This collection primarily contains original correspondence--including letters, telegrams, and postcards-- to California architect Robert D. Farquhar from Chester A. Aldrich. Also included is a small group of letters from Amey Owen Aldrich to Farquhar. Most letters are accompanied by envelopes; a very few contain photographs, clippings and other ephemera. Matters discussed in the correspondence vary widely from intimate personal subjects to observations and reports on the work of Carrère & Hastings and Delano & Aldrich, the American Red Cross and its work with soldiers in Italy during World War I, the rise of Fasicsm in Italy, economic hardships during the Depression, and the state of American and European architecture.

Included are approx. 7,000 architectural drawings, circa 1910s-1940s, for projects designed by Delano & Aldrich, including La Guardia Airport in New York; several buildings at Yale University; Willard Straight Hall at Cornell University; various buildings at United States Military Academy at West Point; the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; alterations to the White House; numerous residences throughout the New York City metropolitan area, particulary the Dwight W. Morrow house in Englewood, N.J., the J.A. Burden house in Syosset, N.Y., and the Willard D. Straight house on East 92nd Street in New York City; and various schools, churches, and residential structures throughout the United States. Rendered competition drawings are included. Drawings made by William Adams Delano while a student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, circa 1900. Also, 6 boxes of photographs of Delano & Aldrich completed projects, chiefly residential structures.

This collection includes original and reprographic architectural and engineering drawings, specifications, correspondence, and photographs documenting the design and construction of High Lawn, William B. Osgood Field's estate in Lenox, Massachusetts. The main house and related outbuildings were designed by the prominent New York architecture firm Delano & Aldrich between 1908 and 1914. The farm buildings and several other estate structures were primarily designed by New York architect John C. Greenleaf. The collection also includes copy photographs of the Field family and guests at High Lawn during the 1910s. Also included is a small group of drawings and other papers related to neighboring properties in Lenox; as well as drawings for Field's townhouse at 645 Fifth Avenue in New York City, designed by Hunt & Hunt, with interior work by Stuart & Stuart, dating from 1903-1911; and drawings for a building at 8-10 W. 37th St., in New York City, designed by John C. Greenleaf in 1923.