Edward George Kilburn Photographs

In 2001 a collection of photographs was discovered in the Architecture Branch Library, University of Melbourne, by the librarian, John Maidment, still wrapped in newspapers dating from 1934. They had been the property of the architect Edward George Kilburn (1859-1894), and were probably given to the Faculty of Architecture by Doris Kilburn in about 1960. Although there are European photographs in the collection, the most interesting are those from the United States - a conspectus of what an Australian saw as cutting edge American architecture in 1889.

E G Kilburn was born in Tasmania, but attended Scotch College in Melbourne. He returned to Tasmania and was appointed chief draftsman to Henry Hunter of Hobart in 1882, then in January 1885 entered partnership with the Melbourne architect W H Ellerker. Ellerker, who had been a relatively conservative architect, entered politics, and took thirteen month trip to Europe and the United States. It seems that he had substantially withdrawn from the practice, and that the office was effectively conducted by Kilburn. Kilburn was already an enthusiast for American architecture, and the house 'Coornor', Kew, of 1888, though described by a contemporary as 'German Gothic', seems closely related to Richard Morris Hunt's 'Linden Gate', Newport, Rhode Island, of 1873.

In December 1889 Kilburn returned from a nine months tour of Europe and America, and after his return the firm produced two full blown American Romanesque designs in competitions for the Commercial Bank of Australia headquarters in Melbourne, and the Broken Hill Municipal Buildings, New South Wales. Neither of those was built, but the more modest 'Priory' school in St Kilda was begun in the same year, and was the first thoroughgoing example of the American Romanesque in Australia.

At the end of 1890 the partnership dissolved, and Kilburn entered sole practice. His T B Guest house, 'Cestria', in Hawthorn, was another of the earliest local examples of the American Romanesque, and another building at 64 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne in 1892 was reported to be 'both inside & out ... in the Romanesque style with very original treatment quite unlike anything seen in Melbourne'. Kilburn died in April 1894 of typhoid fever, aged 34, and was recorded in the minutes of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects as 'undoubtedly one of the leading Artists of the Profession in our Colony.'

It can be seen that Kilburn's visit to the United States had a major effect in introducing current United States architecture to Australia. The photographs which Kilburn brought back from his trip are interesting not only for that reason, but because in a more general sense they illustrate what was seen as being the most interesting current work in that country, doubtless in the eyes not just of Kilburn himself, but of those Americans whom he consulted. Although Kilburn was himself a competent photographer, most or all of these photos seem to have been acquired from commercial sources, principally J W Taylor of Chicago, and there seem to be few identical photographs held in the USA. However Mary Woolever of the Ryerson Institute reports having found at least four prints of Chicago interiors 'like' those in this collection, amongst a box of unidentified Taylor photographs held at the Institute which she planned [2002] to investigate more fully.

Only a few of the illustrations bear the photographer's own identification, but almost all have been annotated in pencil, presumably by Kilburn. Sometimes this annotation is rudimentary - such as merely 'Chicago' - sometimes it is incorrect, and sometimes names are misspelt. An attempt is made below to correctly identify as many as possible, but it is hoped that scholars involved in the field may be willing to provide more information.

Most of Taylor's, and some others, have their own numbering system, but all have also been numbered in pencil by Kilburn in six sequences ('K no' column), so that any one of the sequences may contain the work of more than one photographer. The photo details in the following table are generally what was printed on or under the image by the photographer, whilst the inscriptions are manuscript additions presumed to be by Kilburn. The photo is described under 'content', and the identification is based upon these details plus any text which may be referred to.

I would be very grateful to receive any corrections, or new identifications of the photographs, accompanied by documentary references.

Miles Lewis

Please seek permission from Miles Lewis before using images.

Photograph No.

