Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 3

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

2.2 linear feet (6 boxes)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Carlludwig Franck unpublished writings, 1952-1983, Ms. Coll. 3, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1952-1983 (inclusive)

Creator:

Franck, Carlludwig

Form:

Writings (documents), Correspondence, and Typescripts

Abstract:

Carlludwig Franck was an architect, architectural historian, and independent scholar in history and the life sciences. The collection consists of bound typescripts or carbons for mostly unpublished nonfiction works. Some include graphs, drawings, photographs, etc.

Carlludwig Franck was an architect, architectural historian, and independent scholar in history and the life sciences. Born September 25, 1904, Franck studied law at Freiburg and Wurzburg in Germany, then studied architecture at the Technical University of Berlin, where he worked as assistant to Hans Poelzig. Unable to practice architecture under Hitler, he left Germany for England in 1937. Before and after World War II, he worked for the Tecton firm, until it was dissolved in 1948. Franck then worked for Collins, Melvin & Partners from about 1948 to 1953 and for Joseph Emberton from 1953 to 1957. After Emberton's death in 1957, Franck and Tim Tardrew took over the firm, but their partnership was dissolved in 1965. Franck then formed a partnership with Douglas Deeks that continued until Franck retired in 1971.

Franck began an extensive correspondence with Lewis Mumford in 1947, which was concerned primarily with their shared interests in history, architecture, and the life sciences. Franck's letters to Mumford are located in the Lewis Mumford Papers. Mumford tried unsuccessfully to interest publishers in Franck's unpublished works. One of Franck's works, The Villas of Frascati, was published in Germany in 1956 and in England and the United States in 1966. Franck died in London on February 20, 1985. In most of his writings, Franck is concerned with human development in relation to history and the life sciences, sometimes considering architecture and the physical sciences as well.

The collection consists of bound typescripts or carbons for mostly unpublished nonfiction works. Some include graphs, drawings, photographs, etc. There is also one folder of correspondence with Ervin O. Anderson dating from 1954 to 1958. Titles include: An Attempt to Trace a Structural Order in History, 1952 and 1967; The Structural Pattern of History in Architecture, 1952; Problems of a Structure in History, 1952; Scientific Significance of a Structure in History, 1952; The Pattern of History in Architecture, 1952; The Baroque Villas of Frascoti, 1955; The History of Christian Culture as Expressed in its Ecclesiastical Architecture; Turkish Domed Mosques, 1969; Three Epistemological Letters on a Theory of Knowledge, 1956; Relationships and Reality, 1972; The Unity of Life, 1978; Means and Ends of Knowledge, 1973; Evolution and Development, 1974 and 1975; Light, and Life and Time, 1976; The Human Potential, 1980-1982; and Reminiscences and Confessions, 1983.