Heritage
The Blackader-Lauterman Library of Architecture and Art originated in the 1920s with an endowment from the family of Gordon Home Blackader, a graduate of the McGill School of Architecture who died during World War I. The family of Montreal sculptor Dinah Lauterman also contributed to the library with an endowment in 1947. The library serves the Department of Art History and Communication Studies, and the Schools of Architecture and Urban Planning.
The collection of 110,000 volumes has grown particularly strong in the history of Byzantine and Medieval art, iconography, Italian renaissance art and architecture, 17th and 18th century European architecture, and Canadian architecture and planning, as well as artists’ catalogues raisonnés. Among the library’s holdings are 2,500 rare books, including editions of Vitruvius, Palladio, Serlio, Vasari, Scamozzi, Vignola and Ledoux, which are housed in Rare Books and Special Collections.
Location
Humanities and Social Sciences Library
Access
Blackader Lauterman Collection of Architecture and Art
Rare Books and Special Collections, Blackader-Lauterman Collection
A number of Blackader-Lauterman collections have been digitized, including: the rare periodical Canadian Architect and Builder; a digital slide database of Norbert Schoenauer’s collections, and the Meredith Dixon slides of Expo 67; searchable databases on industrial and hospital architecture in Montreal, a database of reports and plans for urban and rural areas across Canada from the late 1950s to the present, and the Moshe Safdie Hypermedia Archive, an extensive bibliography of the architect’s works. See McGill Library Digital Exhibitions for more information.
Status
Active
Curator
jennifer.garland [at] mcgill.ca (Jennifer Garland), Architecture and Art Librarian, Rare Books and Special Collections
514-398-4785
Authority
Dean of Libraries
