The Walter S. White papers span 86 linear feet, date from 1926 through 1997 (bulk 1939-1996), and include White’s personal
and office papers, his research, and drawings and photographs relating to his architectural designs and patents. Personal
papers contain clippings, letters, legal and financial documents, and photographs. The office records include correspondence,
contracts and legal documents, and video interviews with White. Large research files document his interest in alternative
energy and sustainable methods of construction, and his extensive work on solar heat exchange windows and walls and on hyperbolic
paraboloid roof structures. His architectural commissions and projects, which number more than 600, are documented by drawings
and photographs. The White papers were donated to the Museum in 1998.
Walter S. White was born in 1917. Between 1933 and 1936 he attended San Bernardino High School. White worked for six months
in 1937 for Harwell H. Harris followed by an eight month term in Rudolf Schindler’s Los Angeles office during 1937-1938. After
working with Schindler White worked for Allen Rouff for six months between 1938 and 1939. Between 1939 and 1942, White worked
for Win E. Wilson for two years and six months, helping to plan and design prefabricated war housing with a skin-stressed
plywood panel system. In his papers White recounts that over 8,000 of these units were constructed in the United States.
86.0 Linear feet
(60 half record storage boxes, 5 oversize flat boxes, 21 flat file drawers, and 2 models)