Shown is the entrance to Austin Hall on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.  It was constructed in 1883 by the influential American architect Henry Hobson Richardson. (1838-1886) Harvard states: “Austin Hall is considered a masterpiece of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture, a style that Richardson popularized in America. A trip to the Auvergne region of France inspired Richardson’s southern Romanesque building design.  He had previously designed Harvard University’s Sever Hall (1880) and Boston’s Trinity Church (1877). 

Editorial Comment for this plate:

AN ARCHITECTURAL STUDY.

“The Interior of the Garfield Safe Deposit Vaults,” which was presented in THE PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMES not long ago, elicited considerable well-deserved praise. We are pleased to give our readers, this week, a worthy companion to that interior. “An Architectural Study” is sent us without comment, or the photographer’s name. It is an exterior which speaks for itself, however, as an excellent example of photographic work; and though we cannot announce the skillful photographer’s name, or that of the building, the picture will be none the less appreciated by our readers. Perhaps the modest author will come forward and tell us something about his negative. We shall certainly all be glad to hear from him. (p. 455)