First National Bank of Dwight Collection, 1905-1920

In 1905 Colonel Frank L. Smith commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a building that would accommodate a bank space for the First National Bank of Dwight (Illinois) and an insurance office for Col. Smith. The small one-story building was completed the next year. Wright's office also provided custom designs for interior furnishings.

The collection contains approximately four hundred items, primarily correspondence, among which are letters signed by Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as by Walter Burley Griffin and William Drummond, architects in Wright's studio. The bulk of the remaining correspondence is between the office of Frank L. Smith, founder of the bank, and various subcontractors, suppliers and manufacturers of bank furnishings. The collection also includes architectural drawings for the bank and sketches for lighting fixtures and furnishings designed in Wright's office.

The collection is arranged in two series. Series I contains correspondence and related business papers. Items in this series are arranged either alphabetically by correspondent or chronologically. Series II contains reproductions of architectural drawings and photographs.

• Names
  • First National Bank of Dwight (Dwight, Ill.)
  • Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959.
  • Griffin, Walter Burley, 1876-1937.
  • Drummond, William, 1876-1946.
  • Smith, Frank L., of Canterbury, Conn.
  • Luddington, Roland S.
• Subject
  • Commercial building.
  • Bank building.

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Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archive (Columbia University, Avery Library).

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archive (Columbia University, Avery Library).

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The First National Bank of Dwight Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago.

The collection was given to the Burnham Library in 1969 by the First National Bank of Dwight, Illinois.

This collection was processed by Ryerson and Burnham Archives staff and revised by Annemarie van Roessel in 2002.