 to 11/15/22 in the amount of $1260. 1922.00.0501 1912 1912 Negative: "The Larkin Factories. The Home of Larkin Idea. From Little Beginnings to Present Immensity." 8 x 10 duplicate negative of page 18-19, from “The home of The Larkin Idea”. (S#111.01) Negative is a duplicate, a seam is visible. Negative shows the entire Larkin Co complex. Same basic illustration as Larkin Co. Letterhead 1917 and Two Postcards (1908 & 1910).
0111.02.0404 Midway Gardens Correspondence (Fifteen Items, 21 sheets)
These documents are discussed in “Frank Lloyd Wright, A Biography by Finis Farr” 1961, Pp 151-7; “Prairie School Review” Fourth Quarter 1965, Pp 5-20.1914 1) Vintage carbon of request for remittance from Alfonso Iannelli’s “Secretary” to E. C. Waller, Jr. who commissioned Midway Gardens, dated August 5, 1914.
“Mr. Iannelli requested me to write you regarding the remittance of $400.00 you had agreed to send him some days ago.” 8.5 x 11.0124.04.0407 1914 2) Vintage carbon of second request for remittance from Alfonso Iannelli to E. C. Waller, Jr. dated August 17, 1914.
“I have had no word from you in response to my letter of August 5th, asking that the long-promised remittance of $400.00 be sent me at once, as I was very much in need of the money.” 8.5 x 11.0124.05.0407 1914 3) Unrelated, but included with the group of documents. Vintage carbon of letter from Alfonso Iannelli to John Lloyd Wright regarding Workingmann's Hotel sculptures, dated October 31, 1914. 8.5 x 11. 0124.06.0407 1914 4) Vintage carbon from Alfonso Iannelli to Harry F. Robinson (assistant to Frank Lloyd Wright) requesting "first cash payment", dated November 5, 1914.
“According to the agreement in the Midway Gardens Matter signed by Mr Iannelli, the first cash payment is due today, and we trust you will not overlook us. The total amount dew us, (according to your letter of Oct. 14th) is $350, and we shall be more than glad to receive a payment on account.” 8.5 x 11.0124.07.0407 1915 5) Original Taliesin envelope with embossed red square addressed to Alfonso Iannelli from FLW(?), postmarked Chicago - January 21, 1915. Possibly included in this group of documents because it was the envelope in which payment was received, kept as a reminder that payment was received. (Note - Watermark: “Crane’s 1914 Japanese Linen”) 8.75 x 4.4. 0128.03.0407 1915 6) Vintage typescript of an original handwritten letter from Frank Lloyd Wright to Alfonso Iannelli regarding a dispute over credit for the sculptures, dated May 17, 1915. In the May 1915 issue of “The International Studio” page 79-83, the caption under the photographs of Sprites reads “Sprites, Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Executed by A. Jannelli”. The caption under the photograph of a mural reads “Designed and Executed by John Lloyd Wright”. In an earlier correspondence, Iannelli must have questioned the “mistake” in the caption. Wright responds by saying “The mistake was regarding John’s ‘designing’ the mural when he only put it on the wall, and neither of us knows how it happened to be printed as it was.”.
Wright defines “design”: “I think I will never have anyone working on my work where I do not give the idea and fashion the style of the work to my own feeling. I suppose this is designing it.” He goes on with a conciliatory attitude, attempting to smooth things: “But still there is something more left than executing it for painter and sculpture. I do not know what would be fair.
Perhaps you can suggest something.” In his defense, Wright says: “I shall never put myself in any position where I take to myself any credit for work not mine. So far the credits have all been going the other way and I intend to keep them going that way.”
But then Wright questions Iannelli’s integrity: “You know the disposition of the human animal is to inch in these matters and intellectual integrity among artists, when it comes to acknowledging their share in another’s work, is generally a figment of the optimistic brain. I hope you are not one of the type. I believe I have never yet “picked” another’s brains to my own advantage.” Wright finally ends on a conciliatory note: “With anticipation of pleasant times to come...”. 8.5 x 11.0128.04.0407 1915 7) Vintage carbon of the second page of the response from Alfonso Iannelli to Frank Lloyd Wright. This letter is reprinted in part in “Frank Lloyd Wright, A Biography by Finis Farr” 1961, Pp 152-4.
In 1915, Iannelli would have been 27, Wright 46. Wright was much more established then Iannelli. Iannelli begins be saying “First - my profound respect for you as a great architect, and one to whom I owe much of my point of view, which to me is invaluable and beyond words of expression, and which I hope I shall not lose sight of in my analysis of this situation.” He argues that while Wright conceptualized the figures “... you suggested the idea of the geometric forms to be used in these groups. I designed these groups in pencil and showed them to you and you approved of them, and they were carried through hardly without a change.”
