.
By Nora Almeida, Valerie Baloga, Ryan Breaux, Sara Campot, Kai Alexis Smith, Joanna Sondheim, Stephanie Turnbull, Rachel Wittmann, Pratt Students; Erin Allsop and Sara Fetherolf, Brooklyn College Interns
Collection Overview
Title: Presbrey-Leland Monument Company, 1930-1980
Extent: 31.0 Boxes
Arrangement: 31 boxes: 13 document and 18 oversize. The files held within both the document boxes and oversized boxes are arranged numerically by Green-Wood Cemetery lot number. Each folder also indicates the name of the client or estate and the Presbrey-Leland account number, and is labeled in the following format: “Presbrey-Leland account number / Green-Wood Cemetery lot number / name of client and/or estate.”
Date Acquired: 11/01/2011
Subjects: Brooklyn--New York, N.Y., Cemeteries--New York (State)--New York--History, Green-Wood Cemetery--New York, N.Y., Landscape architecture--New York (State)--New York--Designs and plans, New York (N.Y.)--Buildings, structures,etc., Sepulchral monuments--New York (State)--New York
Languages: English
Scope and Contents of the Materials
The records of the Presbrey-Leland Monument Company are housed in thirty-one containers: thirteen LTA document boxes (approximately 6.5 cubic feet) and eighteen custom oversized boxes (approximately 9 cubic feet). The records include purchase orders, contracts, correspondence, hand-written notes, hand-drafted elevations and scale drawings, blueprints, and rubbings of monuments. Records of cancelled orders are included in this collection as well. The files contain documents that support an understanding of the process of creating custom-made monuments, as well as information about individuals in the context of the orders.
The files held within both the document boxes and oversized boxes are arranged numerically by Green-Wood Cemetery lot number. Each folder also indicates the name of the client or estate and the Presbrey-Leland account number, and is labeled in the following format: “Presbrey-Leland account number / Green-Wood Cemetery lot number / name of client and/or estate.” The bulk dates of accounts are from 1930-1960, but there are also accounts from the 1970s and 1980s. The materials in this collection are housed in acid-free folders. Due to the size of some of the items of this collection, some plans, drawings, and full-scale rubbings were separated and housed in oversized, acid-free folders and boxes.
Collection Historical Note
The Presbrey-Leland Monument Company is a New England-based company that was founded over a century ago by the Presbrey and Leland families. The company is currently located in Valhalla, New York, but was formerly situated on 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan. The company produces and designs monuments, mausoleums, plaques, markers, and gravesite landscapes and was considered an innovator of American monument and mausoleum design during the mid-twentieth century. Presbrey-Leland, Inc. has been affiliated with a number of contractors and subsidiary companies; several books on monument design and funerary architecture were published in the 1920s, 30s and 50s under the imprint “Presbrey-Leland Studios.” The company has created mausoleums for luminaries such as William Rockefeller and Walter P. Chrysler.
Green-Wood Cemetery, a National Historic Landmark and one of America’s first rural cemeteries, recently acquired part of the Presbrey-Leland Monument Company Archives. The records of the Presbrey-Leland Monument Company were initially transmitted to the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York, and Susan Olsen, the Historian at Woodlawn, oversaw the disposition of the records and subsequent transmittal to appropriate repositories. The historic records documenting memorial designs and the development of the cemetery at Woodlawn, including a number of Presbrey-Leland records, were donated to the Avery Architectural and Fine Art Library at Columbia University in 2006. The Green-Wood Cemetery retains a similar collection of historic memorial design records from the Presbrey-Leland Monument Company archives that pertain directly to Green-Wood.
Subject/Index Terms
Administrative Information
Repository:
The Green-Wood Cemetery
Access Restrictions:
Researchers may access The Presbrey-Leland Monument Company collection at the discretion of The Green-Wood Historic Fund &The Green-Wood Cemetery. For more information, contact Jeff Richman, the Green-Wood Cemetery Historian: historian@greenwoodcemetery.org.
Acquisition Source:
Presbrey-Leland Monument Company
Acquisition Method:
Donation
Processing Information:
Accession #: 001-2012
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Box:
[
Box 1: Range GWC # 2 - 1840],
[
Box 2: Range GWC # 2458 - 5942],
[
Box 3: Range GWC # 6204 - 8792],
[
Box 4: Range GWC # 9033 - 11860],
[
Box 5: Range GWC # 12074 - 15594],
[
Box 6: Range GWC # 16150 - 19995],
[
Box 7: Range GWC # 20347 - 24121],
[
Box 8: Range GWC # 24323 - 28979],
[
Box 9: Range GWC # 29139 - 33633],
[Box 10: Range GWC # 33633 - 35433],
[
Box 11: Range GWC # 35501 - 37575],
[
Box 12: Range GWC # 37157 - 76016],
[
Box 13: Alphabetical Order Only / No GWC Lot Number Listed],
[
Box 14 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 109 - 3853],
[
Box 15 - OS: (Oversize) GWC # 4038 - 6388],
[
Box 16 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 6516 - 8702],
[
Box 17 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 8740 - 9895],
[
Box 18 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 10351 - 15042],
[
Box 19 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 15425 - 19995],
[
Box 20 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 20347 - 21771],
[
Box 21 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 22048 - 23388],
[
Box 22 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 24090 - 25953],
[
Box 23 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 26090 - 29818],
[
Box 24 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 30368 - 33633],
[
Box 25 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 34241 - 34940],
[
Box 26 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 35061 - 37563],
[
Box 27- OS: Range ( Oversize) GWC # 37572 - 45014],
[
Box 28 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # Surnames A - F],
[
Box 29 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # Surnames G - L],
[
Box 30: Range (Oversize) GWC # Surnames M - R],
[
Box 31 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # Surnames S - Z],
[
All]
- Box 10: Range GWC # 33633 - 35433
- Folder 1: PL# 56796 / GWC# 33633 / Miller, Carrie
- Folder 2: PL# 59764 / GWC# 33633 / Miller, Carrie M.
