Welcome to the website of the Herman J. Albrecht Library of Historical Architecture.
The Library documents the global history of architecture through a substantial and growing collection of books as well as related print and visual materials. Many of the books are rare and are found in few repositories accessible to researchers.
For all researchers who need to view these books, the Library is accessed through the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department of the Thompson Library at Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio, USA. The Albrecht Library is funded and supported by a private Ohio foundation, the Herman J. Albrecht Library of Historical Architecture, and is administered by a board of directors.
Highlights of the Albrecht Library’s current holdings include a wide range of works in architectural history. Examples of these works, found in few accessible libraries throughout the world, include:
- Early printed books on European architecture, dating from 1485
- Works on Roman and Greek antiquities
- Early modern and Renaissance European architecture, often heavily illustrated
- Western European architecture of the 1700s and 1800s
- United States architecture from the late 1700s into the 20th century, with particular interest in Frank Lloyd Wright
- The rise of iron and steel construction in Europe and the United States, with a focus on the Eiffel Tower
- Special attention to Japanese and Russian architecture of the early 1900s
- European architectural journals of the late 1800s and early 1900s that include significant attention to developments in the United States
- Heavily illustrated works on indigenous and modern architecture in Africa, Middle East, India and Mexico
Researchers should ask the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department at Ohio State University what books and related materials recently have been added to the Albrecht Library, because new items may be acquired by the Library at any time.
Featured Books
Gustave Eiffel, Tour en Fer de 300 Metres en Hauteur
Eiffel’s proposal, in French, is to erect an iron structure 300 meters high as a centerpiece for the 1889 exposition in Paris – what became known as the Eiffel Tower. The proposed design in this publication differs from the actual construction.
Emanuel La Roche, Indische Baukunst [Indian Building Art] , 1921
An illustrated text, in German, that discusses a range of historical buildings in India.
Walker and Weeks
Walker and Weeks was a leading architectural firm in Cleveland and Ohio in the first half of the 1900s. Its work was largely in the neoclassical tradition.