Exhibitions at The Research Libraries

Order and Disorder: Architectural Transitions in Prints and Photographs

From January 30, 1999 through April 3, 1999
Print Gallery (Third Floor) and Stokes Gallery (Third Floor)
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788 (directions)

The rubble of buildings destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake and gleaming skyscrapers under construction are among the subject matter of over 150 prints and photographs in this exhibition documenting architectural transition.

The prints in the exhibition date from the early 20th century and depict the construction of homes and office buildings, and the destruction of older edifices. Gottlob Briem's etching illustrates a towering portion of the George Washington Bridge as it stretches upward during construction. A work by Muirhead Bone shows a massive excavation in Manhattan during the 1920s.

The photography half of the show includes such diverse images as Walker Evans's documentation of a decaying antebellum plantation and J. W. Wulff jeune's shots of Parisian ruins in the 1870s. Also on view are photos documenting the construction of The New York Public Library's monumental Beaux-Arts building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in the 1900s and the new library stacks built some 80 years later underneath Bryant Park.

Press Release

Exhibition Brochure (PDF - 6.2 MB)