Location

Baltimore

Hutzler Brothers building

Berkeley, California

Berkely State University Library

Chicago

23rd St & Michigan Ave, [?] Cudahy house, remodelled as a hotel by Burling & Whitehouse

East 111th St & South Cottage Grove, Pullman Administration Building, by S S Beman, 1880

105-107 Adams St, Kinsley Building, by F L Charnley (or Charnley & Clay), 1885

Drexel Ave, [?] Martin Ryerson house, by Treat & Foltz

40 East Erie St, [?] Nickerson house, by Burling & Whitehouse 1883

11111 S Forrestville Ave, Hotel Florence, by SS Beman 1881

110-114 Jackson St, Union League Club by W L B Jenney, 1887

La Salle & Adams Sts, Home Insurance Building, by W L B Jenney 1892

209 South La Salle St, The Rookery, by Burnham & Root, 1885-6

Lake Shore Dr & Banks St

Lake Shore Dr & Bellevue Pl, [?] Jones/General Torrance / Rockefeller-McCormick house, by S S Beman

1234 Lake Shore Dr, [?] Robert Todd Lincoln house, by S S Beman

Michigan Ave, [?] Charles Libby house, by Treat & Foltz

200 South Michigan Ave: Pullman Building [offices], by S S Beman 1884

17 East Monroe St, Palmer House, by J M Van Osdel & C W Palmer

Pearson St, [?] C B Farrell house by Treat & Foltz 1882

Prairie Ave, [?] George Armour house, by by Treat & Foltz

1801 Prairie Ave, 1887, [?] W W Kimball house, by S S Beman

Unlocated Chicago

ballroom, 'R[..]sleys Ballroom

commercial building, 1888

domestic entries and porches

domestic entries and porches by Burnham & Root

domestic entries and porches by Wilson & Marble

domestic entrance and stair halls

domestic entrance and stair halls by [?] A B Mullett & Co

domestic interiors

residential buildings: by Cobb & Frost

[?] Chamber of Commerce, by Bauman & Huehl, 1888-9

Gunther's, by [?] William A Bates

Kinsley's restaurant

Lambert Tree house, by Peabody & Stearns, 1883-4

J J O'Brien Store

Olympic Club Gymnasium

House by Cobb & Frost

St Cloud Dining Room, by Adler & Sullivan

House by Silsbee, before 1885

Union League Club

M D Wells house, by Wheelock & Clay, c 1889

Wills house, by [?] W W Clay

Honolulu

Hartford, Connecticut

State House

Indianapolis

State Capitol, by Edwin May

Union Depôt

Kansas City, Missouri

[?] four storey commercial block

Lake Forest, Illinois

Blair Lodge

Malden, Massachusetts

Converse Memorial library, by H H Richardson, from 1884   

Milwaukee

Michaud Block: 1885

Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul Railroad Depot, Michigan Ave, by E T Mix, 1886   

Minneapolis

Boston Block, by L S Buffington, 1881-6

 Lumber Exchange, by Long & Kees

West Hotel, by L S Buffington  

Unlocated Minneapolis

[?] hotel  

New Orleans

Cotton Exchange   

New York

7th Regiment Headquarters: 54[?] New York Life building

Mills Building, by G B Post, 1881-3   

Newport, Rhode Island

Goelet Cottage   

Ohio

commercial building, [?] by W W Clay   

Omaha, Nebraska

[?] four storey commercial block

Douglas County Courthouse   

Philadelphia

First Unitarian Church, by Frank Furness, 1883-6   

Pittsburgh

Allegheny County Buildings, by H H Richardson, 1883-8   

Ravenswood, Illinois

All Saints Episcopal church by J C Cochran 1883   

St Louis

[?] St Louis Club clubhouse, by Peabody & Stearns, 1886-7   

St Paul, Minnesota

Casey Block, [?] by Clarence Johnston  

Unlocated St Paul, Minnesota

building by [?] John J Flanders   

San Diego, California

Hotel del Coronado, by Reid & Reid   

San Francisco

Montgomerie St, Diamond Palace

Geary & Dupont Sts, Maison Riché  

UnlocatedSan Francisco

Palace Hotel   

Unidentified

church tower

interior of [?] legislative chamber

exterior of [?] legislative building

[?] school

three storey commercial blocks

Photograph No.

