Ingram's Architecture Class Project, 1925
The Kentucky Library & Museum (KL&M) has owned the drawings of architect James Maurice Ingram (1905-1976) since 1979. These drawings came rolled in tubes, wrapped with butcher paper, and covered in coal dust. Over the years, the staff has flattened, cleaned and cataloged each set of drawings. The collection has been used by local historic preservation professionals, architects, local home owners, and dozens of students in Architecture and Manufacturing Sciences, Folk Studies, History, Art, and Interior Design.
Recently Kasey Chappell, a graduate student in Folk Studies, began cataloging the drawings in KenCat, the KL&M’s online database. She was also charged with gleaning materials from the collection for a forthcoming website related to Mr. Ingram. Kasey was disappointed to learn that the KL&M didn’t possess a photograph of Ingram. She did some online searching and found a Dr. James Maurice Ingram in Nebraska and wrote to him inquiring if he was related to our Ingram. He replied immediately that he was the architect’s grandson. He put us in contact with his father who was in Florida. This Mr. Ingram, also an architect, practiced with his father for a number of years under the moniker Ingram & Ingram.
James Maurice Ingram, Jr. recently sent materials related to his father and his career, including his high school diploma, an album of photographs documenting projects done by the Ingrams, a photo of his parents, and a student project done by his father at Notre Dame in 1925. The project, seen above, was a drawing executed for a class in which Ingram displayed his learned skills in architectural history, drafting and shading. Ingram designed dozens of homes, schools, industrial sites, and commercial buildings in Bowling Green and Warren County. He practiced here from 1929 to the early 1940s, when he moved his office to Louisville.