House Beautiful

The House Beautiful series is composed of 16,261 black-and-white negatives, color transparencies, and black-and-white prints photographed by Maynard L. Parker and his assistant Charles Yerkes for House Beautiful, 1941-1966 and undated. This series provides a comprehensive overview of the architecture, landscape architecture, and design covered by, and promoted in, the magazine for over two decades.

Projects in the Architects and Designers subseries primarily document residential architecture, landscape architecture and interior design.

The Residential Projects subseries consists of residential architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture as well as examples of party and holiday decorations, decorative accessories and housewares in residential settings.

The Pace Setter Houses subseries documents homes chosen to be a part of House Beautiful's Pace Setter House Program. House Beautiful editor Elizabeth Gordon began the Pace Setter House program in 1946 to oppose the International Style of design embodied by architects such as Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe. Pace Setter houses were intended to highlight a modern American architecture that emphasized craft and regionalism. The program continued until 1965, featuring 17 houses by architects including Cliff May, Henry Eggers, Walter Wilkman, Alfred Browning Parker, Harwell Hamilton Harris, and Roger Rasbach.

The Non-Residential Projects subseries documents non-residential projects including home and garden exhibitions, hotels, offices, and furniture in showrooms. A large portion of this subseries is made up of images of the Arts of Daily Living Exhibition held at the Los Angeles County Fair in 1954. Most of the room exhibits were designed by architect John De Koven Hill, architectural editor for House Beautiful at the time; one room was designed by architect Henry Eggers. Exhibits also include the furniture design work of Terence Harold Robsjohn-Gibbings, George Nakashima, and Hans Wegner.

The Editorial and Staff Assignments subseries documents projects created for editors and staff members of House Beautiful. These were garden writer Alice Dustan, home furnishings editor Frances Taylor Heard, garden editor Joseph Howland, horticulture writer Jean Lawson, family editor Marva Shearer, and contributor Ellen Sheridan.

The Projects by Location subseries includes photographs taken by both Parker and Charles Yerkes, depicting mostly residential projects in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Kentucky, Hawaii, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and Washington. This subseries also includes residential subjects photographed in Cuernavaca and Puente de Ixtla, Mexico. A large number of photographs in this subseries document projects in Hawaii by architects such as Vladimir Ossipoff and Charles W. Dickey.