Guide to the John Nolen Papers,
1890-1938, 1954-1960.

City planner, landscape architect.

John Nolen attended the University of Pennsylvania, earning a Ph.B. in 1893, and for the next ten years worked as secretary of the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching. In 1903 he enrolled in the newly established Harvard School of Landscape Architecture, receiving an A.M. in 1905. He established an office in Cambridge, where he and his associates branched out into city planning as well as landscape architecture. Nolen was a frequent lecturer on city and town planning, and was active in many professional organizations, including the American City Planning Institute (now American Institute of Planners), American Civic Association (now Urban America), American Society of Landscape Architects, American Society of Planning Officials, International Garden Cities and Town-Planning Federation, National Conference on City Planning (now Urban America), and the Town Planning Institute of England.

Collection consists of personal and professional correspondence, letterbooks, addresses, biographical data, diaries, scrapbooks, school notes and textbooks, syllabi, lectures and outlines, typescript papers and articles, printed material, policy directives, card files, sample contracts, projects files and reports, slides, photographs, negatives, plans, blueprints, drawings, charts, and maps relating to Nolen's work in city planning, preservation, survey projects, zoning, and extension programs. Includes records pertaining to Nolen's studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard; his work at the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching; consulting jobs; projects with the United States Housing Corporation, National Resources Committee, National Park Service, National Resources Planning Board, Federal Emergency Relief Administration of Public Works, Resettlement Administration, Department of the Interior, Division of Subsistence Homesteads, and various city and state agencies; and housing, parks, streets, railways, and water systems in Bridgeport, Conn., Charlotte, N.C., Clearwater, Clewiston, Sarasota, and Venice, Fla., Columbus, Ga., Johnson City and Kingsport, Tenn., La Crosse and Madison, Wis., Lancaster and Reading, Pa., Little Rock, Ark., Mariemont, Ohio, Niagara Falls, N.Y., Riverton, N.J., Roanoke, Va., Sacramento and San Diego, Calif., Boston, Mass., Spartanburg, S.C., Dubuque, Iowa; and other places.

Includes correspondence from the Marchioness of Aberdeen, Thomas Adams, Captain S.B. Alexander, Philip R. Allen, Charles B. Ball, Edward M. Bassett, G. Frank Beer, George A. Bellamy, Russell Van Nest Black, Joshua L. Brooks, Helen E. Chase, Charles E. Cheney, Richard S. Childs, Herbert C. Chivers, Carlos Contreras, David Cushman Coyle, Jacob L. Crane, Jr., J. Benjamin Dimmick, Earle Sumner Draper, Mrs. Thomas A. Edison, Richard T. Ely, Robert E. Ely, F.F. Feidler, Edward A. Filene, Henry Ford, James Ford, Philip W. Foster, Kenneth E. Franzheim, George B. Gallup, Patrick Geddes, Edward Howard Griggs, Harry Highland, N.J. Hoggson, B.W. Huebsch, John Ihlder, Mrs. C.B. La Monte, J.E. Latham, Nelson P. Lewis, Arthur MacArthur, George H. Maxwell, Richard Meinig, John Nolen, Jr., Irving C. Root, Mrs. Robert M. Seymour, Clarence Stein, Raymond Unwin, Claude G. Varn, Hale J. Walker, Frank B. Williams, George Zug, American Institute of Architects, Babson Institute, Advisory Committee on Housing (Boston), Boston Metropolitan Planning Commission, Cleveland City Plan Commission, General Federation of Women's Clubs, Guggenheim Foundation, Massachusetts Dept. of Public Welfare, Massachusetts City League, Massachusetts Federation of Planning Boards, New England Council, New England Regional Planning Commission, New York Regional Plan Association, Philadelphia Regional Planning Federation, Russell Sage Foundation, and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Also, "The Nolen Family Album: A Record of Five Generations 1835-1954," family history, compiled by John Nolen, Jr. and Barbara Nolen Strong, 1980.

Includes results of projects funded by John Nolen Research Fund, broadsides for Nolen exhibits and symposia, and other Nolen documentation.