Publications about Cass Gilbert
Geoffrey Blodgett, Cass Gilbert: The Early Years (Saint Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001). A highly readable account of Gilbert’s life and career before his move to New York.
Geoffrey Blodgett, “Cass Gilbert and Julia Finch: Falling in Love in the 1880s,” Minnesota History 57 (Spring 2000): 38-50. A biographical snapshot placed in historical context.
Barbara Snowden Christen, “Cass Gilbert and the Ideal of the City Beautiful: City and Campus Plans, 1900 to 1916,” (Ph.D. diss., City University of New York, 1997). Discussion of Gilbert’s plans for New Haven and Waterbury, Connecticut, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Texas, among others. Unbound copies of dissertations can be ordered online through ProQuest dissertation express for $41.00: www.proquest.com/products_umi/dissertations/disexpress.shtml
Barbara Christen and Steven Flanders, eds., Cass Gilbert: Life and Work (New York: W. W. Norton, 2001). The most comprehensive assessment to date of Gilbert’s career from a variety of perspectives. Essays by nineteen authors, expanded from presentations at a symposium held in New York City in November 1998.
Gail Fenske, “The ‘Skyscraper Problem’ and the City Beautiful: The Woolworth Building,” (Ph.D. diss., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988). A scholarly and contextual assessment of Gilbert’s most famous building.
Margaret Heilbrun, ed., Inventing the Skyline: The Architecture of Cass Gilbert (New York: New-York Historical Society and Columbia University Press, 2000). A beautifully illustrated collection of essays, published in conjunction with an exhibit of Gilbert’s work at the New-York Historical Society.
Sharon Irish, Cass Gilbert Architect: Modern Traditionalist (New York: Monacelli Press, 1999). The first published monograph on Gilbert and his work.
Sharon Irish, “West Hails East: Cass Gilbert in Minnesota,” Minnesota History 53 (Spring 1993): 196-207. A good assessment of Gilbert’s Minnesota career.
Paul Clifford Larson, Cass Gilbert Abroad: The Young Architect’s European Tour (Afton, Minn.: Afton Press, 2002). Letters and sketches from Gilbert’s first European tour.
William Towner Morgan, “The Politics of Business in the Career of an American Architect: Cass Gilbert, 1878 to 1905,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 1972). The first dissertation written on Cass Gilbert. It focuses on his Minnesota and early New York work
Patricia A. Murphy, “The Early Career of Cass Gilbert, 1879 to 1895,” (M.A. Thesis, University of Virginia, 1979). A pioneering scholarly work on Gilbert’s early career.