Nathan C. Ricker at the University of Illinois

References

• The orig i nal name of the Uni ver sity was the II li nois In dus trial Uni ver sity. This re mained the name un til 1885, when it be came the Uni ver sity of II li nois.
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• The pri mary source of in for ma tion on Ricker is his own un pub lished au to bi og-ra phy, “Story of a Life,” writ ten in 1922. This de tails his early life and his ca reer as a stu dent and pro fes sor at the UIUC. See also Alan Laing, Na than Clifford Ricker, 1843–1924: PioneerinAmericanArchitecturalEducation (Champaign, 1973).Neither of these sources con tains per sonal in for ma tion on Ricker. He mar ried Mary Carter Steele (1852–1910) in 1875 and they had one daugh ter, EthelRicker (1883–1971). Both were grad u ates of the UIUC, Mrs. Ricker in 1875 and Ethel Ricker in 1904.
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• “Story of a Life,” 9.
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• Ibid., 12.
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• Ibid., 14.
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• 2000 . See my Sec tion II Ricker's Trans la tions For a more in-depth dis cus sion of Ricker' s trans la tions see the au thor' s forth com ing ar ti cle” Na than Clifford Ricker: Ed-u catorand Trans la tor,” Arris . Journal of the South east Chapter of the So cietyofAr chir tecturalHistorians , : 11
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• Ricker would re ceive an hon or ary Doc tor ate of Ar chi tec ture in 1900.
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• Bullard (1855–1935), prac ticed in Spring field, II li nois, and later Ta coma, Wash ington.
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• “Story of a Life,” 31.
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• In ad di tion to his im por tant role in the found ing of the En gi neering Ex per i ment Station he also found time to write three is sues of the Bulletin, the pub li ca tion of the Sta tion. See my Sec tion IV, sPublished Writings byNa than CliffordRicker. Articles.
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• 1997 . More on the li cens ing law and Ricker's role can be found in Paul Kruty, “A New Look at the Be gin nings of the II li nois Ar chi tects Li censing Law,” . Illinois Historical Journal , 90 : 154 – 172 .
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• These pa pers are lo cated in Uni ver sity Ar chives Re cord Se ries 12/2/22. A brief (2 page) find ing aid to these pa pers is avail able.
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• There are also a num ber of pho to graphs of his trip to Maine in 1903. In ad di tion, miscellaneous mate rials in thisse ries in elude a personal expense led gerfrom 1919–1920, an in ven tory of fur ni ture owned by his daugh ter Ethel, and a led ger con tain ing tech ni-cal data on the Nat u ral His tory Build ing.
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• These ma te ri als are lo cated in Uni ver sity Ar chives Re cord Se ries 12/2/21. A brief (2 page) find ing aid is avail able.
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• Uni ver sity Ar chives Re cord Se ries 12/2/2.
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• fiUni versityAr chives Re cord Se ries 11/1/13 Ricker-Runkle Con tro versy File.
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• These drawings are in Re cord Series 12/2/18.
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• Some of these draw ings have been ex hib ited, most no ta bly in the 1987–88 ex hi bition, “Chi cagoAr chi tec ture 1872–1922. “Thisexhibi tion traveled to Paris, Berlin and Chi cago in 1987–88. Three of the draw ings were re pro duced in the ex hi bi tion cat a log. See Roula Geraniotis “An Early Ger man Con tri bu tion to Chi cago's Mod ern ism.” In Chicago Architecture: 1872–1922: Birth of a Metropolis (Munich: Prestel, 1987): 90–105. Draw ings from this ar chives Re cord Se ries were also dis played in 1993in the exhibition Projects: Past and Pres ent, held in Cham paign and in Chi cago at the I-Space Gal lery, and in 1995 in the ex hi bi tion at Krannert Art Mu seum en ti tied Scholarly Trea sures of the Uni ver sity Li brary The ex hi bi tion cat a logs, pub lished un der the same ti ties, con tained no il lus tra tions of the draw ings.
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• These trans la tions are pre served in the Ricker Li brary of Ar chi tec ture and Art. Copies of some are also avail able in the Uni ver sity Ar chives at UIUC.
