Richard B. Harrington was Curator of the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection at Brown University from 1951 until his death in 1989. Born in Worcester, MA in 1926, he studied at Harvard University and Simmons College before moving to Providence, Rhode Island to work as curator for Anne S. K. Brown. His extensive knowledge of world history and royalty coupled with his foreign language skills enabled Mrs. Brown to create an extensive card catalogue for her military collection which is still in use. Away from work, Richard's primary interest was architectural history. He built an extensive collection of books, pamphlets and photographs on this subject.
Series 1. Personal Papers: contains academic papers from classes taken by Mr. Harrington in 1948 in Architectural Science and Fine Arts. In addition, there is an extensive alphabetical card catalog of architectural books with a listing of titles, prices, conditional states, years and values.
Series 2. Visual Materials: contains photographs of cast iron fences; London; Belle Grove Winslow House; Greek Revival houses in Worcester, Worcester County, and adjacent areas in Massachusetts; and an original watercolor signed by Georgina M. Steeple, 1820. This series also contains numerous color and steel engravings of historical structures located in many places in Europe including Austria, Berlin, Madrid, London, and Paris. In addition, there are complete engraving sets by William Hogarth of Industry and Idleness, A Rakes Progress, and The Harlots Progress. Engraved plates by Jacques Francois Blondel, De La Distribution de Mainson Plaisances ..., Paris 1737-1738 are also contained in this section. There are also a few lithographs of London. The scrapbooks portion contains a photograph album dated July 7, 1947 of town houses located in New York and Boston. An undated scrapbook contains clippings of historic structures located in Rome, Anconia, Milan, and Padua. Architectural plans and blueprints for the Anne M. Wood House by architect Edward Fitzgerald have remained rolled and are located within Box 5. There are also architectural drawings of the interior and exterior of an unnamed structure.
Series 3. Printed Material: contains books, 1 magazine, booklets, and ephemera. The books included are: The Principles of Gothic Architecture Elucidated by Question and Answer, 2nd edition, London 1726, by M.H. Bloxan; Early Architecture of Georgia by Frederick Doveton Nichols; Sir Christopher Wrens Bicentenary 1723-1923; Designs for Elegant Cottages and Small Villages, by E. Gyffond; Stowe, a description of the house and gardens of the most noble and puissant prince ...; White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs, volumes 1-12; White Pine Series on Early American Architecture, volume 14, 2-4; Monograph Series Recording the Architecture of American Colonies (number 2. volume 17, signed by Joseph Chandler); Monograph Series Records of Early American Architecture, edited by Russell Whitehead; The Architectural Review, September 1904, volume XI, number IX; Washington, Nation's Pride, 1902; Thomas Shotter Boys original views of London, published 1954-1955, in 2 volumes; and the magazine Atlantida, October 1936. Booklets are from the Providence Preservation Society and the Belle Grove House located in Louisiana. The ephemera portion includes blank postcards of various mansions located in Newport, Rhode Island; several maps of Rhode Island, with a map of Old Providence from 1956; a pamphlet of landmarks from Charleston, South Carolina; a brochure of the Petit Trianon, Versailles (Palace of Versailles), and one of Leningrad (in French).
Researchers are advised that express written permission to reproduce, quote, or otherwise publish any portion or extract from this collection must be obtained from the Brown University Library. Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Richard B. Harrington Papers, Ms.2012.025, Brown University Library.
The collection is organized in three series:
There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.