His solution is “... Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect - A. Iannelli, Sculpture...” “The one thing which is hard for me to understand, is that you above all others, should allow such a mistake or such a misunderstanding of the actual condition; and the part which hurts me the most is the terrible blow to my conception of you as a man, if this is true.”0128.05.0407 1915
8) Five B&W photographs of Frank Lloyd Wright's original letter and envelope to Alfonso Iannelli with thumbnail sketches of Midway Garden figures, postmarked May 26, 1915. This is one of the most revealing exchanges between a great architect and a brilliant sculptor. The "Sprites" for Midway Gardens are among the earliest cubist-constuctivist sculptures in the U.S., predating or coinciding with the Amory Show, which traveled from New York to Chicago in 1913.
Wright begins “...but my work went a little further than you now imagine or suggest. ...it was my suggestion and a thing I have tried to do many times before and long ago - a desire intensified by my visit to Metzner - a desire I worked at with Bock as he knows - a desire which is imperfectly attained in the present figures - an old motif of mine which I suggested to you and helped you by criticism to realize upon - to a certain extent. I am not satisfied yet with that ‘extent’. In these cases, I understand the nature of creative impulses, these works were certainly ‘designed’ by me - they were more than executed by you.” In Wright’s thinking as an architect, the analogy might be that he designs the house or structure, then the draftsman and engineers create the blue prints, and the contractor builds the building. But the design and concept is the architects.
Wright explains it this way, “I would have arrived at something just the same so far as ‘designs’ went had you remained in Los Angeles, but not so sympathetic in detail or so successful in expression. The ‘ideas’ I repeat are mine - their ‘expression’ yours. I think these are the facts. Beethoven wrote the piece we’ll say - Paderewski played it.
Wright comes to the same conclusion that Iannelli first suggested, “I think that Wright, Architect- Iannelli, Sculptor - is the nearest to a solution.”
Note: Iannelli’s response to Wright is printed on pages 154-6 “Frank Lloyd Wright, A Biography by Finis Farr” 1961. According to Farr, page 157, Wright does not respond and Iannelli lets the matter drop. “Needless to say Wright never again offered to collaborate with Alfonso Iannelli.” 8.5 x 8.5.0128.06.0407 1915
9) Original typescript of the above letter (#8) dated May 26, 1915. Two sheets 8.5 x 11. 0128.07.0407 1960 10) Vintage carbon of letter from Alfonso Iannelli to John Lloyd Wright relating to the discussions Iannelli had with his father in the letters above numbers 6 (May 17, 1915), 7, 8 & 9 (May 26, 1915), dated November 15, 1960.
“Did you see the article which appears in the Architectural Record, October 1960, on your father’s work and the references to my part on the Midway Gardens? It seems that a similar one appeared in the Horizon Magazine September, 1960. Barry called it to my attention and thought it would be well for us to advise these publications on the corrections to be made. Coming from us - what do you think?” After 45 years, Iannelli is still bothered by not receiving what he feels is credit for the work he did on the Midway Garden sprites. 8.5 x 8.5.1458.21.0407 1960
11) Two page vintage carbon of letter from Alfonso Iannelli to James Marston Fitch, Associate Professor of Architecture, Columbia University, concerning the article he wrote in Horizon Magazine, September, 1960. Once again regarding Midway Gardens and the credit of the sculptures), dated November 22, 1960.
“This matter of who contributed what, was the subject of four or five letters between Mr. Wright and me immediately after the first publication of article on the Midway Gardens in “The International Studio” issue May 1915. ‘Designed by F.L. Wright - Executed by A. Ianelli.’ ...Wright states ‘I think that Wright - Architect, Iannelli - Sculptor, is nearest to a solution. I should have put is so, were it left to me.” Two sheets. 8.5 x 11.1458.22.0407 1960 12) Iannelli Studios envelope that contained this set of original letters. (Circa 1960) 11.75 x 8.8. 1458.23.0407 1961 14) Vintage carbon of letter from Alfonso Iannelli to historian James Marston Fitch, dated April 25, 1961, one day after the exhibition started. “Enclosed is catalogue of the exhibit on the Midway Gardens.” His endeavor to bolster his position. 8.5 x 11. 1526.09.0407 1955 15) Photocopy of article on Dawn Manor, site of Midway Garden Sprites. (Circa 1955) “Around Dawn Manor cluster many memories of Mrs. Raab’s good friend, Frank Lloyd Wright. Among the flowers beside the drive stand five statues of laughing girls. These charming figures were cast in cement by Mr. Wright, the first person ever to sculpture in cement. They are of his daughter-in-law, and twelve of them were originally made for decorations in Midway Gardens of Chicago. Later they were purchased by Mrs. Raab, who gave half of them to Mr. Wright for his Theater at Taliesin.” 8.5 x 11. 1092.16.0407 1928 1928 Wedding announcement of Frank Lloyd Wright and Olgivanna Wright, at Rancho Santa Fe, California, 25 August 1928. “Iovanna. Married, August 25, Rancho Santa Fe, California. Olga Ivanovna, Daughter of Ivan Lazovich and Militza Milan of Gettinje Montenegro, To Frank Lloyd Wright, Son of Anna Lloyd-Jones and William Cary Wright, Taliesin, Wisconsin, 1928.”
