Lincoln Logs, the popular children's toy, was designed by John Lloyd Wright, son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who was inspired by his father's foundation of Tokyo's Imperial Hotel.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed hundreds of buildings

Frank Lloyd Wright was a prolific architect and built hundreds of structures across America, and even a few in Japan and Canada. From humbler homes in Illinois to sprawling mansions in California, Wright experimented with different styles throughout his career and varied in each of his designs.

Frank Lloyd Wright is known as a brilliant, prolific architect with a turbulent personality and life

Frank Lloyd Wright’s childhood was colored by Unitarianism, a nomadic lifestyle, his parents’ divorce, and financial difficulties. By his death, Wright was known as one of America’s most influential architects and left behind a legacy of thoughtful writings, modern architectural principles, an esteemed fellowship program, and countless masterpieces.

Frank Lloyd Wright's landscape design relied on abstractions

Wright was interested in finding abstract patterns in nature and attempted to match those patterns through the landscaping on his properties. He also often introduced foreign plants into his gardens, a choice that some experts say was a commentary on American identity and aesthetics.

The first home Frank Lloyd Wright designed alone was bold and geometric

A small residence sitting on the outskirts of Chicago, Wright’s first building, created entirely from his own artistic vision, was a home for his family. He would continue to live and work there for two decades after building it in 1889.

Wisconsin left a deep impression on Frank Lloyd Wright and his work

Born and raised in Wisconsin, Frank Lloyd Wright openly adored his home state’s “pastoral” landscapes, red barns, and down-to-earth residents. Wright also referenced the state as a huge inspiration for his design style.

Frank Lloyd Wright influenced contemporary architecture to have a more holistic approach

Frank Lloyd Wright’s work throughout the 20th century introduced concepts like open plans, floor-to-ceiling windows, and community-focused design. His “organic architecture” philosophy can be seen as a predecessor to today’s sustainable architecture.

Frank Lloyd Wright was known for his uncompromising personality and visionary architecture

Written the year of his death, this article reflects on Wright’s notorious arrogance and difficult personality that kept him at odds with his contemporaries and the architectural establishment of the time. However, his boldness was an essential trait that helped define his legacy.

Usonian design was invented as a response to Americans’ financial struggles

Around the time of the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, Frank Lloyd Wright sought to create homes that made life easier for those struggling financially. Usonian homes are typically characterized by simple materials, small square footage, and natural light.

What it's like to work in an office designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright's SC Johnson Global Headquarters is an administrative building in Wisconsin that radically challenged common practices for creating a corporate office space. Built in 1939, the office remains functional today with a spacious central room for exchanging ideas.

Unitarian Frank Lloyd Wright made Unity Temple to honor his own faith

In 1905, a Unitarian church in Frank Lloyd Wright's town was struck by lightning and destroyed. Wright, a Unitarian himself, was commissioned to build the replacement and constructed a simple yet radical concrete sanctuary known as Unity Temple.

Taliesin offered Frank Lloyd Wright an oasis away from gossip and scrutiny

After a public affair that damaged his reputation, Frank Lloyd Wright built a hideaway for himself and his mistress. This grand Wisconsin structure is now a National Historic Landmark after experiencing two major fires, each followed by major renovations.

Fallingwater is one of the world’s most famous houses

Fallingwater, a country house set atop a waterfall, is arguably Frank Lloyd Wright’s most celebrated work. Legend has it that the initial drawings of the house were hurriedly sketched in just three hours after Wright’s client surprised him with a phone call and announced he wanted to see the plan’s progress.

See renderings of Frank Lloyd Wright’s unmade buildings

Only about half of Frank Lloyd Wright’s over 1,000 designs were actually built. In 2018, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation commissioned Spanish architect and 3D designer David Romero to make digital models to see what Wright’s unrealized structures would look like.

'An idea is salvation by imagination.'

- US architect Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically difficult to sell

Though beautiful and world-renowned, homes by America's greatest architect spend years on the market without a buyer. Prospective homeowners are often driven away by the decades-old properties that require heavy maintenance, upkeep, specialized artisans, and rare materials.

Prairie style homes are low with dramatic horizontal lines

Prairie style houses are characterized by their long, low, and boxy open plans, emphasizing horizontal lines. Inspired by his upbringing in Wisconsin, Frank Lloyd Wright spearheaded the Prairie style and created houses according to this plan from 1899 to 1910.

Take a virtual tour of a Usonian home

Wright's Usonian homes might have been more economical, but they didn't lack any of the inventive design of his other projects. That's evident throughout this tour of one of the homes in Pleasantville, New York's Usonia community.

