Edgar Irving Williams (1884-1974)

He was born in Rutherford, New Jersey, and was the younger brother of the poet William Carlos Williams to whom he was greatly attached. He was educated in Switzerland and the United States, graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Architecture in 1908. In the following year, he won the Rome Prize that was the most important design award then available to any young American architect and included a scholarship to study for four years (1909-1912) at the American Academy in Rome, Italy. On returning to America, he worked in New York for both W. Welles Bosworth and Guy Lowell before forming a partnership of his own in 1920 as Williams & Barrett. From 1928, he worked independently and he was a Professor of Architecture at Columbia University for 25-years; Consulting Architect to the New York Public Library; and, President of the New York chapter of the American Association of Architects. In 1955, he was elected to the National Academy of Design. In 1913, he married Hulda Gustafva Olsson and had four daughters: Ingrid, Palamona, Edith, and Christina.