- Folder 3: PL# 62932 / GWC# 33633 / Miller, Caroline M.
- Folder 4: PL# 42335 / GWC# 33969 / Kagan, David
- Folder 5: PL# 37535 / GWC# 33987 / LeBaun, Est. Maria O.
- Folder 6: PL# 57255 / GWC# 34241 / Platt, Mr. William
- Folder 7: PL# 32650 / GWC# 34307 / Wilcox, Dr. Herbert B.
- Folder 8: PL# 41616 / GWC# 34317 / Easton, Kerner “Richardson”
- Folder 9: PL# 53332 / GWC# 34317 / Easton, Col. Kerner
- Folder 10: PL# 58052 / GWC# 34317 / Easton, Kerner
- Folder 11: PL# 58105 / GWC# 34317 / Easton, Col. Kerner
- Folder 12: PL# 52219 / GWC# 34341 / Smyth, Est. Joseph P.
- Folder 13: PL# 33128 / GWC# 34353 / Decker, Mrs. “Chase”
- Folder 14: PL# 42832 / GWC# 34358 / Missroon, Mrs. Herman H.
- Folder 15: PL# 46708 / GWC# 34358 / Missroon, Herman H. “Pike”
- Folder 16: PL# 43951 / GWC# 34381 / Turnbull, Phillips R.
- Folder 17: PL# 50027 / GWC# 34445 / Holmes, Frances R.
- Folder 18: PL# 47322 / GWC# 34458 / Houghton, Alfred
- Folder 19: PL# 28255 / GWC# 34562 / Leland, Charles Henry
- Folder 20: PL# 42482 / GWC# 34598 / Smith, Mrs. John E. (Goodwin)
- Folder 21: PL# 36123 / GWC# 34599 / Bahrenburg, Mrs. George W.
- Folder 22: PL# 50759 / GWC# 34599 / Bahrenburg, Edna M.
- Folder 23: PL# 49097 / GWC# 34730 / Volkman Jr., Mrs. Edward J. (Parsons)
- Folder 24: PL# 37196 / GWC# 34731 / Atwater, William C.
- Folder 25: PL# 41187 / GWC# 34731 / Atwater, Wm. C.
- Folder 26: PL# 46735 / GWC# 34731 / Atwater Jr., Mrs. Willam C.
- Folder 27: PL# 52933 / GWC# 34731 / Atwater, W.C.
- Folder 28: PL# 54140 / GWC# 34731 / Atwater, Evelene F.
- Folder 29: PL# 49990 / GWC# 34743 / Dieckmann, Frederick
- Folder 30: PL# 59276 / GWC# 34743 / Dieckmann, Frederick
- Folder 31: PL# 58811 / GWC# 34940 / Heine-Howe, Mattie
- Folder 32: PL# 69698 / GWC# 35061 / Hill, Charles
- Folder 33: PL# 48708 / GWC# 35221 / Dermody, Est. Mary A.
- Folder 34: PL# 50671 / GWC# 35221 / Pearn, Alfred Russell
- Folder 35: PL# 50429 / GWC# 35374 / Bernstein, Harold K. (Levey)
- Folder 36: PL# 53060 / GWC# 35433 / Khouri, Mr. & Mrs. E.R.
- Folder 37: PL# 53545 / GWC# 35433 / Khouri, Mrs. E.N.
Browse by Box:
[
Box 1: Range GWC # 2 - 1840],
[
Box 2: Range GWC # 2458 - 5942],
[
Box 3: Range GWC # 6204 - 8792],
[
Box 4: Range GWC # 9033 - 11860],
[
Box 5: Range GWC # 12074 - 15594],
[
Box 6: Range GWC # 16150 - 19995],
[
Box 7: Range GWC # 20347 - 24121],
[
Box 8: Range GWC # 24323 - 28979],
[
Box 9: Range GWC # 29139 - 33633],
[Box 10: Range GWC # 33633 - 35433],
[
Box 11: Range GWC # 35501 - 37575],
[
Box 12: Range GWC # 37157 - 76016],
[
Box 13: Alphabetical Order Only / No GWC Lot Number Listed],
[
Box 14 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 109 - 3853],
[
Box 15 - OS: (Oversize) GWC # 4038 - 6388],
[
Box 16 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 6516 - 8702],
[
Box 17 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 8740 - 9895],
[
Box 18 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 10351 - 15042],
[
Box 19 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 15425 - 19995],
[
Box 20 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 20347 - 21771],
[
Box 21 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 22048 - 23388],
[
Box 22 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 24090 - 25953],
[
Box 23 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 26090 - 29818],
[
Box 24 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 30368 - 33633],
[
Box 25 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 34241 - 34940],
[
Box 26 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # 35061 - 37563],
[
Box 27- OS: Range ( Oversize) GWC # 37572 - 45014],
[
Box 28 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # Surnames A - F],
[
Box 29 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # Surnames G - L],
[
Box 30: Range (Oversize) GWC # Surnames M - R],
[
Box 31 - OS: Range (Oversize) GWC # Surnames S - Z],
[
All]