McCoy, Esther
(b. 1904
d. 1989)
Esther McCoy papers, 1896-1989 (bulk 1920-1989)
Photographer, Architectural historianNew York, N.Y.; Los Angeles, Calif.
Biographical material, correspondence, writings, files on architects, writings, and projects, interviews, lectures, notebooks, art works, photographs and personal and family papers relating mainly to McCoy's career as an architectural historian, and to a lesser degree, as a fiction writer.
Included are: diaries (intermittent, 1919-1951), memoirs, resumes, awards, biographies, bibliographies and a family genealogy; family correspondence, 1889-1963; personal correspondence, 1923-1989, with friends and colleagues Dorothy Babb, John Collier, Theodore and Helen Dreiser, Geoffrey Eaton, Dorothy Grotz (Rogers), Noyla Hunt, husband Berkley Tobey, and others; general correspondence, 1924-1989, regarding McCoy's work as a fiction writer and an architectural historian with many people, publishers and organizations, among them Architectural Record, Graham Foundation, Houghton Mifflin Co., The New Yorker, Society of Architectural Historians, and the Women's Architectural League; files on McCoy's fiction writing, containing correspondence, drafts, notes, source material, and printed stories;
files on McCoy's architectural writings, 1940-1989, containing correspondence, drafts, notes, printed material, publicity, financial records and photographs on her books Five California Architects (1960), Richard Neutra (1960), Modern California Houses: Case Study Houses (1962), Craig Ellwood (1969), Vienna to Los Angeles: Two Journeys (1974), and Second Generation (1984); on exhibitions curated by McCoy or for which she wrote the catalog, including R.M. Schindler Retrospective (Landau Gallery, L.A., 1954), Irving Gill (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1958), Juan O'Gorman (Northridge State University, 1964), Ten Italian Architects (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1967), A.Q. Jones (California State University, 1980), Case Study Houses (MOCA, 1989), and others; and on articles for Arts & Architecture, Progressive Architecture, Lotus, the L.A. Times, and other publications; files on architects (cataloged separately), containing correspondence, photographs, writings, interviews, blueprints, and printed material; 38 taped interviews conducted by McCoy, with architects and others (cataloged separately); files on projects, including McCoy's work cataloging and transcribing Richard Nuetra's papers at UCLA, the UCLA slide library, films, the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), juries, grants, tours, and preservation projects;
files on lectures, 1954-1985, containing many of the lectures delivered by McCoy and for classes she taught at the University of California, 1965-1975; notebooks, ca. 1950s-1980s, containing travel itineraries and notes, notes on architecture, architects, notes for articles, and various jottings and writings; photographs of McCoy, her family, including a family album, friends, and travels; 7 ft. of photographs and ca. 4000 slides of architects, houses, buildings and furniture collected or taken by McCoy for her books, exhibitions, catalogs, and lectures; travel photographs taken by McCoy; and photographs collected by John Entenza, editor of Arts & Architecture;
printed materials, including articles, clippings, books and literary magazines; and art work, presumably collected by McCoy or her family, including 5 prints by Thomas Worlidge, 1754, a drawing by James House, 1924, and unsigned prints and drawings. Three VHS videos are of McCoy's 80th birthday party.
