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 Subject/Built Work Name*
Alternate Subject/Built Work Name*
Subjects/Built Work Location*
All architectural documents have at least one subject. Minimally, one or more generic subjects are represented in any architectural document—for example, a church or a chimney. Some, but by no means all, subjects can be identified more specifically by proper name—e.g., Notre Dame des Champs. This section of three categories addresses the need to provide identifying information when subjects represent identifiable parts of a given environment. Accordingly, this section is not applicable to unidentified subjects.
A subject need not have been realized or built in order to be identified. An analogous way of thinking about this is that people are identifiable by various means: name, locus of activity, dates, etc. Identifiable people need not have been real; figures from mythology, for example, have names. Many subjects of architectural documents may have had a real-world, three-dimensional existence in a geographic place (in which case they are also built works), but many are known only through literature, records, other visual representations, etc. In order to have an identified subject, the structure depicted must have a name or some other unique means to be distinguished from others of its type. For example, a chapel can be distinguished from all other chapels by its name and location, even if it was never built: Southampton Chapel, Fitzroy Square, London, England.
It can be difficult to distinguish one architectural subject from another, but doing so is important if a catalogue is to achieve a level of consistency that preserves the integrity of the records and allows for accurate retrieval of information held in them. A single architectural project may span several building campaigns, have taken place over many years, involved changes of plan, and seen a number of patrons. How then are the corresponding catalogue entries to be defined? The suggestion here is that if any two of the following variables occur, the subject is sufficiently different to merit its own entry:
Architect/design: if the principal architect is changed during a design or building campaign, and the succeeding architect has altered the design to a substantial degree.
Site/design: if the proposed geographic location is changed substantially, and the design is altered to a significant extent.
Date/design: if the design or construction campaign is interrupted or if it extends over a significant period of time, and is accompanied by substantive changes in design.
Client/design: if the person or corporate body for which the design or construction is made changes, and if this change has a significant impact on the design.
Program changes/design: if the requirements for a project change substantially, and the design undergoes major changes.
Financing changes/design: if the financial resources for a project are revised, and the design changes as a result.
In all these cases, a substantial change of design is required before the subject merits a separate entry from the preceding or original subject. A design may be considered changed when the structure looks like a different one in form from the earlier one. Relatively few projects are so altered as to merit treatment as separate subjects. When in doubt, it is better to consider all versions of a subject as one, since otherwise retrieval may be adversely affected.
An important means of identifying subjects is by their names. However, the name on its own may not identify a subject uniquely. Recording the subject of a drawing as the Washington Monument does not in itself indicate which Washington Monument the item represents. It is only when named in conjunction with qualifying information, principally locational, that the subject can be identified uniquely.
Example:
Washington Monument, Washington, D.C.
Washington Monument, Baltimore, Maryland
Locational information does not help, however, in distinguishing between two buildings of the same name that have occupied the same site at different times. For example, there have been two buildings called Somerset House on the same site in London—the present one, built as government offices and begun by William Chambers in 1776, and an earlier town house by John Thynne, built 1547–1552. In this instance, it is not the name or locational information that distinguishes the two, but the names of the architects, dates of building, and functions.
Similarly, locational information does not help distinguish between a number of competition entries for a single subject, all of which are located at the same site, and prepared in the same year. An example is the entries of the 204 participants in the Chicago Tribune Tower Competition of 1922. In this case, the names of the architects responsible are the variables that distinguish one project from another. This distinction will be reflected as the titles of individual drawings. The categories of information used to identify uniquely a particular project can also be drawn together in the Subject/Built Work Descriptive Name category.
Example:
Design by Le Corbusier [Maker Name] for the League of Nations Building [Subject/Built Work Name] Competition [Purpose (Narrow)] of 1927 [Date of Execution].
Subject/Built Work Name and Subject/Built Work Location are considered core categories. However, many subjects do not have names, and many of those that do, do not have (or were never intended to have) geographic locations. This can be indicated by appropriate phrases such as not applicable.