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• The Handbuch der Architektur (Darmstadt: A. Bergstrasser, 1885–1911) was animportant se ries of Ger man books on ar chi tec ture which be gan pub li ca tion in 1885. Ricker was im pressed with this en deavor and even tu ally pro vided com plete trans la tions of four teen ti ties from this se ries, pri mar ily those deal ing with his tory and build ing styles.
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• Rickerpub lished an abridged trans la tion of one sec tion of this work, Proportionen in der Architektur by Au gust Thiersch, un der the ti UeProportionsinArchitecture. See BuildingBudget5 (December 1889): 152; 6 (January 1890): 7–9; (February 1890): 17–18; (March 1890): 29–31; (April 1890): 41–43; (June 1890): 69–70; (July 1890): 81–83; (August 1890): 90–91.
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• Ricker' s trans la tion of Moderne Architektur was his only trans la tion pub lished in book form. It was also pub lished in abridged form in the Brickbuilder in 1901. See BrickbuilderW (June 1901): 124–128; (July 1901): 143–147; (August 1901): 165–171.
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• Perrot , Geor ges and Chipiez , Charles . 1882 . Histoire de 1 'Art dans 1 'Antiquite. , Paris : Hachette et Cie . The Histoire de l'Art dans 1 'Antiquite was a ten-volume his tory of an cient art. Ricker trans lated only vol umes 7–10 deal ing with the art of Greece. 1914
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• Ricker be gan trans lat ing selected en tries from the Dictionnaire in 1887. These early trans la tions were among his first pub lished works, ap pear ing in theBuildingBud get and later the Northwestern Architect. He trans lated the en tries iorSerrurerie (Ornamental Iron work), [3 (November 1887): 145–148; (December 1887): 168–170.]; Peinture (MuralPainting), [5 (January 1889): 5–6; (February 1889): 17–18; (March 1889): 36–37; (April 188&): 48–49; (May 1889): 60–62; (June 1889): 75–77; (Au gust 1889): 96–97; (September 1889): 112–113; (October 1889): 124–126; and (November 1889): 143–145], onstruction(MedievalConstruction), [5 (December 1889): 149–151; 6 (Jan u ary 1890): 3–5; (Feb ru ary 1890): 20–21; (March 1890): 33–35; (April 1890): 46–49; (May 1890): 54–57; (June 1890): 65–66; (July 1890): 77–79; (August 1890): 96–100; (September 1890): 103–106; and November 1890:137–139] The Northwestern Architect, con tin ued the se ries in 1891 with the re main der of the Con sfrucfionen try. [9 (January 1891): 3–5; (February 1890): 15–17; (March 1890): 35–37;and (July 1890): 67–68. One other en try was trans lated, that en ti tied Menuisiere (Join ery) but I have been un able to lo cate the spe cific ci ta tions for this en try. The Uni ver sity Ar chives at UIUC pre serves these trans la tions, mounted on pa per and bound, in Re cord Se ries 12/2/21, “Na than C. Ricker Tran scripts and Text books.”
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• UIUC Uni ver sity Ar chives has a file on this build ing, con sist ing pri mar ily of im ages taken through out the build ing's his tory. Ricker also de signed his home in Ur bana, which is currently under go ing res to ration. More in formation on the house is avail able on the World Wide Web at http://www.prairienet.org/ricker
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• Stamper , John W. and Mick Charney , W. 1974 . The Draw ings ofN. Clifford Ricker UniversityArchitect: 1878–189 7. , Uni ver sity of Illinois . Unpublished class pa per
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• This book ap pears to have been the first pub lished by a mem ber of the Uni versify Fac ulty while on the fac ulty.
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• 1995 . “ For more de tails on these por traits see Muriel Scheinman” . In A Guide to Art at the Universityoflllinois. Urbana-Champaign, RobertAllertonPark , Chicago, Urbana : University of Illinois Press . This guide book is based onScheinman's unpublished Ph. D the sis Art CollectingattheUniversity of Illinois: aHistoryandCatalogue. (Uni ver sity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1981.
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• Ricker and Wells had worked to gether on Ricker' s fi nal build ing on cam pus, the Li brary (now Altgeld Hall).
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• Bur ton was a fac ulty mem ber at UIUC from 1912–15.
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