Visitors interested in a wonderful, well-written history on the light fixtures of Caldwell and Co. will enjoy the Smithsonian Institution Libraries website and digital collection of his work. Started in 1895, Caldwell and Co. made electric lights that aesthetically fit into the interiors of buildings without taking away from their traditional architecture. This creative ability made them popular...

The Canadian Architectural Archives were established in 1974 as a joint venture between the University of Calgary Library and the Faculty of Environmental Design. The site contains a great deal of information about their holdings and collection, but most visitors will want to click directly over to their "Online Collections" area. Here visitors will find the Panda Digital Image Bank, the Donovan &...

Created in 1979 by Phyllis Lambert, the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) is an international research center and museum founded on the conviction that "architecture is a public concern." This website is a delightful mix of commentary, digital projects, and information about events at the Centre. A good place to start is at the CCA Recommends area. Here visitors can learn about recent books,...

This remarkable exhibition from the Getty Foundation brings together two rare masterpieces of Medieval English art: stained glass from Canterbury Cathedral and illuminations from the St. Albans Psalter. First-time visitors can watch a short preview of the in situ exhibit and then move on to detailed online exhibition galleries. The Behind the Scenes area offers first-hand commentary from...

In the late 1920s, architectural photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston began a privately funded project to document the historic Chatham estate and Old Falmouth, Virginia. After the initial success of this project, she received funding from the Carnegie Corporation to document notable buildings and landscapes throughout the American South. The Corporation required that the negatives be deposited...

Early in the 20th century, social activist Caroline Bartlett Crane had an intriguing idea: Why not build an efficient home plan for the common man and woman? She acted on this idea, and her design was the national winner of Herbert Hoover's Better Homes of America campaign in 1924. The house was built in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and it remains a private home today. This digital collection from the...

Little builders and future architects will love these short at-home design projects from the Center for Architecture at the American Institute of Architecture New York (AIANY). Architecture and urban planning concepts are explored in the context of New York City. Grown-ups will appreciate that all of the projects call for basic materials found at home. Many require nothing more than paper and a...

There are a number of thinktanks and policy groups dedicated to exploring the built environment, and the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) is perhaps one of the most intriguing of the entire group. Created in 1997 by a group of industry and government leaders, the CBE at the University of Berkeley is supported by a major grant from the National Science Foundation and several other...

The Cathedral of Chartres, located some 50 miles outside of Paris, is considered one of the most important cultural landmarks in France, and even Europe. In 2004, Professor Alison Stones of the University of Pittsburgh began to create an online collection of visual materials documenting this imposing structure. Working with some of her students and colleagues, this project was supported by the...

From the artistic statements of Louis Sullivan to the brutally Modern statements of Walter Netsch, architecture in Chicago is nothing if not eclectic. Given the important legacy of those architects practicing in and around Chicago, it is refreshing to note that the Art Institute of Chicago has been collecting the oral histories of these men and women since 1983. With substantial financial support...