In 1999, Stanford University Libraries acquired
the archives of Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983), an American
polymath whose versatile career as an architect, lecturer, mathematician,
writer, and social critic is documented extensively. The collection
contains over 1300 linear feet of papers and manuscripts, 2000
hours of video and audio recordings, and thousands of models and
other artifacts.
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Image Courtesy Estate of R. Buckminster
Fuller |
Dymaxion Chronofile
The centerpiece of the collection, in many ways, is the Dymaxion
Chronofile, an exhaustive journal of Fuller’s trajectory from
1920 until his death in 1983. Fuller had been collecting clippings
and artifacts since he was a child. But in 1917, he began a formal
chronological file which he would later call the Dymaxion Chronofile.
The Chronofile was a vast scrapbook that included copies of all
his incoming and outgoing correspondence, newspaper clippings, notes
and sketches, and even dry cleaning bills. Initially, the Chronofile
was bound into handsome leather-backed volumes. In later years,
to save space and expenses, the Chronofile was simply stored in
boxes. By the end of his life, this exhaustive “lab notebook”
of his life’s experiment amounted to 270 linear feet.
Fuller intended for the Chronofile to be a case study of his life
in context, in which his daily activities were presented in parallel
with developments in technology and society. In it, he at once traced
the evolution of his own thoughts, relationships, and business ventures;
and documented new inventions, trends, and technologies that were
emerging on the broader level.
“If somebody kept a very accurate record of a human being,
going through the era from the Gay’90’s, from a very
different kind of world through the turn of the century--as far
into the twentieth century as you might live. I decided to make
myself a good case history of such a human being and it meant that
I could not be judge of what was valid to put in or not. I must
put everything in, so I started a very rigorous record.”*
In addition to the Chronofile, the collection includes materials
relating to his family's history; thousands of photographs and slides
documenting his family and his work; video and audio tapes of his
lectures around the world; business and legal files; extensive files
of his original manuscripts; and physical models and other artifacts.
* From Synergetics Dictionary citing Oregon Lecture #9,
p.324, 12 Jul ’62
Applewhite, E.J., Ed. Synergetics Dictionary: The Mind of Buckminster
Fuller. New York: Garland Pub, 1986.
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