74

104

[?] 20

14, 28-31, 32-37, 81, 87

[?] 20, 48

15

Treat & Foltz [Samuel Atwater Treat (1839-1910) & Frederick [Fritz] L Foltz (1843-1916)] [Witheys, pp 213-4, 273-4, 605-6].

John Mills Van Osdel (1811-1891) [Condit, Rise of the Skyscraper, p 206; Randall, pp 23-6; Witheys, pp 616-7]

Wheelock & Clay [Otis Leonard Wheelock (1816-c1886) & William Wilson Clay (1849-1926)] [Condit, Rise of the Skyscraper, pp 63, 113; Randall, p 362; Witheys pp 125, 168] 

Wilson & Marble [Horatio R Wilson (1857-1917) & Oliver W Marble] [Randall gives Wilson's birth date as 1858] [Randall, p 377; Witheys pp 392, 663]

F L Charnley OR Charnley & Clay [William Clay] [Lowe, p 188]

Cobb & Frost [Henry Ives Cobb (1859-1931) & Charles Sumner Frost (1856-1931)] [Witheys, pp 128-9, 224]. [Condit, Rise of the Skyscraper,p 80]

John C Cochran (1835-1887) [Witheys, p 130] For his Lake County Court House, Indiana, see www.crownpoint.net/courthouse.htm

John J Flanders (1847-1914) St Paul, Minnesota [Witheys, p 213]

Frank Furness (1839-1912) Philadelphia [Witheys, pp 226-7; Morrison, passim]

William le Baron Jenney (1832-1907) Chicago [Randall, pp 27-8 & passim; Witheys, pp 324-5; Condit, 'Jenney'; Turak, William Le Baron Jenney]

Clarence H Johnston (1859-1936) [Witheys, p 326]. 

Long & Kees [Franklin B Long (1842-1913) & Frederick Kees (1852- [?])] [Smith, Plains States and Far West,p 379]

Edwin May (1824-1880) [Witheys, p 401].

Mix, Edward Townsend

A B Mullet & Company [partnership from 1880 to 1890 of Alfred B Mullett (1834-1890) & his sons Thomas A Mullett (1862-1935) and Frederick M Mullett (d 1924)] [Witheys, pp 432-3] [Lewis & Morgan, p 142. See generally Lawrence Wodehouse, 'Alfred B. Mullett and his French Style Government Buildings', Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians,XXXIXI (March 1972), pp 23-7].

Charles W Palmer (1848-1927) [Bach & Wolfson, p 44, refer to C M Palmer] [Witheys, p 453].

Peabody & Stearns [partnership 1870-1917 of Robert Swain Peabody (1845-1917) & John Goddard Stearns (1843-1917] [Witheys pp 462-3, 568].

George Browne Post (1837-1913) [Witheys, pp 482-4; Weisman, passim]

Reid & Reid [partnership 1889-1932 of James M Reid (1851-1943) & Merritt J Reid (d 1932)] [Witheys, p 500].

Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886) [Van Rensselaer, passim; Witheys, pp 508-510]

Joseph Lyman Silsbee (1845-1913) [Witheys give his forename as James; Randall gives the birth date as 1848]. [Witheys, pp 554-6; Scully, Shingle Style, pp 86n, 158; Lewis & Morgan, p 151; Jordy, p 70; Gilbert, passim; Randall p 374]

Architect

Adler & Sullivan [Dankmar Adler (1844-1900) & Louis Henri Sullivan (1856-1924)] 

William A Bates (1853-1922)

Baumann & Huehl [Edward Baumann (1828-1929) and Harris W Huehl (1862-1919)] [Condit, Rise of the Skyscraper, p 133; Randall, pp 49, 308 &c]

Solon Spencer Beman (1853-1914) [Witheys, pp 49-50; Jordy, p 70; Randall, p 360]

Leroy Sunderland Buffington (1847-1931) [Witheys, pp 49-50].

