Scope and Contents
The collection includes finished renderings as well as preliminary drawings and layouts on tracing paper and some blueprint floorplans and elevations used in the process, of various Northwest architects from the 1920s to the 1960s in Folders #1-22. Folders #23-41 contain Butcher's own designs, mostly working drawings and preliminary sketches, and mostly undated. The letter-number configuration appearing in brackets following the date of a project denotes the initial catalog number assigned. The number of sheets in a project follows in parentheses. Seventeen photographic prints of Butcher's models and constructed buildings, 1920-1967, are included.
Dates
- 1920-1967
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs. All requests for permission to publish collection materials must be submitted to Special Collections and University Archives. The reader must also obtain permission of the copyright holder.
Biographical / Historical
Claude Raymond "Butch" Butcher was born on May 22, 1900 in Solomon, Kansas. He married Nettie Pfaff of Beloit, Kansas on September 12, 1925. They did not have any children.
In 1924, Butcher graduated with a B.S. in Architecture from the Kansas State School of Architecture in Manhattan, Kansas, where he was awarded a medal of honor for scholarship by the American Institute of Architects. After graduating, he worked for several architects, including Charles W. Shaver of Salinas, Kansas, J. M. Pehrson of Spokane, Washington and Whitehouse & Price of Spokane. Later he worked with Whitehouse & Church in Portland, Oregon and with Stanton & Johnson of Portland.
From 1926-1928 he was a designer in the office of the College Architect at Washington State College and taught architecture there for two years. During the Depression he worked for the Public Administration Works as a field representative and construction inspector. In 1935 he moved to Portland and began doing design work there, specializing in residences. Many of his designs during this period are considered outstanding.
Butcher's interest in drawing developed while teaching at Washington State College. The series of renderings by Hugh Ferris depicting Solomon's temple greatly influenced him and led to his experimenting with carbon pencils. He uses all grades of Wolff's pencils in his renderings, usually with a very fine point. Values are built up by scumbling until they correspond to previously worked out value studies done on tracing paper. He almost always laid out the perspectives himself. In 1952, The Oregon Chapter of the A.I.A. made a special award to him "in recognition of his exceptional achievements as an architectural delineator."
Nettie Pfaff died in 1974. Claude Butcher died in May, 1983 in Lake Oswego, Oregon. He is buried at Hunter Cemetery near Beloit, Kansas.
Extent
33.75 linear feet (2 containers, 41 oversize folders)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Claude R. Butcher (1900-1983) was an architect. The collection contains original drawings, layouts on tracing paper, blueprints, correspondence, and reference material.
Arrangement
Collection is organized into the following series: Series: Renderings by Butcher of other architects' designsSeries: Renderings of designs by ButcherSeries: Oversize drawingsSeries: CorrespondenceSeries: Boxed material Subseries: Project-related materialsSubseries: Reference materialSubseries: The Society of American Registered Architects Series: Photographs
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Claude R. Butcher in 1970.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Randy McGeough, Manuscripts Processor.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- Architects -- Northwest, Pacific. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Architectural drawings Subject Source: TGM II, Genre and physical characteristic terms
- Architectural rendering Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Architecture Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Architecture -- Northwest, Pacific -- Designs and plans Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Davis, C. Gilman (Charles Gilman), 1918-1979
- Jacobberger, Francis Benedict, 1898-1962
- Lawrence, Tucker & Wallmann (Portland, Or.)
- Photographic prints Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Photographs Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Society of American Registered Architects
- Sundeleaf, Richard, 1900-1987
- Sutton, Whitney & Aandahl Architects
- Whitehouse & Price
- Title
- Guide to the Claude R. Butcher papers
- Status
- Complete Description
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Randy McGeough
- Date
- 2007
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
- Sponsor
- Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Repository Details
Part of the University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives Repository
