John Hancock Callender Papers

John Hancock Callender Papers, 1911-1990

Overview of the Collection

Creator: John Hancock Callender, 1908-1995
Title: John Hancock Callender Papers
Dates: 1911-1990 (inclusive)
19111990
Quantity: 3.0 linear feet
Collection Number: MG392 (collection)
Summary: Correspondence, publications, articles by and about Callender and his residential architecture designs. Also personal papers including scrapbooks of a year spent as a visiting professor in Taiwan.
Repository: University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives
Special Collections and Archives
University of Idaho Library
875 Perimeter Drive
MS 2350
Moscow, ID
83844-2350
Telephone: 2088850845
libspec@uidaho.edu
Languages: English
Sponsor: Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Biographical NoteReturn to Top

John Hancock Callender was born in Kansas City, Missouri on January 18, 1908, the son of Alonzo Lee and Lola (Hancock) Callender. He was educated in the public schools of Kansas City before attending Yale University where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and from which he graduated with a B.A. degree in English in 1928. He then continued at Yale for two more years studying design. From 1935 to 1939 he attended New York University from which he graduated with a B.Arch.

In 1931 he went to work for the Housing Research Division of John B. Pierce Foundation researching the living habits of families, and designing and superintending the construction of low cost housing. He was an early advocate of prefabricated housing.

During his military service, 1943-1945, he was a consulting architect for the National Housing Agency, Staff Army Engineers, and supervised the remodeling of laboratories for the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. Following the war he was in p rivate practice, specializing in private residences, before joining the faculty of Columbia University where he taught from 1953-1954. He then taught at Princeton University 1963-1973, and the Pratt Institute, 1970-1972. During the 1967/1968 academic year he was visiting professor at Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. He was the author of several books and many articles, and was the editor of Time saver standards for architectural design data, a standard reference for architects. He held membersh ip in the American Institute of Architects, serving as chairman of the small home committee from 1948 to 1950.

He married Mary Carnwath on August 5, 1933; they had one daughter, Janet. He died of cancer in Lansdale, Pa., March 30, 1995.

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

The records of John H. Callender span the years 1911 to 1990, with the bulk of the material covering the decades of the 1940s and 1950s.

Included in the records are professional papers such as articles by and about Callender and the homes he designed, and scrapbooks and other personal material.

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Arrangement

The records of John Hancock Callender were in no discernable order when received; therefore a series order was imposed during processing.

Series one is composed of papers relating to his professional career. Included are books and articles by Callender, articles about houses he designed, photographs and blueprints for several houses, and greeting cards which he designed.

The second series, Personal Papers, contains diplomas, military records, academic notebooks, personal photographs, two Yale University publications and two scrapbooks of his year at Cheng Kung University, one containing photographs, the other invitations and other mementos.

Articles on Callender houses were removed from the journals, which were discarded. Several Yale publications that did not contain information on Callender were also removed from the papers. This reduced the records by 2 cubic feet.

Acquisition Information

The records of John Hancock Callender were transferred to the University of Idaho Library by his widow, Mary Carnwath, via Gifford Pierce, professor of architecture at the University of Idaho, between September 1996 and February 1997.

Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top

Series I. Professional Papers , 1926-1968Return to Top

Container(s)	Description	Dates
Box/Folder
1/1	Articles: General 1 item	1945
1/2	Architectural & Engineering News forum 3 items	1962
1/3-5	About Callender designed houses 25 items	1929-1957
1/6	John B. Pierce Foundation 10 items	1939-1941
1/7	By John H. Callender 12 items	1931-1943
1/8	The Builder's materials (typescript) 3 items	1943
1/9	Bertha Schaefer Gallery. The Modern house comes to life 3 items	1947
os/10	Blueprints for Griffith, Sadi, and Dennet residences 31 items	1935-1937
1/11	Book: Callender, John H. Before you buy a house 1 item	1953
1/12	Curtain walls of stainless steel 1 item	1955
1/13	School building costs 1 item	1957
1/14-15	Space requirements of war housing 2 items	1944
1/16	Stainless steel uses in architecture 1 item	1968
os/16a	Time-saver standards for building types 1 item	1966
os/16b	Time-saver standards for building types 1 item	1973
1/17	Vitrolux spandrel glass for curtain walls 1 item	undated
1/18	Book on prefab 1 item	ca. 1936
1/19	Booklets: Family living as the basis for dwelling design 2 items	1943-1944
1/20	Brochures: Revere Quality House Institute 3 items	1948
1/21	Business cards and stationery 6 items	undated
1/22	Certificates and registrations 3 items	1941-1950
os/23	New York license 1 item	1941
1/24	Construction reports 2 items	1939
1/25	Correspondence 10 items	1941-1945
1/26	Stainless steel curtain wall research, Princeton University. Drawings 7 items	undated
1/27-28	Curtain wall research project studies, 1-9 9 items	1957
1/29	Drawings of Callender houses 7 items	ca. 1937-1940
1/30	Greeting cards designed by JHC 18 items	ca. 1926
1/31	Printing block for triangular design 1 item
1/32	Photographs: Various JHC designed homes 24 items	ca. 1945-1955
os/33	Greene House, Syosset, N.Y. 3 items	1950
os/34	Lada-Mocarskis (Big-inch house), North Castle, New York 3 items	1952
os/35	Molinoff Residence 10 items	undated
os/36	Old mission 1 item	undated
os/37	Rose Residence, Beechhurst, Queens 1 item	undated
os/38	Unidentified 12 items	ca. 1955
1/39	Pierce, John B. Foundation. Current activities 1 item	1943
1/40	Planning and Building Associates, promotional booklet 1 item	1941

Series II. Personal Papers , 1911-1990Return to Top

Container(s)	Description	Dates
Box/Folder
2/41	Appraisal of Callender donation to University of Idaho library 1 item	1996
2/42	Certificates, diplomas 6 items	1920-1939
2/43	Hancock, T.C. Scraps of family history (photocopy) 1 item	1911
2/44	Military papers 19 items	1940-1944
2/45	Notebook: Course with Albert Schweizer 1 item	1934
2/46	Photographs: J.H. Callender 7 items	ca. 1953-1990
2/47	"The scribble in book" 1 item	1940-1941
2/48	Scrapbook: Collateral reading, class notes, illustrations, personal prejudices 1 item	ca. 1928
os/49-50	Cheng Kung University, Taiwan 2 items	1967-1968
2/51	Yale University. Library Gazette, v.1, n.1 1 item	June 1926
os/52	Thirty year record, class of 1928 1 item	1958
2/53	"History of Modern Architecture" (lectures given at Cheng Kung) 1 item	1967-1968

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