Designed and calligraphed by Wright, then photographically printed on vellum or rice paper and laminated to buff-colored card stock. A portrait of their daughter Iovanna Wright at upper left; one portion hand-colored in red (4.5 x 5.5"). Olga and Frank were married on August 25, 1928 at midnight in Rancho Santa Fe near La Jolla. The ceremony was held one year to the day after Wright’s divorce from Miriam Noel Wright, and almost three years after his and Olgivanna’s daughter (shown in the hexagonal portrait) was born out of wedlock. They honeymooned in Phoenix, Arizona at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel.
A book was purchased from the daughter of the Melvyn Maxwell Smith Residence (S.287 1946) designed by Wright in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The invitation was in the book.
Published in “Many Masks” Gill, 1987, page 301; “Frank Lloyd Wright A Biography” Secrest 1992, page 321; “Frank Lloyd Wright, The Interactive Portfolio” Stipe 2004, page 49 (Facsimile in sleeve).0215.01.1106 1950 1950 Transcript: "Beauty". Frank Lloyd Wright. Original vintage typescript for an address read to the Taliesin Fellowship following a Sunday Breakfast, June 11, 1950 (taken from notes jotted down the preceding evening). Two Pages. Authenticity Kelmscott Gallery. Purchased from the William Wesley Peters estate. This was published in Frank Lloyd Wright: Collected Writings, Volume 5, page 23. 0800.01.0404 Blumberg Correspondence - 3 letters, Contract, 6 photos
Correspondence for project never completed. Includes 3 letters dated May 2, Sept 20 and Oct 4, 1955. The 3rd signed by Wright. Also includes a contract dated September 20 and six photos of the plans and drawings. The conclusion is that negotiations fell apart, as Mr. Wright says "I guess I am to blame".1955 1955 Blumberg Correspondence - Letter dated May 2nd, 1955. In response to Mel Blumberg, inviting him to Spring Green. Signed by Eugene Masselink. On Taliesin Letterhead, includes envelope with Phoenix Postmark . 1955.01.0303 1955 Blumberg Correspondence - Letter dated September 20th, 1955. In response to Mel Blumberg, "...happy to hear your enthusiastic reaction to your sketches. We shall expect to see you here on the afternoon of October 1st". Signed by Eugene Masselink. On Taliesin Letterhead, includes envelope with Madison Postmark. 1955.02.0303 1955 Blumberg Correspondence - Contract dated September 20th, 1955. 5% of $25,000.00, proposed cost of house... $1,250.00. 1955.03.0303 1955 Blumberg Correspondence - Letter dated October 4th, 1955. In response to Mel Blumberg, Sometime between receipt of the letter dated September 20th and this letter from Mr. Wright, negotiations broke down. "Dear Blumberg: I guess I am to blame. I remember telling you that the only thing we could do for you was the "one room" (so-called) Usonian Automatic which we can show you if you come to see it." Signed by Frank Lloyd Wright. On Taliesin Letterhead, includes envelope with Madison Postmark. 1955.04.0303 1955 Blumberg Correspondence - Three 3x5 photos of the drawing of the home. Poor quality photos. Early Polacolor (Polaroid). From what I can tell, it looks like a concrete block home, very similar to the Kalil residence built in Manchester, New Hampshire, 1955. (S.387, T.5506) 1955.05.0303 1955.06.0303 1955.07.0303 1955 Blumberg Correspondence - Three 3x5 photos of the plan of the home. Poor quality photos. Early Polacolor (Polaroid). 1955.08.0303 1955.09.0303 1955.10.0303 1956 1956 Imperial Hotel Receipt - 6/20/1956 (6 x 7) 1956.00.0904 1958 1958 Original Specification: Church for the Milwaukee Hellenic Community. Frank Lloyd Wright. Original specs and drawings for the church. Cover is in pencil, drawn by Eugene Masslink. Pencil and pen changes and additions throughout. Drawings in pencil. All pages are typed or drawn on vellum. This allows blue print copies to be produced from originals. Pp 158. Authenticity Prairie Avenue Bookstore. 1221.03.0902 1958 Frank Lloyd Wright Will. Copy of Frank Lloyd Wright's 1958 last will and testament. Heavily annotated by Frank Lloyd Wright. This was a single copy from the original, from the files of Kelmscott Gallery, Chicago. Dated 25 April, 1958. Filed May 19, 1959. Pp 4.
1259.09.0305 1958 Imperial Hotel Christmas Card. Front: Metal etched or stamped plate, hand tinted or plated (4.5 x 3), mounted to a decorative cloth backing (7 x 5). Text printed on Rice paper. Framed (7.5 x 5.5). Text on back: “With Best Wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.” T. Inumara, President. Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, Japan. 1958-1959. 1377.24.0406
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