The William Wesley Peters Library at Taliesin West is the official depository for:
Books, periodicals and other media associated with the Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.
The architectural records of the design legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, Taliesin Architects, and the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.
The library's core collection was created when William Wesley Peters donated his personal library to the School in the 1980's. The collection has grown substantially since.
The library serves the research needs of the Taliesin educational community and the wider community of architectural and design scholars interested in its special collections. Although the Library is not open to the public, scholars have access to the collections by appointment, at 480-860-2700+556 or wwplib@taliesin.edu.
The William Wesley Peters Library accepts monetary and in-kind donations.
> Download Library Catalog (4.5 MB, Excel Spreadsheet)
> Organic Architecture Bibliography
The original core of the Library's collection came from the personal library of Frank Lloyd Wright's first apprentice, the late William Wesley Peters, and chronicles the history of the Taliesin Fellowship from its inception in 1932. In 1996, as part of the effort to assist in the NAAB accreditation process, numerous people, including architects formerly affiliated with Taliesin, donated personal book collections to the Library. Additionally, many libraries contributed books and periodicals.
Acquisitions of current publications in architecture and the arts are ongoing. The William Wesley Peters Library presently contains over 27,000 catalogued volumes, including:
> Periodicals
> State and Federal documents
> Maps
> Sound recordings
> Videos
> CD-ROMs
> Architectural archives of Taliesin Architects, which include books and pamphlets, slides, photographs, drawings, collateral materials, correspondence, and other documents.
> The archives of Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture
The mission of the William Wesley Peters Library is fourfold:
> To provide information resources to the faculty, staff, and students of the School and the Foundation
> To collect, preserve, and conserve published materials regarding the architectural and design legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright
> To collect, preserve, make accessible, and disseminate the primary and secondary records pertaining to the architectural firm, Taliesin Architects, and architects who formerly apprenticed to it and to Frank Lloyd Wright
> To enhance awareness of the lifetime work of Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture Archives collection consists of more than 30 cubic feet of boxed materials:
> Administrative correspondence, accreditation files, and apprentices' files
> Over 5,000 apprentices' Box Project drawings, boxes and artifacts dating from the 1930s.
The Taliesin Architects Archives in the William Wesley Peters Library at Taliesin West represents an integral part of the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, his apprentices, and the principles of organic architecture. The primary resources of this successor firm to Frank Lloyd Wright’s practice are essential to the continued accreditation of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. The collections include:
> Over 100,000 original drawings and renderings for more than 1500 projects undertaken by the firm since 1959. Architects include William Wesley Peters, John Rattenbury, Charles Montooth, E. Thomas Casey, Charles Schiffner, Davy Davison, and David Dodge
> Over 2,500 boxes of project files including correspondence
> Over 15,000 photographs, slides, negatives and transparencies
> Over 26,000 ephemeral items including primary source materials and news clippings
> Over 550 presentation panels
> Over 1,000 books and periodicals
> Computer tapes, cd-roms, and dvds