Based on the book, Progressive Design in the Midwest by Jennifer Komar Olivarez, and its Prairie School Collection of objects, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts presents this Web site, featuring architectural objects, a virtual tour of the Purcell-Cutts house in Minneapolis (donated to the Institute in 1985 and restored by 1990), and an architectural tour of Prairie style buildings in Minnesota that can be taken online or in person. Architects whose work can be seen at the site include William Gray Purcell, George Grant Elmslie, Frank Lloyd Wright, and George Washington Maher. Extensive information about each object is available. For example, a dining table and chairs by Frank Lloyd Wright were designed for the house of Mr. and Mrs. George Barton in Buffalo (NY) in 1904, and viewers can zoom in to magnify the grain of the wood. The online tour of the Purcell-Cutts house brings together items from the museum's collection, such as historic photographs and models, with contemporary views showing the house's restored state, as well as providing details such as the architects' notes and a calculation that the $14,355 the house cost in 1913 would be $252,946.29 by 2001.
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