The Photographs of Completed Buildings in Leather Portfolios series (90 portfolios, 1907-1941) is an important collection of large-format, black-and-white images of Kahn's projects, built between 1907 and 1941. With the exception of the Hudson Motor Car Company Factory photographs, which document the project under construction in a series of fold-out images, all of the photographs in this subseries were taken after the buildings were completed and measure between 4-1/2x6-1/2 and 10x14 inches, with the majority at the larger end of this range. These prints are housed in their original, 90 leather portfolios, with marbled end-papers. A few smaller leather albums can be found in Boxes 11 and 12. The series is arranged alphabetically by project title. The portfolio numbers were assigned by the Bentley Historical Library during processing of the collection.
The full dimensions of Kahn's work are represented here, from institutional, residential, commercial, and industrial buildings to such important First and Second World War projects as Langley Field (Hampton, VA), Buick Airplane Engine Plant (Melrose Park, IL), Chrysler Tank Arsenal (Warren, MI), Curtiss Wright Corporation Aeroplane Division Buildings (Buffalo, NY), and Thompson Aircraft Products Building (Euclid, OH). The twenty-three photographs of Langley Field (1917) are particularly interesting, because they document views of several military and civilian structures, even before the roads were completed. The portfolio photographic collection offers researchers an unparalleled opportunity to view in rich detail the exteriors and interiors of Kahn's buildings, representing the entire range of his industrial-modern and historically influenced projects. Five of the leather portfolios contain photographs of important buildings by other architects, including Paul P. Cret, York & Sawyer, Malcomson & Higgenbotham, Ayman Embury, Charles Platt, Walker & Gillette and McKim, Mead & White.
The photographers whose work is represented in the portfolio collection were among the most respected architectural photographers of their day, including the Hedrich-Blessing Studio of Chicago, John Wallace Gillies of New York, and Thomas Ellison of Detroit. The partnership of Ken and Bill Hedrich and Phillip Blessing, established in 1929, is particularly noteworthy, as the firm became the premier, architectural, photographic studio in the country, with such other famous architects as Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill also using their services. Albert Kahn hired Hedrich-Blessing to photograph four of the projects in the portfolio collection: Curtiss Wright Corporation Aeroplane Division Buildings (Buffalo), W. K. Kellogg Auditorium and High School (Battle Creek), Southeastern Junior High School (Battle Creek), and Thompson Aircraft Products Building (Euclid, Ohio). The archives of the Hedrich-Blessing Studio have been housed at the Chicago Historical Society since 1991.
