Hi everybody,

there is this famous quote "form follows function" by Louis Henry
Sullivan which he wrote in his article "The Tall Office Building
Artistically Considered." Lippincott's Magazine. No. 57 (March 1896)
on pages 403-409. It is easy to get this article online in the net,
but ...
... the question is: on which of the original pages (of 403-409) this
quote appears?
Does anybody can find this out or maybe finds a link to a scanned
original version. There are no copyright problems.

Regards
Cythmadra

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 08 Nov 2005 18:49 PST

cythmadra-ga,

I suspect the reason for not citing a specific page number for the
famous quote is that the phrase: "form ever follows function" is
repeated three times in Sullivan's article, on different pages.

The final occurence of the phrase appears in the very last paragraph,
so it is probably safe to say the it occured on page 409 of the
original article.

Still...it would be nice to actually see the danged thing to be certain.


Does that help at all?


pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by cythmadra-ga on 09 Nov 2005 00:33 PST

@ pafalafa-ga
thanks for estimating. This doesn't help. Of course I am aiming on the
first not on the last one (besides: we can't be sure that the last one
is on page 409! Could also be on 408). This is a dictum which has
influenced a century of design and architecture! I think the question
if somebody in the world HAS SEEN this article is quite naturally.
Then the answer to my question would be quite simple :-)

Can't imagine why you'd want to know, but I would estimate - based on
where the dictum actually appears in the article - that it's on page
408. Incidentally, on that first appearance, it read "form ever
follows function" in italics.

Easily explained: Normally when you quote something you have to give
the exact source including the page number. In this case everybody
writes "403-409" which means that nobody seams to have an original of
this article in hands (because otherwise one would give the page
number of course).
Maybe there is a source in the internet giving the page number or a
scan of the articel available. Could be - we are talking about a world
famous claim! That's why I am posting this ;-)
Regards

I think people probably quote the page numbers for the whole article
because they are more interested in providing the source of Sullivan's
argument about the primacy of function, rather than the source of the
3 0r 4 words, famous though they may be. Moreover, some citations
refer to a reprint of the article in a subsequent book, together with
other writings by Sullivan. Thus, one citation I've seen reads:

'Sullivan L. "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered." In:
Athey I., ed. Kindergarten Chats (revised 1918) and Other Writings.
New York 1947: 202-13'

Perhaps you might find this book easier to get hold of than the
original magazine, and you could then look up the precise page number
of the quote.

Thanks for your comment!
In this case I am sure that the reason why everybody writes 403-409 is
NOT to point out other arguments. As a matter of fact, if we all would
know the page number there would be plenty of sources to find in the
internet which refer to this number!
This other source you mentioned might be interesting although I think
it is rather a reprint with a different layout (11 pages) than a
reproduction of the original work (6 pages).

The Proquest database has the original article in PDF form. If you can
get access to it (probably through your library or a local
university's library) all you need to do is search for Lippincott's
Magazine and select the correct issue date- it showed up as result 29
for me under the march 1896 issue. It's finals week for me, or I'd
read through and find the page numbers for you. Good luck!

Hi,
I didn't find anything in "The Proquest database" ... although I have
found an access. Any additional hints? If you can look up the page
number, please do it. You would be able to answer my question,
wouldn't you?
Regards ...