Blackader-Lauterman Library of Architecture and Art

The Blackader-Lauterman Collection of Architecture and Art houses the core research collections for the School of Architecture, the School of Urban Planning, and the Department of Art History & Communication Studies. The collection was established in the early 1920s with an endowment from the family of the late Gordon Home Blackader, an early graduate of the McGill School of Architecture whose death in World War I cut short a promising career. Asecond endowment was received in the 1940s from the family of Dinah Lauterman, in memory of the Montreal sculptor. The Blackader-Lauterman Collection of Architecture and Art is located within the Humanities & Social Sciences Library, one of thirteen branch libraries at McGill Library.

The Blackader-Lauterman Collection has grown particularly strong in the history of Byzantine and Medieval art, iconography, Italian Renaissance art and architecture, 17th and 18th century European architecture and Canadian architecture and planning. The holdings comprise over 79,000 monographs and active journal subscriptions. The collection’s rare books are housed in Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC), one of the finest university-based rare book collections in Canada. There are over 3000 monograph titles in the Blackader-Lauterman Rare Book collection ranging in date from 1511 to 2009 with a particular strength in Renaissance architectural treatises and iconography.The Architectural History and Theory Program’s Architectural History seminar is held in RBSC, and students use these rare materials as their primary working collection.

Summer 2010 saw a refurbishment and reorganization of the Blackader-Lauterman space, thanks to a gift from the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) Library Improvement Fund.

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