Burling & Whitehouse [Edward Burling [1819-1892] & Francis M Whitehouse (1848-1938)] [Condit, Rise of the Skyscraper,pp 40, 206, 217; see also Witheys, pp 96, 653-4; Randall p 361].

Burnham & Root [partnership from 1873 to 1891 of Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846-1912) & John Wellborn Root (1850-1892) [Witheys, pp 96-8, 525-6]; Randall, p 30; [Witheys p 125]. [Condit, Rise of the Skyscraper,pp 63, 113]

Wilson & Marble [Horatio R Wilson (1857-1917) & Oliver W Marble] [Randall gives Wilson's birth date as 1858] [Randall, p 377; Witheys pp 392, 663]

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Please seek permission from Miles Lewis before using images

Faber Photo, San Francisco X

Runnels & Stateler, San Francisco The printed reverse has two sides of an exhibition medal, and between: 'Highest Award at Mechanics' Fair, 1886. / Runnels & Stateler, the leading / Photographic View Artists / No. 957 Market Street, / San Francisco, Cal.' / Negatives preserved. Copies of this view can be obtained at any time. / Parties wishing views made will receive prompt attention by sending order by mail.'

  • J.W. Taylor, Chicago

  • 146 La Salle St, Chicago

  • 161 Monroe St, Chicago [later]

Taylor sold photos of buildings in a number of cities, which means that Ellerker may have bought the pictures without ever visiting the buildings. The numbers appearing on the image, as opposed to those of Faber and of Runnels & Stateler, which appear on a title strip, are probably those of Taylor, whether or not his name or initials appear. The image of Kinsley's Restaurant no 69, is not the same one as appears in Lowe, p 188, but it bears the same number '1486', suggesting that Lowe's image is also by Taylor, and that he replaced an existing view with a better one, maintaining its place in his sequence. Mounts with double red line and square knot at the corners are used in Taylor's Chicago photos as well as others, including views of Honolulu - therefore they were probably mounted on Ellerker's instructions either in Melbourne or in Chicago, but are not attributable to any one photographer.

The following information on Taylor is condensed, with permission, from CW Taylor & Jeffrey Plank, The Early Louis Sullivan Building Photographs (San Francisco 2001), Appendix A.According to David Brodherson, Taylor was born in Chicago in 1846 and also worked as a publisher and travel agent in the 1870s. He appears in Chicago city directories in the late 1870s as proprietor of an architectural supply and bookshop, later expanded to include photographic plates and supplies. In the 1885 and 1886 directories he appears as a photographer. His first attributed photographs were reproduced in the Inland Architect in 1883.In 1884 Taylor published a portfolio of residential interior photographs, Architectural Photographic Series, Chicago Dwelling-House Interiors, Twenty-Six Views in Portfolio, which was reviewed in the American Architect and Building News.

This review, the only early professional commentary on Taylor's photographs, recognises both his distinctive talent and the technical challenges associated with photographing interiors. After remarking on the social significance of the decoration of American homes, the reviewer noted that the 'photographs themselves are very excellent specimens of interior views - almost the most difficult achievement of the photographer's art; but it would do no harm for the photographer to change his lens, and hereafter use one which will sharply define the whole field of the picture, for in many of these views the distortion and uncertainty on the confines of the print are very annoying.'Taylor produced at last one additional monograph, but in 1885 he began to advertise single photographs and sets of photographs in the Inland Architect.

These advertisements trace the growth of Taylor's architectural photographic archive from 200 images to 1000 in 1886 to more than 2000 in 1999 and six thousand at the turn of the century. His first advertisements read: 'Photographs / of / residences, interiors, stores, details, etc. / Will send you 200 subjects if you promise to select two / dozen at $6.00 per dozen. / J. W. Taylor. / No. 146 La Salle Street, Chicago, Ill.'Taylor photographed Graceland Cemetery as it was being constructed. He also photographed early Frank Lloyd Wright houses, and he remained active until the mid 1910s. In the early 1920s, William T. Barnum acquired Taylor's negatives Taylor is not listed in Chicago city directories after 1923. According to the International Guide to 19th-Century Photographers and their Work, Taylor died in 1918.