Taliesin’s first fire also involved the tragic murder of seven people

In 1914, while Frank Lloyd Wright was out working in Chicago, one of his servants at Taliesin brutally murdered his mistress, Martha “Mamah” Borthwick Cheney, her two children, and three other people in the home. The massacre left a deep impression on Wright, who spent much of his career restoring the home.

Fallingwater revived Frank Lloyd Wright’s career at age 67

A series of scandals and financial setbacks made Wright lose his previous relevance, leaving the public to view him as a “has-been.” Following the creation of Fallingwater, a masterpiece set atop a waterfall, Wright saw an uptick in commissions and continued to produce inspired buildings at an age that many others would retire by.

Eight Frank Lloyd Wright works have been listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites

The United Nations recognized numerous Frank Lloyd Wright buildings as World Heritage Sites. The US as a whole hosts just 26. Each Wright property demonstrates its unique style, from the Prairie style Frederick C. Robie House to the organic architecture masterpiece Fallingwater.

What it’s like to be an apprentice at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin

Architect James Walter Schildroth became an apprentice in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Fellowship program in 1959, just months after Wright's passing. The invaluable experience taught him how to build as he worked and confronted him with the struggles of living in the space.

Many of Wright's buildings used radiant heating

Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings weren’t just radical because of how they looked, but many of them also incorporated stunning technological innovations. Radiant heating is one of Wright’s most popular heating systems, offering the comfort of walking on warm floors on a cold day.

Frank Lloyd Wright made a gas station in Minnesota

Located in Cloquet, Minnesota, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed full-service gas station and repair shop is still in operation today, attracting visitors from all over the world. The station exists thanks to a local oil businessman who tapped Wright for the job.

Several Frank Lloyd Wright properties are on the market

Several of Frank Lloyd Wright’s homes are currently for sale, offering buyers the opportunity to own a historic building. Some of these homes could stay on the market for years, as they’re famously a pain to maintain.

Organic architecture marries man-made buildings with the natural context around them

Frank Lloyd Wright’s nebulous concept of organic architecture is one that even he struggled to define. Its basic premise is to make a building look as though it grew from the land it stands on by emphasizing natural materials and incorporating the surrounding environment into the design.

The Lincoln Memorial was almost never built

The Memorial faced years of opposition from Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, who blocked it for nearly a decade, arguing that the swampy land west of the Mall was an unfit and undignified site to honor Lincoln.

Georgia O’Keeffe and Frank Lloyd Wright were longtime friends

In the early 1930s, famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright invited Georgia O’Keeffe to become the master artist at the newly formed Taliesin Fellowship. O’Keeffe turned him down, but the letter sparked a decades-long friendship, rooted in their shared love for art and American landscapes, which continued until his death.

President Abraham Lincoln was inspired by a novel to create the holiday

A writer and abolitionist from New Hampshire, Sarah Josepha Hale was instrumental in cementing many of the Thanksgiving traditions we celebrate today. Her 1852 novel "Northwood, a Tale of New England," described a feast with a roasted turkey, stuffing, plum pudding, and pumpkin pie. She wrote dozens of editorials and letters to politicians campaigning for the day to become a national holiday. In 1863 she was finally successful in convincing President Lincoln to make it official.

Lincoln was assassinated by a well-known actor, who originally planned to kidnap him

On April 14, 1865, actor John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC. Booth had initially conspired to kidnap Lincoln but turned to assassination after the Confederacy's defeat.

Former American President Abraham Lincoln is one of history’s most famous ghosts

Abraham Lincoln, Anne Boleyn, Pausanias, and the Maharajah Duleep Singh are just a few of the notable phantoms found around the world. Several White House occupants and visitors have claimed to see Lincoln, including Theodore Roosevelt, Grace Coolidge, and Winston Churchill.

Whitman led a Lincoln lecture late in life

Whitman toured several cities with “The Death of Lincoln,” a lecture series about the slain president that sought to establish him as a crucial figured in American history. The talks attracted famous figures, including Mark Twain and General William Tecumseh Sherman.

Washington, DC, was designed by French-born architect Pierre L'Enfant

Pierre Charles L'Enfant was an engineer who fought in the American Revolution. George Washington chose him to design the capital for his military service, artistic training, and vision of a monumental national city.

Walt Disney's visit to a Ford factory helped inspire the layout for Disneyland

Walt Disney visited Henry Ford's Greenfield Village and the Ford Motor Company's River Rouge manufacturing plant on a trip to the 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair. The layout of Greenfield Village inspired the different, distinctly themed sections of Disneyland in Anaheim, CA.

Watch a video about Greenfield Village, Henry Ford's recreation of an ideal American town

Henry Ford designed Greenfield Village, an open-air museum with restorations of historic buildings, that represented Ford's idealization of what a simple American life should look like. Among the most notable buildings in the village are Ford's childhood home and a recreation of the one-room country schoolhouse Ford attended through the sixth grade.

