The British architect; or, the builder's treasury of staircases...

The British architect; or, the builder's treasury of staircases...

Abraham Swan

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Swan's British Architect was first published in 1745 and went through four English editions before 1775, when an American edition was published in Philadelphia. Its designs for homes for the professional and middle classes in England were well suited to the needs of the colonial elite.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The British architect; or, the builder's treasury of staircases...The British architect; or, the builder's treasury of staircases...The British architect; or, the builder's treasury of staircases...The British architect; or, the builder's treasury of staircases...The British architect; or, the builder's treasury of staircases...

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.