University of Texas at Austin

Richard Garrison (active New York City 1930s-1960s)
View of the Barberry Room (“Elbow Room”) main dining room
Ca. 1937
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Norman Bel Geddes Database

Job 362, Barberry Room (Elbow Room), 1937-1957

Summary: Bel Geddes designed this private dinner club for New York City’s literati in 1937. An addition to the Berkshire Hotel on East 52nd Street, Alexander Woollcott originally named it the Elbow Room. In his design, Geddes installed mirrors on facing walls to reflect the images of patrons, thereby creating a theatrical spectacle.


(click image for description)

Box/Location Folder Description
box 18a 362.1 Correspondence 1937-1941.
box 18a 362.2a Data --- Design memos, furnishings, cost estimates, publicity and brochure text. Members List.
box 18a 362.2b Data --- Monogram design for plates.
box 18a 362.3 Construction specifications 1937.
box 18a 362.4 Photograph Record Copy Book caption material, captions.
box 18a 362.5 Photograph captions.
photo box 8 362.1 15 Record Photographs with labels, captions.
photo box 8 362.2 Photographs (21) of room and entrance.
photo box 8 362.3 Photographs (3) by Garrison.
photo box 8 362.4 Photographs (6) by Garrison.
oversize box 7 362.1 4 Photostats of interior and of clipping.
negative box 6 362.1 5 Negatives. [4 damaged]
box 18a 362.6-8 Publicity --- Clippings 1938-1942; Playbill 1957.
oversize box 7 362.2 Publicity --- Clipping 1939.
flat box 11a 362.5 Monogrammed plate, designed by NBG for Barberry Room, with purple monogram.
flat box 11a 362.6 Monogrammed plate, designed by NBG for Barberry Room, with black monogram.

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