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January 2, 2008
University Park, PA— Six rare drawing books from the Special Collection Library's Albert A. Anderson, Jr. and Evelynn M. Ellis Art Education Collection are featured in a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Carnegie Museum of Art's Hall of Architecture. The Heinz Architectural Center exhibition "On a Grand Scale: The Hall of Architecture at 100," investigates how this historically significant collection came to be, explains the processes of cast making and restoration and examines the reasons for collecting architectural casts. The exhibition is on display through January 27.
Since opening in 1907, the Hall of Architecture has served as an educational resource for
artists, art historians, and students. Andy Warhol was one of countless young Pittsburgh students who grew up studying and sketching replicas in the Hall of Architecture. It helped train architects, engineers, plumbers and carpenters, for whom proficiency in drawing was an essential skill. The Anderson/Ellis books displayed in the exhibition emphasize the importance and prevalence of drawing education to many skilled trades, and specifically, the merits of drawing from three-dimensional objects.
The Anderson/Ellis collection is housed in Rare Books and Manuscripts in the Special Collections Library. It consists of nearly 1,000 rare American art instruction books, together with related printed materials on art, published between 174 and the mid-twentieth century. The collection includes drawing manuals, drawing cards, lithographs, copybooks and other printed ephemera.