Blog

Photograph by Keiran Murphy, September 1, 2003.

The Abandoned Stairway at Taliesin

Reading Time: 6 minutesI was working on my Taliesin Book1 and thought up another change at Taliesin I should write about. So today I’m going to write about what you see in the photo at the top of this post. The photo shows a stairway that used to take you from Taliesin’s Guest Wing (the first floor) up […]

Photo is sepia of cabin with hipped roof surrounded by trees in late fall. Property: https://digitalcollections.hclib.org/digital/collection/MplsPhotos/id/12037/

Frank Lloyd Wright Violated the Mann Act

Reading Time: 5 minutesNo, not the first time he violated it. I wrote about that before when introducing you to the second Mrs. Wright. In this post I’ll write about the second (and last) time. As I wrote once before, information about the Mann Act is something you learn when working at Taliesin. In particular, the Mann Act […]

Distant view of Taliesin in 1921-22. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York), Photograph by Clarence Fuermann of Henry Fuermann and Sons.

The Musical-Note Retaining Wall at Taliesin

Reading Time: 4 minutesWe hear he liked music,             if you didn’t know that, just trust me but what is this thing about a Musical Note? I’m talking about a retaining wall outside of Taliesin and I’m going to write about it today. It’s called that because It looks like two musical quarter notes touching end-to-end.1 You can […]

Photograph of Keiran with a tour group on Taliesin's Hill Crown. Keiran has white pants on.

Doing too many Taliesin tours

Reading Time: 5 minutesMy post today isn’t going to be about taking too many Taliesin tours, but about giving too many of them. That’s because, you see, we’re coming into late September and I realized that the Taliesin tour guides right now may start to feel like what I wrote years ago             in my unpublished memoir, “What […]

Photo of Flower in the Crannied Wall at Taliesin's Drafting Studio. By Keiran Murphy.

Flower in the Crannied Wall at Taliesin

Reading Time: 5 minutesI posted today because I want to talk about the “Flower in the Crannied Wall” statue at Taliesin. She was originally designed for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Susan Lawrence Dana residence in Springfield, IL (1902-04). Sculptor Richard Bock make her in terra cotta for Wright and she was placed inside, near the front door of the […]

The wedding anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright and Olgivanna

Reading Time: 4 minutesFrank Lloyd Wright standing with daughters Svetlana and Iovanna, while his wife, Olgivanna, looks at the photographer. Wright’s sister, Maginel, sits behind them with the dog. Judging from Iovanna’s age, I think this was taken in the summer of 1930-32. The group is seated at Taliesin’s Tea Circle steps. I can’t find an early photo […]

Taliesin August 1914 after first fire

Statements after the murders at Taliesin in 1914

Reading Time: 6 minutesAugust 15, this coming Thursday, marks 110 years since 7 people were inexplicably murdered at Frank Lloyd Wright’s home, Taliesin, by his servant, Julian Carlton. I’ve written about it a couple of times1 and had not planned on writing anything today. But I’ve gathered a lot of information over the years and, in the spirit […]

Frank Lloyd Wright's bedroom. Photo by Maynard Parker, Huntington Library-Parker Collection.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Blue Shag Rug

Reading Time: 5 minutesColor photo taken in Wright’s bedroom at Taliesin, 1955. I don’t think you can miss the blue shag rug in the photo’s foreground. He didn’t have blue suede shoes, but he did have a blue shag rug on the floor of his Wisconsin bedroom. Someone asked about this the other day at Facebook, so I […]

Drawing of an elevation of the Guggenheim Museum. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York), #4305.629.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s design of the Guggenheim Museum

Reading Time: 6 minutesDrawing of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. My post this week is going to be about where Wright designed the Guggenheim Museum He designed it in New York City, you silly! No. I mean: in which of his studios did Wright first draw the plan for the museum? See, the Guggenheim […]

American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) looks over a drawing with his assistants at the Hillside Drafting Studio on the Wright's Taliesin Estate near Spring Green, Wisconsin, c. 1957. (Photo by ? Marvin Koner/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

The Taliesin Fellowship

Reading Time: 5 minutesA photograph of Frank Lloyd Wright with apprentices at a drafting table in the Hillside Drafting Studio. Photo taken by Marvin Koner in June 1958. When I gave tours, I introduced the Taliesin Fellowship as: a coeducational apprentice program that Wright and his wife, Olgivanna, started in 1932. They wanted the apprentices to participate in […]

Subscribe via Email

Consider a Donation

If you enjoy this content, please consider donating via PayPal.

Donate