I S Bach & Susan Wolfson, Chicago on Foot(4th ed, Chicago 1987)

Peter Barrett, 'Building through the Golden Gate: Architectural Influences from Trans-Pacific Migration between Australia and California 1849-1914' (Master of Planning & Design, University of Melbourne 2001).

Robert Bruegmann et al, A Guide to 150 Years of Chicago Architecture(1st ed, Chicago, no date).

C W Condit, The Rise of the Skyscraper (Chicago 1952).

C W Condit, 'William Le Baron Jenney', in Placzek, Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, II, pp 494-6.

M H Floyd & Wheaton Holden, 'Peabody & Stearns', in Placzek, Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects ,III, pp 380-382.

Elsa Gilbert, 'J. Lyman Silsbee', in Placzek, Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, IV, pp 59-60.

John Gurda, The Making of Milwaukee(Milwaukee 1999) [not sighted, ref Szczesny-Adams].

W H Jordy, Progressive and Academic Ideals at the turn of the Twentieth Century [American Buildings and their Architects,IV] (New York 1986 [1972]).

Arnold Lewis & Keith Morgan [eds], American Victorian Architecture: a Survey of the 70's and 80's in Contemporary Photographs(New York 1975 [originally l'Architecture Americaine (Paris 1886)]).

David Lowe, Lost Chicago(Boston 1978).

W D Moore, Masonic Temples, Freemasonry, Ritual Architecture, and Masculine Archetypes (University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville [Tennessee] 2006), p 81.

A G Morrison, 'Frank Furness', in Placzek, Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, III, pp 127-130.

S M Paddock & Arthur Miller, Lake Forest: Estates, People, and Culture (Chicago 2001 [2000]) [not sighted].

A K Placzek [ed], Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects(4 vols, New York 1982).

F A Randall, History of the Development of Building Construction in Chicago (Urbana [Illinois] 1949).

Vincent Scully, The Shingle Style and the Stick Style(revised ed, New Haven [Connecticut] 1971 [1955]).

Alice Sinkevitch [ed], AIA Guide to Chicago(New York 1993).

G E K Smith, The Architecture of the United States. 3. The Plains States and Far West(New York 1981).

Crombie Taylor and Jeffrey Plank, The Early Louis Sullivan Building Photographs(San Francisco 2001).

G E Thomas, M J Lewis & J A Cohen, Frank Furness: the Complete Works(revised ed, New York 1996 [1991]).

D R Torbert, 'Leroy Sunderland Buffington', in Placzek, Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects,I, pp 320-321.

Theodore Turak, William Le Baron Jenney: Pioneer of Modern Architecture (Ann Arbor [Michigan] 1986).

M G Van Rensselaer, Henry Hobson Richardson and his Works(New York 1888 [1969 facsimile]).

Winston Weisman, 'George Browne Post', in Placzek, Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects,III, pp 460-462.

John Zukowsky [ed], Chicago Architecture 1872-1922: Birth of a Metropolis(Munich 1977).

'Pullmania' [by Kate Corcoran] http://pullmania.brainsnack.net/company/pullman_bldg.html.

Personal Communications

Jeffrey A Cohen, Brynmawr, 13 March 2002

Kate Corcoran, 20 March 2006

James Cravatt, Texas, 4 October 2006

Dr Michael Lewis, Williams College, 18 March 2002

Arthur Miller, archivist, Donnelley Library, Lake Forest College, Illinois, 12 June 2002

Susan O'Connor, writer on the architecture of Hyde Park and Kenwood, 8 October 2011

Jeffrey Plank, University of Virginia, 18 & 19 March 2002

Christopher Payne of Chicago, 2 March 2002

David Swan, Chicago, 18 September 2004

Chris Szczesny-Adams, University of Virginia, 13 March 2002

Professor Richard Wilson, University of Virginia, 12 March 2002

Mary Woolever, Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, Art Institute of Chicago, 20 March 2002