Groups, volumes, and items often have many subjects, sometimes hundreds. When it is impractical to record all subjects on the level of single works (e.g., each building), the following approaches can be adopted:
Record the geographic location of the identified subjects. This will allow researchers to eliminate some material that is not relevant.
Record the most important and/or most frequently requested identified subjects. For the remainder, record by geographic location.
In addition, the Descriptive Note from Groups/Items can be used to explain the scope of subjects that have not been indexed for retrieval.
Category: Subject/Built Work Name*
Definition:
The proper name of a subject and/or built work, e.g., a formal or constructed name that clearly identifies it. This is a core category; when a subject is identifiable by name this information should be recorded.
Discussion:
This category is used only when there is a proper name. (It is quite common for a subject such as a design for wallpaper, or even for an entire building such as a farmhouse, not to have a proper name.) A name in itself does not, however, uniquely identify the subject or built work (e.g., City Hall). In many cases, it is necessary to combine Subject/Built Work Name with a number of other categories of information, e.g., the name of the architect, date, function, or locational information. This category contributes to the establishment of a unique identity for a subject or built work.
A subject depicted may be part of a larger subject, and both may have names, e.g., a drawing of the Cappella Gaddi in Santa Maria Novella. Retrieval of both is necessary, either in combination or separately. The means by which this is accomplished will depend on the data structure employed.
If there is uncertainty concerning the subject's identity, all the probable subject identifications should be recorded. This will allow retrieval by any of the identifications. An explanation of the circumstances or reasons for such alternative identifications should be included in the category Subject/Built Work Description and (if applicable) in Descriptive Title (under Group/Item Identification, one of the top level categories in Groups/Items).
As with all proper names, the subject/built work name may well be expressed in multiple forms or versions. The form preferred by the repository is intended to be used in this category; for all alternate versions, see Alternate Subject/Built Work Name.
Example:
Subject/Built Work Name: |
Terme di Caracalla |
Alternate Subject/Built Work Name: |
Thermae Antoniniana |
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Baths of Caracalla |
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Thermae Caracallae |
If the subject is or was known by several names (including obsolete or previous names), the one that is preferred by the repository should be recorded in Subject/Built Work Name; all other names should be recorded in Alternate Subject/Built Work Name.
Examples:
Subject/Built Work Name: |
Place de la Concorde |
Alternate Subject/Built Work Name: |
Place Louis XV |
If there is an inscription or other type of indication of the subject, and it is not in the preferred form, the alternate identification may be cited in Title (under Group/Item Identification, a Groups/Items category), Subject/Built Work Description, and Inscription Description (under Physcial Characteristics, another Groups/Items category). However, in most systems it will be necessary to refer to any subject by one preferred name (Subject/Built Work Name).
The language in which the Subject/Built Work Name should ideally be expressed is that of the location of the subject, that is, the vernacular.
Examples:
Subject/Built Work Name: |
Brandenburger Tor |
Alternate Subject/Built Work Name: |
Brandenburg Gate |
However, if the repository's linguistic policy precludes this, the vernacular version should appear Alternate Subject/Built Work Name, in order to make the information accessible to an international audience.
Examples:
Subject/Built Work Name: |
Brandenburg Gate |
Alternate Subject/Built Work Name: |
Brandenburger Tor |
Retrieval by both the subject depicted and any larger subject of which it is a part may be provided for in a number of ways, depending on the type of system available. One means would be hierarchically ordering the names from largest to smallest: Santa Maria Novella, Cappella Gaddi. Alternatively, separate categories may be employed for the different levels.
Examples:
Subject/Built Work Name (level 1): |
Santa Maria Novella |
Subject/Built Work Name (level 2): |
Cappella Gaddi |
A third possibility is to make separate authority records for each level (e.g., one for Santa Maria Novella and another for Cappella Gaddi) and to link the two records in such a way that the parent-child relationship between them is preserved.
