Search

Letters are primarily to White's mother, Alexina Black Mease White, his father, Richard Grant White, and his wife, Bessie Springs Smith White. The volume of White's letters from Mexico documents an extended trip he took with his elder brother, Richard Mansfield White, to prospect. Also included in the last volume is a letter to White from H. H. Richardson, dated February 22 1878, acknowledging White's resignation from Richardson's firm. Each original manuscript letter is followed by a typed transcription by Lawrence White, unless otherwise noted.

Collection consists primarily of White's letterpress books and correspondence, with some related bills, receipts, and other ephemera, 1887-1906, relating to his professional and personal matters. Correspondence, 1907, relates to his estate. Correspondents of note include William A. Boring, Richard Morris Hunt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Louis C. Tiffany, John La Farge, Charles McKim, Frederick Law Olmsted, Whitney Warren, Stefano Bardini, Bessie White, William Merritt Chase, William Robert Ware, Kenyon Cox, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Percy Baker, Cass Gilbert, Childe Hassam, John Singer Sargent, John Wanamaker, Carrère & Hastings, Thomas Dewing, James McNeill Whistler, Lawrence White, Richard White, and other architects, artists, contractors, suppliers, clients, friends, and family members. One letter book contains letters, 1922, by White's son Lawrence Grant White. Also included are White's architectural drawings for houses he built for himself at St. James, Long Island, 1892-1904, and 121 East 21st Street, New York, undated; miscellaneous drawings; and a few architectural drawings by Lawrence Grant White, and drafts of his translation of Dante's DIVINE COMEDY.