A 21-year-old college student designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

In 1981, a 21-year-old Yale architecture student, Maya Lin, won the national design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The design was controversial for rejecting heroic statues, using a black wall, and avoiding overt patriotic symbolism.

Was the Gettysburg Address written on the back of an envelope?

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, wrote his famed Gettysburg Address on a train car. Actually, he had a version of it ready a few days before. Well, really, he came up with it on the spot. Rumors about the speech's creation abound. This 1909 article walks readers through evidence Lincoln's speech was carefully planned and written in Washington, DC (in pencil).

Explore early Thanksgiving documents, from recipes to early proclamations

History buffs will love this trove of original documents related to the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving, including 18th-century recipes, one of Sarah Josepha Hale’s appeals to President Lincoln to establish the national holiday, and a copy of Abraham Lincoln’s original 1863 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. You can also find illustrations and photos of historical Thanksgiving celebrations over the years.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

The famous cherry tree story—where a young Washington admits, "I cannot tell a lie"—was created by biographer Mason Locke Weems. Washington's "wooden teeth" were also a myth: His dentures were made of ivory, metal, and animal teeth.

Their 1901 Wind Tunnel system revolutionized the study of aeronautics

Only the second to be built in the US, the wind tunnel allowed the brothers to study how air moves around more than 200 different wing shapes. This data helped them refine a key math equation, long held as the standard, that had been based only on one wing shape.

Lincoln's original reconstruction vision prioritized reconciliation

Proposed in 1863, Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan offered lenient readmission for Southern states once 10% of voters pledged loyalty and ended slavery. It was adopted in a few Union-occupied areas but was only partially implemented before his assassination in 1865.

Truth met President Lincoln at the White House in 1864

In October 1864, Truth traveled to Washington and met President Lincoln a week before his reelection, though she could secure the appointment only through a white abolitionist friend. Lincoln signed her autograph book, and Truth later said she had never been treated with more "kindness and cordiality" by anyone.

Mid-century modern graphic designers like Milton Glaser and Eric Carle found success with children's books

Glaser was famous for creating the "I Heart NY" logo, the DC Comics logo, and an iconic Bob Dylan poster for CBS Records, but he naturally transitioned to illustrating children's books like "The Smallest Elephant in the World" and "If Apples had Teeth." Carle, author of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?," began his career in advertising. Scholars say mid-century modern's preference for clean lines and bold colors was a natural fit for kids' books.

Edith Roosevelt's White House redesign created the modern West Wing

In 1902, first lady Edith Roosevelt oversaw a significant renovation that separated the family residence from official offices. Architect Charles McKim added the West Wing to house the president's staff—establishing the modern layout still used today.

Some believe L. Frank Baum wrote 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' on vacation

The writer vacationed in Macatawa, Michigan, in 1899. His great-grandson claims most of the book was written while staying there on the shores of Lake Michigan. The nearby town of Holland commemorated the book with the Oz Sculpture Garden.

A detective foiled an assassination plot against Lincoln before his inauguration

In February 1861, detective Allan Pinkerton uncovered a plot to kill Abraham Lincoln en route to his inauguration. Lincoln secretly altered his travel plans and sneaked into Washington DC to take the oath of office. Pinkerton later founded the well-known Pinkerton's National Detective Agency.

Robert Venturi designed a house for his mother that many consider the first postmodern building

The Vanna Venturi House, found in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, was designed in the 1950s and completed in 1964. Its whimsical style was a rebuke to the modernist architects, who prized sleek designs and utility. Venturi, on the other hand, valued play, remarking that he liked to think of the building as a child’s drawing of a house.

The Rockefellers funded the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg

John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his wife spent millions of dollars restoring Colonial Williamsburg and turning it into the tourist attraction it is today. You can go back in time via video footage from before and after the restoration.

Famed historian David McCullough on five things to know about the Wrights

The bestselling author of popular, beloved histories on US presidents, engineering feats and disasters published a study of the Wrights in 2015. Here. he highlights five key facts to know about the brothers, including that their efforts were bootstrapped—meaning they paid for their work themselves with no outside investors.

The spiralling structure of the Guggenheim Museum in New York is itself a work of art

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Manhattan's Upper East Side. The contemporary art museum, known for its unique spiral structure, was Frank Lloyd Wright’s final work.

Benjamin Franklin founded America's first lending library in 1731

Franklin convinced members of his intellectual club to pool resources and purchase books none could afford individually. The Library Company of Philadelphia was founded with 50 shareholders, each contributing 40 shillings, and served as the unofficial, de facto Library of Congress from the Revolutionary War until 1800.