Esther McCoy papers, circa 1876-1990, bulk 1938-1989

Found here are photographs of McCoy, her family, and friends. Included are many portraits and snapshots of McCoy, as a child and adult, as well as snapshots of her with her sister Ruth, other family members, her husband Berkeley Tobey, and various friends. Also found are photographs of McCoy and Tobey family members, dating back to the 1870s. Most photographs of family and friends are unidentified. Included are photographs of her colleague and editor of Arts and Architecture, John Entenza; photographs of artist Margeurite Wildenhain at Pond Farm; and photographs of Theodore Dreiser, Albert (Tim) Robert, Ray Eames, John Collier, and Reyner Banham.

This subseries also includes three photograph albums. One album contains photographs of McCoy from the age of 12 to 16, her sister Ruth, and childhood friends and family. The other two albums document awards dinners honoring McCoy. The Vesta Awards album also serves as a guest book for the event and includes photographs of each guest and brief handwritten notes to McCoy.

Found here are photographs of works by architects, which McCoy compiled for her books, exhibition catalogs, articles, and other professional projects. Photographs primarily depict architecture by Southern California architects, but also including works by architects working elsewhere in the United States, Italy, and Mexico. Some of these photographs also document architecture by young architects working in the U.S. during the mid-1960s. Photographs depict various interior and exterior views, construction, and occasionally found are photographs of the architect. A large number of photographs found here depict the work of Gregory Ain, Luis Barragan, J. R. Davidson, Irving Gill, Bernard Maybeck, Juan O'Gorman, R. M. Schindler, and Raphael Soriano. Photographs were taken by Esther McCoy, prominent architectural photographers Marvin Rand and Julius Shulman, and many others.

Found here are photographs of architecture designed for the Case Study House program. McCoy researched and wrote about this program extensively, and researchers should note that additional photographs of these houses can be found within her writing files in Series 4 for both her book, Modern California Houses: Case Study Houses 1946-1962, and the exhibition catalog, Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study House. Some of these files also include a photograph of the architect(s). Most of the photographs were taken by Esther McCoy, Julius Shulman, Marvin Rand, or the architect.

This subseries consists of exhibition photographs, the bulk of which document the 1967 exhibition "Ten Italian Architects" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Photograph documentation of this exhibition includes installation views and photographs used for the exhibition catalog. Other photographs related to this exhibition are arranged by name of architect. Not all of the photographs found here were used in the catalog. Researchers should note that additional documentation of this exhibition catalog, written by McCoy, can be found among her architectural writings in Series 4.2: Exhibition Catalogs. Additional files in this subseries include installation views of an exhibition of work by Antoni Gaudi and copies of photographs used in three other exhibitions.

Found here are photographs which were primarily compiled by McCoy as research photographs during her work as a writer. Many of these photographs were taken to accompany her series of travel articles written for the Los Angeles Times. Files are arranged by subject, and often document craft and architecture in various countries such as Italy, Mexico, Brazil, and Israel. Also found are files of photographs documenting California architectural history. Researchers should note that related photographs may be found among McCoy's architectural writings in Series 4.

Found her are approximately 3,600 slides of examples of architects' works collected by Esther McCoy over the course of her career. Most slides included a handwritten label.