Home
Preface
Outline of the Categories of Information
Introduction
Building a Common Framework for Catalogue Entries
Implementing a Common Framework
Introduction
Organization of the Guidelines
Groups/Items
Subjects/Built Works
People/Corporate Bodies
Geographic Locations
Bibliographic Sources
Introduction
Group Entries
Volume (Sketchbook) Entry
Item Entries
Glossary
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
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A Guide to the Description of Architectural Drawings


People/Corporate Bodies Categories:

Personal/Corporate Names


Descriptive Name
Name*
Alternate Name(s)

In authority work it is customary to require literary warrant, that is, establishment of a name by its use in scholarly publication. A useful tool in this effort is AHIP's Union List of Artist Names (G. K. Hall, 1994), which presents variant names referring to 100,000 artists and architects. However, many people and corporate bodies encountered in architectural history are not yet cited in the literature of the discipline. In these cases, a name should be established by its use in the documents being catalogued. When a name appears in different forms, the most commonly known one should be used. This may be in the form of a signature or as it appears in a text, on a title page, or in accompanying textual records.

People

An individual may be known by a number of names, or by the same name but with a variety of recorded spellings. For example, on occasion the name by which a person is or was known in in his or her language and time, e.g., Raffaello Sanzio (vernacular) may be different from that by which the person is known in the language of the cataloguer, e.g., Raphael (English common usage). Ideally, any system should have a name authority file, which would record alternate names and specify preferred names (in Name). The preferred name would then be used for searches in files that hold names. To facilitate retrieval, names are ordered surname first, e.g., Piranesi, Giovanni Battista. For purposes of display a separate category (Descriptive Name) gives the name in natural order.

A name alone may not suffice to identify an individual. It is recommended that whenever any name is displayed, it should be accompanied by Locus/Location and Descriptive Date of Existence, under Bigographical/Corporate History. Displaying these additional categories with the name enhances an entry's comprehensibility.


Example:


James Smith, Scotland, ca. 1645-1731


James Smith, England, 1734-1807


James Smith, Scotland, fl. 1810-1834


Corporate Bodies

A corporate body may be defined very broadly as an organization or collective of two or more people who have worked together as an entity. Legal incorporation is not necessary in order for a group of individuals to be considered a corporate body. Examples of corporate bodies include partnerships, architectural firms, studios, offices, foundations, societies, religious bodies, governments, guilds, and schools.

Corporations, like individuals, may be known by a number of names. In some instances these are abbreviations or acronyms (National Gallery of Art, National Gallery, N.G.A. ); in others the name has changed over time (University of Louisiana , now Tulane University ). In the case of a firm of architects, changes of name are often the result of changes in the partners involved.


Example:


Barott, Blackader and Webster


Barott and Blackader


Barott, Marshall and Montgomery


Barott, Marshall, Montgomery and Merrett


Barott, Marshall and Merrett


It can be argued that each of the above is a corporate body in its own right, and should be treated as such. However, this approach would require a mechanism to relate the record of each to those of the others. From the user's viewpoint, it is desirable for retrieval to relate people and corporate bodies to one another and to record the nature of the relationship (pupil of, or in the office of). It is beyond the scope of the Guide to provide recommendations for how to discern where one corporate body ends and another begins, as in the case of an architectural firm that changes partners several times over a period of years. What is important is that a consistent approach be adopted.

It is often the case that corporate bodies are clients for and/or occupants of built works. Indeed, structures are often named after the corporate body that built or occupied them. Care should be taken not to confuse a corporate body with the building it occupied.


Example:

The following is an excerpt from a corporate body authority record:



NAME:


Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum


LIFE ROLE(S):


museum


The following is an excerpt from a subject/built work authority record:



SUBJECT/BUILT WORK NAME:


Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum


SUBJECT/BUILT WORK TYPE (BY FUNCTION/FORM):


museum


Corporate bodies may be subdivided hierarchically into a number of entities (e.g., departments or divisions). These entities may have their own names, geographic locations, and corporate histories.


Example:

In the following example, the repository is part of a larger corporate body, the Smithsonian.



NAME:


Cooper-Hewitt Museum


ALTERNATE NAME:


The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Design


GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION:


2 E. 91st St, New York, NewYork, 10128, U.S.A.


DESCRIPTIVE DATE OF EXISTENCE:


founded 1897


CORPORATE DESCRIPTIVE NOTE:


A bureau of the Smithsonian Institution, founded in 1897


NAME:


Smithsonian Institution


GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION:


900 Jefferson Drive, SW, room 2410, Washington, DC 20560, U.S.A.


DESCRIPTIVE DATE OF EXISTENCE:


founded 1846


CORPORATE DESCRIPTIVE NOTE:


A non-profit independent trust instrumentality of the United States, founded 1846


These relationships must be preserved through some structural mechanism that allows retrieval by each hierarchical level.


Example:


NAME:


Smithsonian Institution


NAME:
Cooper-Hewitt Museum




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Category: Descriptive Name

Definition:
The natural language (direct-order) name of a person or corporate body. The name recorded here should be the one preferred by the repository; in other words, it corresponds to that found in the Name category, not the Alternate Name(s)category (both under Subject/Built Work Identification). While those Subject/Built Works categories serve as access points for retrieval, this category provides a way to display a more natural expression of a name.

