What is the link between the buildings that architects see abroad and the subsequent architecture that they create?  Is sketching a necessary creative process for architects to find the means to express their own original ideas?  Do the photographs that they collect during their travels have an impact on their designs?

 

To further explore these questions I will look at the travel photographs and travel sketches of Frank Miles Day. Day was a Philadelphian architect who began working in the 1880s and worked until his death in 1918. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1883 and for three years after graduation he traveled and studied throughout Europe. In 1887, a year after his return, Day established his own firm.  He worked on a variety of projects ranging from residential to collegiate architecture, in which he follows an obvious European visual tradition.   

 

While traveling in Europe during the 1880s, Day produced hundreds of sketches accompanied by journals and diaries of his travel experiences.  In addition to these sketches Day also had a rich collection of photographs from his travels, which he purchased while in Europe.  To better understand the correlation between Day’s travels and their influence- whether direct or indirect- I will look at Day’s surviving architecture in Philadelphia from the 1880s and 1890s.