The Kidder Smith Slide Archives on American Architecture

NEW ENGLAND: Selections from the Collection

WELCOME to this sampling of digitized images from the Kidder Smith Slide Archives, Rotch Visual Collections, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Kidder Smith Slide Archives is a collection of 3400 Kodachromeslides which document ten centuries of architecture in the United States. Photographed by G. E. Kidder Smith, architect,architectural photographer and author of two major surveys of American architecture, these slides represent color documenation of many of the buildings photographed in black and white for Kidder Smith's three-volume Architecture of the United States: AnIllustrated Guide to Notable Buildings, Open to the Public(Museum of Modern Art/Doubleday, 1981), and for a related Smithsonian Exhibition.

This work represents 12 years of field research and 135,000 miles of travel. The slide archive systematically covers 805 buildings from the pre-Columbian period to 1978 and includes sequences of 6 to 10 or more slides for some buildings. Approximately 2000 of the slides document mid- and late- 20th century buildings, with special attention to the 1950s and 1960s.

Excerpted from an article by Cynthia Ware, PLAN, Number 19, August 1985, MIT.

At this time this Web project offers a selection of architectural sites in New England. As a work in progress, it will continue to be developed and will ultimately include sites covering architecture in all regions of the United States.

Please Note: These images are being provided for educational and research activities. All images are copyrighted and may not be reproduced by remote or local users without prior express written permission by the copyright holders.