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Researching Architect Julia Morgan

For researchers studying Julia Morgan and her work, including Hearst Castle

Online Archive

We are digitizing materials from the collections on a regular basis. Not everything is digitized.

Search digitized records across all Morgan collections at the Online Archive

You can search by keyword, location, client name, project name. 

Images of Julia Morgan

Browse many of the images of Julia Morgan in the archives

Julia Morgan's Student Work

 

Julia Morgan attended Oakland High School, UC Berkeley (Civil Engineering), and L'École des Beaux-Arts (architecture). In the collections you can find her school certificates, photos, school work, and other materials.

Many of Morgan's digitized educational records are browsable at the Online Archive. 

 

 

 

 


In addition, Morgan corresponded regularly with her cousins Pierre and Lucy Le Brun while she was in Paris from 1896-1899. These letters shed light on her experiences in Paris, including applying to L'École des Beaux-Arts and touring Europe. The letters are available at the Online Archive.

A tip: the letters can be difficult to read due to the transparency of the paper Morgan wrote on. You can find draft transcriptions of the handwriting at the Online Archive in the book viewer, click the button labeled "TEXT" to read the transcription of the page you are viewing.

Screenshot of Online Archive page with red circle around the button labeled "TEXT"

Images: page of Morgan's Ecole project portfolios, circa 1896-1901

Screenshots of Morgan letter to LeBruns, June 8, 1896

Morgan Client Index

Julia Morgan's office maintained a Client List, organized alphabetically. This is useful to search if you do not find other records in the collections, as it may provide a connection between Morgan and the client. In 2022 the archives digitized the client index cards, which you can view at the Online Archive.

 

Searching architectural projects

Many projects designed by Morgan are documented in the archives. Materials range from architectural plans and construction photos to client correspondence and Boutelle's research slides. The archives describes most projects by client name. We do not usually include addresses. 

Hearst, San Simeon and Hearst Castle research

How to find items relating to Hearst Castle

The Online Archives includes photos, documents, and architectural drawings documenting the design photo of casa grande at hearst castle under constructionand construction of Hearst Castle.

Search tips for looking for materials about Hearst Castle:

  • The items are usually described as "San Simeon" and not Hearst Castle
  • Try different keywords. Buildings described by building names and sometimes by rooms or areas (such as "Dodge's Suite")
    • The archives mostly uses "House A", "House B" and "House C" to describe the three cottages. The larger house is referred to as "Casa Grande"
  • Use the filters on the left-hand sidebar under "Filter your Search" to narrow down by format
    • if you want to see all photos and drawings, under "Type" select "Still Image"

In the Julia Morgan Papers, start here to see all the items about Hearst Castle.

Morgan-Hearst Correspondence, 1919-1946

Morgan and Hearst wrote to each other frequently from 1919-1946 as they worked together on several Hearst projects. The correspondence between Julia Morgan and her client William Randolph Hearst is now digitized and available online.

Morgan Hearst Correspondence, 1919-1946

The digitizing project took over 3 years and includes almost 6,000 pages of typed and handwritten letters. All the correspondence is transcribed and can be keyword searched.

Photo caption: Casa Grande under construction, circa 1923, Julia Morgan Papers, link

Advanced Search

Want to check to see if anything from a folder has been digitized?

You can check to see if a specific folder or item has been digitized by searching the image identifier number (a unique number for each item digitigized). The formatting of image identifiers is: MS#-SeriesLetter-SubseriesNumber-Box#-Folder#-imagenumber. To find images from one folder, for example:

007-3-e-20-01-