Blog
Curtains at the Hillside Theater
Reading Time: 6 minutesStanding in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hillside Theater looking east at the curtain. I took this photo in 2007. I’m excited1 to write about the curtains at the Hillside Theater today for a couple of reasons. 1: I can show a few photos of Hillside’s original theater curtain. And, 2: I get to give you one […]
History of Native Americans in The Valley
Reading Time: 6 minutesThis photo was taken in 1930. The photograph was looking south (with the Taliesin structure behind the photographer and to the left). I picked this photo because it shows the beauty of the valley in which Taliesin stands. I’m going to write about The Valley and Native Americans today because native people’s do have a […]
DON’T TOUCH THAT STONE
Reading Time: 7 minutesLooking west in the Drafting Studio that Wright used at Taliesin until World War II (after that he used it as an office). His desk is on the right-hand side. If you look at the ascending stairs, you see two lines: one that is horizontal, and another that’s vertical. These are remnants from a change […]
Blue smoke at Taliesin
Reading Time: 5 minutesA photograph I took in 2007 while the Preservation Crew removed the boiler from Taliesin’s living quarters. Taliesin’s living room is one floor up and to the right. Didn’t I write in here about the time there was blue smoke inside Taliesin’s Living Quarters one fall day in 1995? [searches this blog for the words […]
Hey Keiran Q and A
Reading Time: 6 minutesA photograph of me taken by the Executive Director at Taliesin Preservation in 1998. I was giving a lecture on Taliesin’s history. I talked about “Hey Keiran” in my blog post on “How I became the historian for Taliesin.” Back then, the only way people got their weekly schedules was to pick up the printed […]
Julian didn’t seal the entrances
Reading Time: 6 minutesAlbert Rockwell took this photograph on August 15, 1914. It shows Taliesin’s burned living quarters. WARNING: My post includes descriptions of the extreme violence that took place during Taliesin’s 1914 fire. Additionally, contemporary news reports often refer to murderer Julian Carlton as “the negro”. I’ve removed that term for Carlton when the sentences are still […]
“Well, the guide told me….”
Reading Time: 5 minutesScreen-grab of actress Bonnie Hunt in the 1993 movie, Dave. The scene shows Hunt as a White House tour guide with a group going through the “People’s House” [the White House]. I guarantee most of you, tour guide or not, have this going through your head right now: “We’re walking… we’re walking….“ In this post, […]
Unfinished Wing
Reading Time: 5 minutesGeorge Kastner took this photograph on November 28, 1928. It’s looking northeast at the far western end of Taliesin. “I don’t know why you say it was a pigsty,” Minerva said to me (Minerva became a member of the Taliesin Fellowship in the 1950s). “It always had goats.” She was referring to a section at […]
Up the Hill
Reading Time: 5 minutesPhotograph taken in the American Players Theatre on June 11, 2022, before the start of the show, The Rivals. Members of APT belong to the Actors Equity Association, so photographs are prohibited during performances. I’m not writing this week about Frank Lloyd Wright, the Taliesin estate, or other non-Wright things I’ve delved into. I’m going […]
False Clerestory at Taliesin
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe entry to Taliesin’s Living Quarters as seen from its Hill Crown. What’s a clerestory? Clerestory— “1. An upper zone of wall pierced with windows that admit light to the center of a lofty room. 2. A window so placed.” My definition comes from Dictionary of Architecture and Construction, 4th edition (McGraw-Hill, New York, 2006)— […]
