Fuller's Laboratory Notebook

Abstract

Over the course of his life, R. Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) amassed an enormous collection of personal and professional correspondence, manuscripts, architectural models, newspaper clippings, and audiovisual recordings. By the time of his death in 1983, Fuller's archive contained over 1400 linear feet of papers and 1700 hours of recordings, and weighed an estimated 45 tons. Fuller thought of this collection as a detailed “laboratory notebook,” in which his every project and encounter would be faithfully and accurately recorded. This article describes the collection itself, discusses some of the unique organizational strategies that Fuller devised, and describes how the collection was acquired and subsequently processed. This article also comments on the value of the archive as a research collection. Because of its comprehensivity, the archive not only illuminates the work of R. Buckminster Fuller, but also affords sweeping views of the twentieth century at large through his eyes.