JOHN DESMOND PAPERS Mss. 4792 Preliminary Inventory Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections Special Collections, Hill Memorial Library Louisiana State University Libraries Baton Rouge, Louisiana January 2004 Revised 2008, 2012 Updated 2018, 2020 DESMOND (JOHN) PAPERS Mss. 4792 1954-2003 LSU LIBRARIES SPECIAL COLLECTIONS CONTENTS OF INVENTORY SUMMARY .....................................................................................................................................3 BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL NOTE .......................................................................................4 SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE ....................................................................................................4 ARRANGEMENT AND SHELVING ............................................................................................5 SERIES DESCRIPTIONS ...............................................................................................................6 Container List for Architectural Files and Drawings .......................................................................8 Container List for Artistic, Business, Personal, Professional Records ..........................................46 Use of this collection: Portions of the John Desmond Papers are considered unprocessed and therefore require review by the Assistant Curator of Manuscripts or the Head of Archival Processing before materials can be made available for use. We require 36 hours’ notice in order to accommodate these requests. Requests to view approved materials can be placed via the Special Collections Request System. Photocopying. Should you wish to request photocopies, please consult a staff member; do not segregate items to be copied. The existing order and arrangement of unbound materials must be maintained. Publication. Readers assume full responsibility for compliance with laws regarding copyright, literary property rights, and libel. Proper acknowledgment of LLMVC materials must be made in any resulting writing or publications. The correct form of citation for this manuscript group is given on the summary page. Copies of scholarly publications based on research in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections are welcomed. 2 DESMOND (JOHN) PAPERS Mss. 4792 1954-2003 LSU LIBRARIES SPECIAL COLLECTIONS SUMMARY Size. 140 linear feet Geographic locations. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas Inclusive dates. 1954-2001 Bulk dates. 1970-1999 Languages. English. Summary. Office files, architectural drawings (design development, working, and final), photographs, and slides recording the architectural career of Baton Rouge, La. architect John Desmond. Access. Requires notice of 36 hours to have flat files located in the map cage retrieved. All other parts of the collection may be paged as requests are received. Reproduction. Materials may be duplicated for standard professional, scholarly, and educational use, within the fair use limits set by U.S. copyright laws. Copyright. Physical rights are retained by the LSU Libraries. Copyright of the original materials is retained by descendants of the creators of the materials in accordance with U.S. copyright law. Citation. John Desmond Papers, Mss. 4792, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU Libraries, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Stack location. 32:-33:, 148:-149:, B6, Map Cage See section “Arrangement and Shelving” and the container lists for specifics. 3 DESMOND (JOHN) PAPERS Mss. 4792 1954-2003 LSU LIBRARIES SPECIAL COLLECTIONS BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL NOTE A native of Hammond, Louisiana, award-winning Baton Rouge architect John Desmond’s buildings shaped much of the city’s public image. He graduated from Hammond High School in 1937, attended Southeastern College for one year, and then attended Tulane, where he earned a degree in architecture. After his service in the Navy during World War II, he earned a master's at M.I.T. and worked for a firm in New York and for architect A. Hays Town in Baton Rouge. In 1952 he opened an architectural practice in Hammond, the first architectural practice in the Florida parishes. His firm included Jack Davis, Bill Burks, and others, and they served as school board architects in Tangipahoa Parish for about 20 years. In the early 1960s, the firm enjoyed a dual practice with an office in Baton Rouge for 10 years. Then, in the early 1970s, Desmond closed the Hammond office. His firm has been known as Desmond, Miremont, and Burks, and later Desmond and Associates. Baton Rouge buildings he and his firm designed include the Louisiana Naval Museum, the Bluebonnet Swamp Interpretive Center, the Louisiana Arts and Science Center, the Louisiana State Archives, Louisiana State Library, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, the Louisiana State University (LSU) Union, and the Centroplex. Several local churches and buildings at Southern University in Baton Rouge and Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond are also his designs. In addition to public and religious buildings, Desmond also designed several residences in Louisiana, the Florida parishes, and surrounding states. His designing John Schwegmann’s home led to a long association with the Louisiana-owned grocery store owner, and Desmond consequently designed all the Schwegmann grocery stores in New Orleans and the surrounding area and in Baton Rouge. Desmond also taught architecture classes at LSU and Southern University and is the author and illustrator of Louisiana’s Antebellum Architecture. He retired from private practice in 2002. SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE Collection contains office files such as correspondence, construction meeting minutes, schematics, reports, bid proposals, and change orders for each project or building; design development drawings and renderings; specifications and construction drawings; and photographic prints, negatives, and slides from Desmond’s architecture firm. Some business records and informational and promotional materials about the firm are present as well. Also included are professional materials relating to Desmond’s participation in the American Institute of Architects’ Regional Urban Design Assistance Team and a small group of Desmond’s personal papers. These records document many of Baton Rouge’s most recognizable and important buildings from Desmond’s first conception of how the building would look through the construction and engineering of the finished product. 4 DESMOND (JOHN) PAPERS Mss. 4792 1954-2003 LSU LIBRARIES SPECIAL COLLECTIONS ARRANGEMENT AND SHELVING The collection is largely shelved and presently arranged according to material type. It is still considered unprocessed. Design development drawings and renderings show the development of Desmond’s concept and idea of each project. These include pen and ink, pastel, and printed drawings. These are referred to as “flat files,” and they are located in wooden flat file storage units in the map cage. See container list to locate materials for a specific building. Architectural construction drawings include drawings reflecting changes in design as a project progressed, as well as the final set of drawings used in construction. The majority of these are located on 1 North, ranges 148:-149:, and are referred to as “rolled drawings,” though some are also mixed in with the design development drawings and renderings in the flat files. See container list to locate materials for a specific building. Job-related office files such as correspondence, construction meeting minutes, schematics, reports, bid proposals, change orders, specifications, photographic negatives, prints, and slides for orders for each project or building document the relationship between the contractor, architect, and owner. Photographs include those by Frank Lotz and Hursley. All of these materials are housed in record center boxes, which are located on 1 South, ranges 32:-33:. See container list to locate materials for a specific building. Records and informational and promotional materials about the firm, professional materials relating to Desmond’s participation in the American Institute of Architects’ Regional Urban Design Assistance Team, and a small group of Desmond’s personal papers are housed in record center boxes. These are also located on 1 South, ranges 32:-33:. See container list to locate these materials. Design development and renderings (flat files) Map Cage *Requires at least 36 hours’ notice to retrieve Construction drawings (rolled drawings) Ranges 148:-149: Stick Sets B6 Project and office files, professional activities, Ranges 32:-33: (boxes 1-105) personal papers, photographs, negatives, and slides Box 73, 75, 83, and 84 contain most of the specifications. 5 DESMOND (JOHN) PAPERS Mss. 4792 1954-2003 LSU LIBRARIES SPECIAL COLLECTIONS SERIES DESCRIPTIONS Series 1: Vertical File (5.5 linear feet) The vertical file pertains to the building projects of John Desmond, which are principally located in Louisiana, especially Baton Rouge and Hammond. Other locations include Texas, Arkansas and Missouri. The projects represented in the vertical file cover a wide range of functions, including residences, churches, commercial, educational and governmental buildings. Projects with extensive coverage include the Louisiana State Archives (Baton Rouge), Pennington Biomedical Research Center (Baton Rouge), Schwegmann’s buildings (New Orleans and other Louisiana areas), and the Vietnamese Martyr’s Auditorium and Pastoral Center (Carthage, Missouri). University projects involving buildings at Louisiana State University (Baton