Henry Hobson Richardson: Drawings from the Collection of the Houghton Library, Harvard University
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
7:00pm
Lecture by Jay Wickersham, Chris Milford, and Hope Mayo
Presented via Zoom; Pre-registration required.
On March 10, 2026, authors Jay Wickersham, Chris Milford, and Hope Mayo will present a lecture on their new book Henry Hobson Richardson: Drawings from the Houghton Library, Harvard University, published by Monacelli Press/Phaidon.
The book is the first in-depth publication of drawings by H. H. Richardson, the greatest American architect of the nineteenth century. The trove of over 4,000 drawings, preserved since Richardson’s death in the Houghton Rare Book Library at Harvard, have been largely unpublished until now. The book presents full-color reproductions of 450 sketches and renderings by the Boston-based architect and his talented assistants, who included Charles McKim and Stanford White. It includes more than 50 projects, including such masterpieces as Boston’s Trinity Church; Sever and Austin Halls at Harvard; the Stoughton House in Cambridge; the Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail in Pittsburgh; the Marshall Field Store and Glessner House in Chicago; and five small public libraries.
The authors will discuss the Richardson drawings and what they reveal about collaboration in Richardson’s studio, with a focus on the design process that produced Trinity Church. Martin Filler, in the New York Review of Books, called this “An instructive, handsomely produced volume... From Richardson’s lightning-bolt conceptual sketches to seductive presentation drawings by his talented assistants, we are led, project by project and step by step, through the prolific master’s output.” Michael J. Lewis, in the New Criterion, writes that, “Like a silent movie, the images themselves telling a story, we watch Richardson gradually find his way, year by year, page by page... At a time when architectural practice has effectively abolished drawing by hand, this book will come as a revelation.”
The book has received the 2025 Book Prize from the Victorian Society in America and the 2025 Honor Book Award from Historic New England, and is available to purchase on Phaidon's website.
Jay Wickersham, an architect and lawyer, taught for fifteen years at the Harvard Graduate. School of Design, where he was an associate professor of architecture in practice. Chris Milford is a partner in the architectural firm of Milford & Ford Associates, specializing in historic preservation and restoration. Hope Mayo, a renowned expert in rare books, drawings, prints, and manuscripts, was the former Philip Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts (retired) at Houghton Library, where she oversaw the Richardson drawings collection.
