Harry Francis Cunningham Architecture Drawing project
Harry Francis Cunningham (1888-1959),
Rare Drawing project for the Nebraska World War Memorial in the Capitol 1934
Scale 1/2 - Schem "B" -
Pencil, color crayons, watercolor, gouache, gilded on cardboard
Signed and dated Harry Francis Cunningham Architect 1934
13 x 17.5 inches or 44,5cm x 33 cm
Architect-in-charge for the Nebraska Capitol tower, Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue Associates, Architects, New York, New York
Colonel Harry Francis Cunningham was a distinguished member of the architectural profession in Nebraska, first as the architect-in-charge of design development and construction documents for Bertram G. Goodhue Associates during the tower construction phase of the Nebraska Capitol, 1926-1930, then as founder and first chairman of the Department of Architecture in the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska in 1930, where he served as chair until 1934. Cunningham enjoyed a rich and varied career, both in the U. S. Army, and as an architect practicing in Washington, D. C., New York, St. Petersburg, Florida, and Lincoln, Nebraska.
Cunningham was born in Washington, D. C. on April 15, 1888. After high school he studied both in the United States and France, taking his first architecture job back home with the supervising architects of the U. S. Treasury in 1907. His military career began with World War I, after which he returned to architecture from 1919 until 1939, when he again resumed military duties as an intelligence officer and strategic planner. In 1949 he returned to Lincoln where he remained until his death on April 25, 1959. He was a member of American Legion Post 3, the Roundtable, and the American Institute of Architects, which elected him Fellow in 1955.
The Harry F. Cunningham Gold Medal is the highest honor AIA Nebraska can bestow upon an individual and is awarded in recognition of the most distinguished achievement in architecture or service to the profession of Architecture.