The following sources may be used to determine the subject/built work name: national gazetteers in the vernacular of the subject (e.g., Touring Club Italiano guidebooks), inscriptions on the documents, Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects. The assumption of this guidance is that names found in literature will be those vernacular names most commonly used by researchers.
This category is not applicable to subjects and built works without proper names. In the absence of a proper name, this category should not be employed to record other identifying attributes, such as function or form, e.g., church. Such information belongs in the Subject/Built Work Type (by Function/Form) category, found under Subject/Built Work Characteristics. It will also be recorded in Descriptive Title, found under Group/Item Identification.
Implementation:
access point
authority-controlled
core
hierarchical
Category: Alternate Subject/Built Work Name*
Definition:
Any name that is or has been used for the subject or built work. This may include previous names or titles, names derived from former or current occupants, translations of the preferred subject/built work name, and all names encountered in literature.
Discussion:
It is usually necessary to use one preferred subject/built work name for each subject. The alternate subject/built work name is a cross-reference that allows retrieval by other names that researchers may cite in queries.
See Subject/Built Work Name for guidelines on choice of preferred and alternate identifications.
Implementation:
access point
authority-controlled
optional
repeatable
hierarchical
Category: Subject/Built Work Location*
Definition: The most specific geographic location of the subject as depicted or of the built work, in addition to its broader geographic locations.
Discussion:
The location helps to identify the specific subject or built work. In addition, it provides access to subjects by geographic places.
When the name of the location of a subject or built work has changed, preference should be given to the current name. For example, for a drawing with the subject, Tomb of Mausolus, the Geographic Location would be recorded as Bodrum, Turkey, not Halicarnassus, Caria, Asia Minor. To avoid anachronisms, however, the historical location name can appear in Subject/Built Work Description (under Subject/Built Work Characteristics) and/or Title (under Group/Item Identification) for display in entries. Alternatively, past and present location names can be cross-referenced using a separate Geographic Locations authority file.
Sometimes a subject may be depicted on more than one site, or a built work may be moved or have multiple locations, as with bridges that span the boundary between two geographic entities. All pertinent locations for subjects/built works should be recorded. Subject/Built Work Description and/or Title should provide the reasons why multiple locations have been recorded.
Examples:
Inscribed Title: |
Plan and Elevation for a Bridge over the River Avon / at the Rocks of St. Vincent from Sion Row Clifton to Leigh Down / near Bristol Hot Well. |
Subject/Built Work Description: |
Road bridge across the River Avon between Clifton and Bristol. |
Geographic Location: (1) |
England |
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Avon |
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Clifton |
Geographic Location: (1) |
England |
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Avon |
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Bristol |
At the time the drawing was made, and until 1974, Clifton was in the county of Somerset and Bristol was an independent city, not part of a county. Retrieval by historic as well as present locations would require implementing a Geographic Locations authority file capable of recording and relating this information (see Geographic Locations).
Some subjects and built works are not locatable to a specifically named place (though spatial coordinates may always be used; see Spatial Coordinates under Geographic Locations). When the subject is near but not in a specific location (e.g., near Siena), that location should not be recorded in Subject/Built Work Location. Instead, the broader location which it falls within (e.g., Toscana) should be recorded in Subject/Built Work Location. The former should be recorded and qualified, however, in Subject/Built Work Description and Descriptive Title (under Group/Item Identification).
Examples:
SUBJECT/BUILT WORK DESCRIPTION: |
Castello di Belcaro, near Siena, Toscana, Italia.... |
SUBJECT/BUILT WORK NAME: |
Castello di Belcaro |
SUBJECT/BUILT WORK LOCATION: |
Toscana |
Implementation:
access point
authority-controlled: Geographic Locations
core
hierarchical
repeatable
Several hierarchical levels will be needed to identify the specific geographic location. See Geographic Locations for further guidelines.
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