CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTS by Muriel EmanuelReview by: Arnold L. MarkowitzARLIS/NA Newsletter, Vol. 9, No. 3 (MAY 1981), p. 127Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27946525 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 09:55

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The University of Chicago Press and Art Libraries Society of North America are collaborating with JSTOR todigitize, preserve and extend access to ARLIS/NA Newsletter.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.55 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 09:55:30 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ARLIS/NA Newsletter, May 1981 127

with 2.5 cm. margins. The total number of cards is calculated at

37,632, somewhat fewer than the "over 40,000" advertised. Use of the standard G.K. Hall format (21 entries per page) would have

produced the Manuscript Catalog in 1,792 pages, or three 600-page volumes. Shingled, the 37,632 entries here would have fit on 1045

super royal quarto pages, or two volumes. These possibilities would have had substantial effect in reducing the price, even were

the cost per volume increased on the publisher's side. While the

present smaller volumes are sturdily bound in an excellent soil

resistant grey cloth (unlike the Winterthur catalog in white linen), the shell space and required use of multiple volumes suggest that fewer might have been better as well as less expensive.

It is also curious that an institution which has made such excel lent use of microfilm did not consider microfiche or ultrafiche

publication for an item which will be consulted, not read. This would also allow for cumulative updates rather than supplemen tary volumes. These comments on the physical makeup are really cavils, however: Buy this catalog if your library has any interest in American art; it is a required essential for all American art research.

J.P.B.

CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTS/Muriel Emanuel, ed.? New York: St. Martin's, 1980.?ix, 933 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-312-16635

4: $70.00. Contemporary Architects is the latest addition to the "five foot

shelf of architectural bio-bibliographical reference books. The result of the collective effort of numerous advisers, 170 contribu

tors, and 600 entrants, it is a large book?a "weighty tome," indeed.

Lest one be misled by the title, the editor states in her introduc tion that, although the emphasis is on living architects and those who have recently died, "we have included those architects of the modern movement of the 1920's-1950's who, in the view of the

Board, continue to exert an important influence on architecture." She also states that they have somewhat stretched the definition of

architect, including "those planners and theorists who may have few built works to show for a lifetime's career but whose thinking and imaginative visions have profoundly influenced architects

throughout the world," and goes on to say, "Likewise, we have included those landscape architects who have made an outstanding contribution to our understanding of the best utilizations of open space. Also included are the most prominent structural engineers of our era?those who have increased the possibilities for architec ture." Do not, therefore, be surprised to find Charles Rennie

Mackintosh, Brenda Colvin, and Robert Maillart among this

assemblage of "contemporary architects." The individual entries provide an outline biography; a chrono

logical listing of projects and completed works; a bibliography of works by the entrant, followed by one of works about the entrant; a

signed critical essay by one of the contributors; and a black-and white representative illustration of the entrant's work. Frequently there is a statement or essay by the entrant, describing his work or

his professional philosophy. The material is well-organized and extremely readable. So read

able, in fact, that one can easily forget that this is a reference book and plunge in at random for the succinct and well-written critical

essays. The black-and-white reproductions of drawings and photo

graphs do not, unfortunately, reach the same level of excellence as the text, ranging mostly from.gray to muddy. Although one might wish for better quality in this aspect of the book, it must be considered a minor flaw in what is otherwise a very thorough piece of work.

A very useful book, indeed, Contemporary Architects will prove a valuable addition to the standard library collection of dictionar

ies, directories, and indexes related to architectural biography. A brief checklist of these companion volumes follows:

INTERNATIONAL B. Oudin. Dictionnaire des Architectes. Paris: Seghers, 1970.

(World coverage?earliest times to 1970.) J.M. Richards. Who's Who in Architecture from 1400 to the Present. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977.

Avery Obiturary Index of Architects and Artists. Boston: G.K.

Hall, 1963. (File begun at Avery Library in 1934 and later back-indexed to 1865; it has recently been re-photographed by G.K. Hall and a second edition is available.)

H. Lasch. Architekten-Bibliographie. Deutschsprachige Ver?f fentlichungen 1920-1960. Leipzig: Seemannverlag, 1962. (Books and periodical articles on architects of all periods and countries.) Royal Institute of British Architects Library. "Index of Archi tects of Several Countries and Many Periods (Except English

Mediaeval) in Nearly Sixty Old and New Selected Indexes." London: 1956.

BRITISH John Hooper Harvey, English Mediaeval Architects. A Biogra

phical Dictionary Down to 1550. London: Batsford, 1954. Howard Colvin. A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840. London: John Murray, 1978. (Original edition of 1954 covered the years 1660-1840.)

Lawrence Wodehouse. British Architects, 1840-1976. Detroit:

Gale, 1978. Dora Ware. A Short Dictionary of British Architects. London: Allen & Unwin, 1967. Royal Institute of British Architects Directory. (Annual.)

AMERICAN Henry F. Withey and Elsie Rathburn Withey. Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased). Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, 1970. (Reprint of 1956 first edition, pub lished by New Age Publishing, Los Angeles.) Lawrence Wodehouse. American Architects from the Civil War to the First World War. Detroit: Gale, 1976; and American

Architects from the First World War to the Present. Detroit:

Gale, 1977. ?

American Architects Directory. New York: Bowker, 1956, 1962, and 1970. (Published under the sponsorship of the American Institute of Architects.) Profile: The Official A. i.A. Directory of Architectural Firms.

Philadelphia: Archimedia, 1978 and 1980. To the last group should be added Architects in Practice, New York City, 1840-1900, by Dennis Steadman Francis, which was

prepared for the Committee for the Preservation of Architectural Records, who issued it in 1980. It should serve as the model for similar directories to be compiled for cities and regions throughout the United States.

Arnold L. Markowitz, New York University

DICTIONARY OF TERMS AND TECHNIQUES IN ARCHAOLOGY/Sara Champion.?New York: Facts on File, 1980. ?144 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-87196-445-7: $15.95.

In recent years the crossover between science and archaeology has become almost as common as that between archaeology and the fine arts. Librarians working with research programs in

archaeology find it necessary to know how to use that high-tech witness to twentieth-century wisdom, Chem. Abstracts, Likewise, the borrowings of scientific procedures and social science metho

dologies by ancient historians, classicists and archaeologists has introduced a new language for humanists to comprehend.

Most of the dictionaries and encyclopedias of archaeology pub lished previously focus on periods, sites, industries and cultures.

Bray and Trump's Dictionary of Archaeology (1970), Palmer and

Lloyd's Archaeology A-Z (1968), and Cottrell's Concise Encyc lopedia of Archaeology (1970) are all over ten years old. While the documentary evidence of archaeology is stable, although ever

growing, both methods and interpretative techniques have

changed considerably. Champion's new compilation is most sim ilar, but complementary, to Trump's still useful Terms Used in

Archaeology (1969), which lists the chief periods, industries and sites of prehistory. Limiting her scope radically, Mrs. Champion omits the names of cultures and artifacts and includes primarily words which refer to scientific or technical aspects of

archaeology. Thus the book does not duplicate material covered in seemingly similar reference books.

The definitions are clear and illustrations are well chosen to

amplify them. Most of the longer articles have citations forfurther

reading and a "Bibliography" at the end lists most of the important books on archaeological methods in English. It also betrays the author's admittedly British bias. While the British have been quite active in the development of archaeological science, not everyone agrees with their methods or conclusions.

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.55 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 09:55:30 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions