A 1p typed letter signed by esteemed modern architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), boldly signed as "Frank Lloyd Wright" at the bottom left across Wright's classic red square motif inspired by a Japanese seal. The letter is displayed to the right of a black and white matte photograph of the architect matted in a cream board. The letter, dated May 31, 1950, is on watermarked bifold paper with deckled edges. Wright has also hand-corrected a typo on line 8, changing a period to a question mark in black pen. The letter shows flattened transmittal folds, else near fine. The actual size of the letter is 5.25" x 8.625." Both the letter and the photograph are hinged at the top to the mat back. The front of the mat with openings is currently detached but included. The mat measures 19.375" x 13.5" x .125" overall. Accompanied by an excerpt from a 1978 oral history project interviewing Ray Strong about Frank Lloyd Wright and the museum project.

Frank Lloyd Wright wrote this letter to a faculty member and students of the College of Marin, a community college located in Kentfield, California, regarding the architectural design of a proposed campus museum.

Wright wrote in part:

"Gentlemen: Your project seems interesting. The sort of thing I should like to try.

How much money? I don't know - probably all you can get (as things go). Suggest you come here to go over the project in more detail as I shall not reach San Francisco before next November…"

The "project" referred to plans to build a museum on the campus of the College of Marin (formerly Marin Junior College), a community college located about 18 miles north of San Francisco. The architectural design of the museum building had to be as unique as the extraordinary mission of the museum itself; to showcase an ever-changing rotation of multimedia exhibits that reflected the dynamic nature of the college student body. College of Marin art teacher and museum co-sponsor Ray Strong (1905-2006) approached Frank Lloyd Wright to design the museum building after college trustees sanctioned the project in mid-May 1950.

The museum went under a variety of names during this period of conception: "Life Through the Ages, a Story of Change," "Story of Life Yesterday, Today and the potential Tomorrow," and "Spiral Toward Freedom." Strong described the project in a 1978 oral history project as "…a little ever-changing, living museum at the College of Marin…[which would] tell the story of where we came from, the story of evolution, but come right on up and look at the world and its problems today…" In terms of how it would look, Strong envisioned a museum building dominated by a "spiral space-time sequence…all depicted in imaginative simplified terms to give an overall digestive tract, to adjust the too-often cubicled, overspecialized book type of thinking into seeing the whole sweep of life which comprehension of the present, moving out of the past into the potentiality of the future…" The overall museum mission was to foster unity, peace, and understanding--virtues at a premium during the Cold War.

Frank Lloyd Wright was intrigued by Strong's ideas. In this May 31, 1950 response to Strong's pitch, Wright invited the art teacher to visit him at Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin. (William "Bill" H. Morrison, one of Strong's pupils and an architecture student at the community college, was also invited.) Strong and Morrison arrived at Taliesin in August 1950. Wright met with Strong, and afterward, Strong worked with Taliesin Fellows to create the building floor plan. Sadly, Strong could never secure adequate funding for the museum, and the project was subsequently shelved by college administrators. For more information about Ray Strong and the aborted Wright-designed College of Marin museum, see Mark Humpal, "Ray Stanford Strong, West Coast Landscape Artist" (Oklahoma Press, 2017), especially pp. 160-174.

Ray Strong, in addition to teaching, was also an accomplished Western School landscape painter. A friend of Western photographer Ansel Adams, Strong had trained at the California School of Fine Arts and the Art Students League of New York City. In the 1930s, Strong worked for the Works Progress Administration and co-founded an art collective called the San Francisco Arts Student League. Strong taught drawing, painting, printmaking, design, and three-dimensional arts at the College of Marin before disagreements with college administrators about the museum led to his dismissal soon after.

Frank Lloyd Wright created over 1,000 architectural plans over his 70-year-long career, of which more than half were constructed. Wright's pioneering design approach incorporated function, aesthetics, and the environment. His influence fundamentally changed late 19th and early 20th century architecture. In addition to architectural design, Wright wrote many books, served as a mentor, and also designed furniture and decorative arts.

In 1950, while Wright was contemplating undertaking the College of Marin museum project, he was busy at work designing several Usonian houses, mostly in the Midwest. These included the Kraus House (Kirkwood, Missouri); the J.A. Sweeton Residence (Cherry Hill, New Jersey); the Donald Schaberg House (Okemos, Michigan); and the Lowell and Agnes Walter House (Quasqueton, Iowa.)

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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