MIT MuseumObjects
Viewing Record 19 of 68Previous Record Next Record
Switch Views: Lightbox | Image List | List
Welcome to the archived version of the MIT Museum's online collections portal! This site was used to test features and content for the newly redesigned MIT Museum Collections site, which has now launched with over 106,000 objects. Please use the new MIT Museum Collections site for further research and discovery. Webmuseum.mit.edu remains online during the transition period but will not receive new updates or content.
Beacon of Progress
Major collection: Architecture & Design
Named collection: Désiré Despradelle Collection
Object type: drawing
Maker: Despradelle, Constant Désiré
Date made: 1893 - 1900
Materials: graphite; ink; trace paper; paper
Site location: Chicago, Illinois
Measurements: 12 in x 5 in; 13 in x 11 3/4 in; 12 in x 5 in
Plan type/view: elevation
Despradelle made many preparatory sketches for the Beacon between 1893 and the presentation of the project at the Paris Salon of 1900. Early sketches reveal a stepped spire more akin to the tower of a Gothic cathedral; later concepts adopt the more severe form of the obelisk. In every sketch the essential elements of verticality and monumentality are present. The Beacon drawings were a pedagogical model of an iterative design process that Despradelle made use of in teaching. In 1903, a journalist for the Washington Post, shown Despradelle's MIT office with the Beacon drawings on display, noted, "the growth of the idea in his mind [is evident] through a long line of designs."
CDD.BP.11
Named collection: Désiré Despradelle Collection
Object type: drawing
Maker: Despradelle, Constant Désiré
Date made: 1893 - 1900
Materials: graphite; ink; trace paper; paper
Site location: Chicago, Illinois
Measurements: 12 in x 5 in; 13 in x 11 3/4 in; 12 in x 5 in
Plan type/view: elevation
Two sketch elevations of early versions of the monument.
Despradelle made many preparatory sketches for the Beacon between 1893 and the presentation of the project at the Paris Salon of 1900. Early sketches reveal a stepped spire more akin to the tower of a Gothic cathedral; later concepts adopt the more severe form of the obelisk. In every sketch the essential elements of verticality and monumentality are present. The Beacon drawings were a pedagogical model of an iterative design process that Despradelle made use of in teaching. In 1903, a journalist for the Washington Post, shown Despradelle's MIT office with the Beacon drawings on display, noted, "the growth of the idea in his mind [is evident] through a long line of designs."
CDD.BP.11