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(ARCHITECTURE.) Early diaries of noted architect Henry Van Brunt as a Harvard student and young apprentice. 6 volumes. 4to, original 1/2 calf, moderate to heavy wear, some bindings coming loose; internally clean and legible, illustrated with 14 pen and ink illustrations (almost all of them in the first volume). Vp, September 1851 to June 1855
a remarkable account of the months in which a noteworthy architect first fell in love with architecture. Henry Van Brunt (1832-1903) was a partner in Ware & Van Brunt of Boston, designing the First Church of Boston and several buildings at his alma mater, Harvard University. In 1885, he relocated to Kansas City, where Van Brunt & Howe became one of the leading firms in the West, with commissions for numerous railroad stations and department stores. He was also an influential and widely published critic. The six early diaries in this collection cover most of Van Brunt's undergraduate years at Harvard, and the first months of his apprenticeship with Boston architect George Snell. Van Brunt suffered from severe wrist and leg problems which required him to spend most of his college career convalescing with his family at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Maine, although he graduated on time with his class in 1854. His long and eloquent diary entries describe his growing infatuation with architecture. On one occasion, finding himself physically unable to travel, he sends out friends to visit a nearby mansion and describe it to him in detail (25 October 1851). He does not begin a formal study of architecture until his senior year at Harvard, with this entry: "Bought on Monday a work called 'Rudiments of Architecture,' which I have since been studying with much interest, this being a subject with which I am very desirous of being acquainted" (21 September 1853). Just two months later, a friends asks what career he intends to pursue. Van Brunt writes, "The penchant which I have ever had for pencil and portfolio cause me rather to incline towards architecture; although this is too much like a notion, to be dignified yet into the name of an intention" (15 November 1853). On 17 January 1854, he learns that an engineer at the navy yard has inherited a collection of architecture texts, and soon notes "This new subject of architecture consumes so much of my time that I have little or none to spare for anything else" (28 January 1854). Within a week of graduation, he writes "I have heard much of Snell, and Mr. Wainwright has promised to introduce me to him. I would like to have a talk with a practical architect" (26 July 1854). The next month finds him embarked on a formal apprenticeship in Snell's office. Van Brunt's diaries also give an unusually detailed portrait of Harvard life during the periods he was on campus, including long descriptions of lectures by professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes. On classmate Horace Howard Furness (later a great Shakespeare scholar): "His intellectual activity is much too great for his physical powers, for it has led him, in the lack of natural strength, to resort to artificial stimulants, such as tobacco, opium, and occasional naps during the day in order that he may be enabled to pursue his studies late at night" (7 October 1853). These diaries were in the possession of Henry Van Brunt Jr. in 1969 when they were quoted extensively by William A. Coles in his Architecture and Society: Selected Essays of Henry Van Brunt (pages 3-9). Coles described the diaries as "of special interest in establishing the mood of his entire later career." with 7 additional volumes: Volume of manuscript poems by Henry Van Brunt, 1851-55 Typed transcript of the diary from Henry Van Brunt's first and only trip to Europe, rich in architectural detail, February 1900 to April 1901. Edited with foreword by son Courtlandt Van Brunt in 1940. Described by Coles as "even now an illuminating and thorough guide for the traveler" (page 23) Manuscript diaries by 3 of Van Brunt's children from this same trip, 4 volumes, 1900 Diary of son Marion Bradlee Van Brunt (1908 Harvard graduate and engineer in Milwaukee), 1907-1910 Group of 8 letters, 1899-1910 and undated, most relating to efforts to get a commission for son Henry Van Brunt Jr. Most notable is an 8 April 1902 Letter Signed from Charles Francis Adams to Van Brunt describes at length his role in convincing Theodore Roosevelt to attend Harvard. a more detailed summary of these important diaries is available upon request.
