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.
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.
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.
The Online Archives includes photos, documents, and architectural drawings documenting the design and 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.
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
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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: