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Talk:Horace Trumbauer

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list of works to add from

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The following are works of Trumbauer's that are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Some items may not yet be included in the current article. All of these ones are individually wikipedia-notable, so can be linked in article (even if redlink, to suggest properly that an article is needed).

Also, is Horace related to Edward J. Trumbauer, who is credited as architect, builder, or engineer of:

--doncram 16:17, 30 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for posting this list, Doncram. As you probably now know, Edward J. Berwind was the client for The Elms, and Trumbauer was the architect. == BoringHistoryGuy (talk) 18:08, 23 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I am not quite sure

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why this is part of the Duke Chapel caption.

"This was the only building designed by the firm during Trumbauer's lifetime for which Julian Abele claimed credit.]]"

Einar aka Carptrash (talk) 18:00, 20 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

There is a lot of misinformation about Trumbauer's chief designer Julian Abele. For most of the last century, he has been denied due credit for his enormous contributions to the firm. Recently, the pendulum has swung the other way, with his being credited with buildings he had nothing to do with (completed before he joined the firm), or declared the primary author of a building where the evidence is dubious. He is generally acknowledged as the designer of the west campus of Duke University. The chapel was the only building of which he claimed authorship during Trumbauer's lifetime, so I think mentioning it is significant.
The trouble is, Trumbauer was a terrific designer himself, and had a decade-and-a-half of tremendous success before Abele became the firm's chief designer. His Shingle-style buildings are wonderful, and Lynnewood Hall (1897) is exquisite (although not my kind of building). Trumbauer had a drinking problem at the end, and was disparaged by contemporaries such as Paul Cret, who were also his competitors. If "Horrible Horace" was the drunk incompetent they paint him as, he never would have had the success he achieved.
Trumbauer seem to have been a "plan" guy, interested in volumes/spaces, and navigation/flow thru a building. Abele was one of the great delineators of his generation, able create sumptuous presentation drawings that suggest richness without having to draw in every detail. I suspect that their talents complemented each other for most of the 30 years they worked together. == BoringHistoryGuy (talk) 17:19, 23 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Somewhere I have a reference for Abele being named the architect but I can't locate it. My issue, why I removed that sentence was the use of the word "claimed" plus that a statement such as that really should be sourced. Carptrash (talk) 17:39, 23 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
You're right. Let me look for it. There was a symposium on Abele at the Free Library of Philadelphia about a decade ago. A Duke architectural historian stated it as fact there, but I should find a published source. == BoringHistoryGuy (talk) 17:58, 23 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I found a Smithsonian Magazine article that credits Abele with the Duke campus,[1] but it is also filled with wrong assumptions and factual errors. More disturbingly, a website on Philadelphia architecture, written and maintained by excellent scholars, has Abele (born 1881) as a contributor to Lynnewood Hall (1897). He doesn't join the Trubauer firm until 1906.
I'll have to keep looking. == BoringHistoryGuy (talk) 18:42, 23 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

My best source[1] calls Abele the "chief designer" which for North Carolina in 1936 says a lot. Carptrash (talk) 21:33, 23 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

References

  1. ^ Blackburn, William, The Architecture of Duke University, Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, 1936

Sources

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  • [2] "He drank more and more heavily to bear the burden of his inferiority..."
  • [3]

Snippet

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Transferred from Widener Library -- citations need to be got from there as well

Trumbauer "had no rivals when it came to tempting clients to spend immodest sums", wrote Wayne Andrews;[1]: 16 

Biel wrote that he had "made his name and fortune by knowing that 'only a magnifi­cent setting could hope to satisfy an American with a magnifi­cent income,' and he had already imparted such magnifi­cence to the Widener and Elkins mansions and an assortment of other palaces ... [He] knew who his client was, so he gave elaborate attention to memorial­izing Harry in style" in the Memorial Rooms. [2]: 89  Nonetheless Trumbauer was extremely shy, and sensitive about his lack of formal education. "He had literally to be dragged to Cambridge and dressed in his academic gown by Mrs. Widener for the graduation ceremonies in June 1915, when Harvard awarded him his only honorary degree, a master of arts." [3]: 333  EEng (talk) 22:33, 7 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference bentinck1980 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference canoe was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference baltzell was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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