Discussion:
This category provides a name for display in the authority entry for a person or corporate body. It is distinct from the respective descriptive name categories for Groups/Items and Subjects/Built Works, where qualifiers or nuances are added to the name to convey specific circumstances. For an item of uncertain attribution, the group/item record would display any necessary qualifications in the Responsibility Description under Origin/Maker (Sebastiano Serlio ?), while the authority entry would display the name without nuance (Sebastiano Serlio).

When a person or corporate body has been known by several names, the preferred one should be used in this category. Former names may also be used.


Example:


DESCRIPTIVE NAME:


Public Buildings Service,General Services Administration (formerly the Office of the Supervising Architect, Treasury Department)


DESCRIPTIVE NAME:


Hôtel de Saint-Florentin (United States Consulate after 1920)


Implementation:
descriptive
optional
single occurrence

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Category: Name*

Definition:
An appellation by which an individual or corporate body is or was known. This category is intended to serve as an access point and should therefore be structured in a way that aids retrieval, e.g., in inverted format for personal names: Smithson, Robert . Alternatively, parts of personal names (last name, first name, title, etc.) may be recorded in separate categories. Corporate names should be recorded in natural order, inverting only articles, e.g., Johns Hopkins University, The.

Discussion:
Retrieval of entries by the name of the relevant person or corporate body is a basic requirement. It is recommended that existing guidelines be used, such as those for names in AACR2. In most cases, personal and corporate names should be recorded in several categories for adequate retrieval.


Example:


DESCRIPTIVE NAME:


Sir Edwin Lutyens


SURNAME:


Lutyens


FORENAMES:


Edwin Landseer


TITLE:


Sir


Treatment of names is presented more generally here, however. It should be understood that this category refers only to a broad concept that would have to be articulated in several separate information categories. The following guidelines cover a few situations that are typical of architectural documents.

If a person's name is unknown, but by convention an associated name is used in combination with other words (e.g., follower of Giovanni Battista Gaulli), the entire expression can be treated as the Responsibility Description category, while the known person or corporate body named in the expression should be recorded under Name (e.g., Gaulli, Giovanni Battista). This method allows researchers to retrieve entries for anonymous hands through the name of the most closely associated person or corporate body.

Quite often, however, there is no known person or corporate body with which to associate an anonymous person. Some repositories may choose to keep authority records on such people by using a pseudonym, such as Charlieu façade master,or by initials in the place of a signature, such as W.G.M.Authority records for such anonymous people are most effective when supplemented by other information categories that allow for retrieval. It is recommended that at least the estimated locus of activity and dates be added to such anonymous authority entries.

It is not unusual for the name of a person or corporate body to have several forms or to have changed over time. In most repositories and information networks, it is necessary to decide which of several possible names is to be used, for example, in printed entries and in entries to be shared through a network. This category is reserved for that preferred name; see Alternate Names for all others.


Examples:



name:


Public Buildings Service


[ALTERNATE NAMES]:


Office of the Supervising Architect




Public Works Branch




Public Buildings Branch


[All of these entries have respective broader-level entries as well.]



name:


Pope, Office of John Russell


[ALTERNATE NAMES]:


Eggers & Higgins


[Following Pope's death in 1937, his surviving partners formed a separate firm called Eggers & Higgins, but they continued work on projects begun during Pope's lifetime under the name Office of John Russell Pope.]


It is recommended that a repository attempt to record the vernacular version of a name, although doing so may not be practical in all cases. The vernacular name is the name in the language of the person or corporate body. This vernacular name may or may not be preferred by the repository; minimally, the vernacular name should be recorded as an alternate name in order to allow retrieval internationally.

To determine the preferred name, the following sources may be helpful (in order of preference): Bibliography of the History of Art ; Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Kuenstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig, n.d.; Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, 4 vols., New York, 1982; E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, n.e., 4 vols., Paris, 1976; national biographies, other scholarly literature, records, and inscriptions. It is recommended that sources consulted for the name be recorded in the entry.

If a repository must select one preferred name for all entries connected to a given person or corporate body, the Descriptive Name category in specific entries for Groups/Item and Subjects/Built Works may be used to clarify what otherwise may seem an anachronism. For example, an entry in Subjects/Built Works for a built work whose patron was Giovanni de'Medici may index the preferred name Leo X, even though he had not yet become pope when he commissioned the work. However, the name to be displayed in the entry for the built work could be Giovanni de'Medici if it appears in the Descriptive Name category for the built work. To enable retrieval by the name Giovanni de'Medici, it should be entered in the authority record as an alternate name. This approach will not allow immediate retrieval of all entries related to Giovanni de'Medici, as opposed to all entries related to Leo X, but using Date of Execution, for example, would, since it is known when Giovanni de'Medici was elevated to the papacy as Leo X.

Implementation:
access point
authority-controlled
hierarchical
single occurrence

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Category: Alternate Name(s)

Definition:
Variant names by which a person or corporate body is or was known. These include names of firms that change over time, variations of spellings, translated names, and abbreviated names, among others. All names that appear in literature should be listed.

Discussion:
Researchers may not know which name is preferred by the cataloguing institution for a person or corporate body. Recording alternate names makes retrieval possible no matter which name is used in the query. See example under Name.

Terminology:
All personal names should be in their indexed (inverted) form. Alternatively, parts of names can be recorded in separate categories (e.g., last name, first name, titles, etc.). Corporate names should remain in their original order, except for articles, which should be inverted.

Implementation:
access point
authority-controlled
optional
hierarchical
repeatable