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Looking northeast at Taliesin's "Birdwalk" during hte summer, with the hills in the background.

When was Taliesin’s Birdwalk built?

Reading Time: 5 minutes If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry. I’ll explain it, then tell you when it was built. I’m writing this because a website subscriber wrote me that question after my last post. You can can also subscribe, by hitting the subscribe button at the bottom of the post. It doesn’t cost anything […]

Photograph by Clarence Fuermann, 1926-28 of Frank Lloyd Wright's bedroom (now Taliesin's Guest Bedroom). Showing bed, furniture, and a door on the right to the terrace.

Another Taliesin mystery that I missed:

Reading Time: 6 minutes I know you think I know everything at least if I listen to my mom and oldest sister But, this post is where I come clean about something I missed about the history of Taliesin. it’s only one thing in the pile of things that I know I have missed and I say that and […]

Two portraits of Ellen C. Lloyd Jones (left) and Jane Lloyd Jones (right). Property of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Unknown photographer.

More on Frank Lloyd Wright’s aunts

Reading Time: 7 minutes Or, Jennie and Nell Lloyd Jones for those of us who are Wright-fanboys. like I’m one to talk. Whatcha been doin’ for the last 30 years, Keiran? That’s because one of my blog readers you can subscribe at the bottom of the page asked if I could talk about what led to the demise of […]

Colored postcard of the Home Building, Frank Lloyd Wright's first design.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s aunts

Reading Time: 5 minutes Jennie and Nell Lloyd Jones that is. I have to approach them that way— As the Big Boy’s Aunts —or I wouldn’t get as much interest on this post. They were the first of the Lloyd Joneses born in Wisconsin. Their three brothers and three surviving sisters (including Wright’s mother) had been born in Wales, […]

Exterior photograph of Taliesin in snow. Published December 1911. Property: the Chicago Tribune.

Another Change at Taliesin

Reading Time: 6 minutes This part of Taliesin in the photo above is the part that faces the Wisconsin River. A photographer for The Chicago Tribune took this on Christmas day, 1911. The other night I was thinking about changes at Taliesin and remembered something I haven’t written about: the expansion of Taliesin’s “Front Office”. That is, in the […]

Keiran Murphy sitting on the couch in the libing room on Ash Wednesday, 1982.

Dune, by Frank Herbert

Reading Time: 5 minutes Me at the age when I discovered the novel, Dune As far as I know, this post won’t be about Frank Lloyd Wright or Taliesin. Since Dune, Part Two (the second part of Dune, the movie) will be released on March 1, I intend today to write about the novel. In particular, my earliest experiences […]

Photograph of Frank Lloyd Wright by Edward Steichen, Bequest of Edward Steichen. Located in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Wright was not a shyster

Reading Time: 5 minutes A trickster, possibly. maybe an s.o.b. But not a con man (not even on the order of Harold Hill). However, I know why you think Frank Lloyd Wright was like that. After all— He borrowed lots of money from people and couldn’t give it back. And pulled so much money out of former client Darwin […]

Photograph of a portion of the Taliesin estate. Taken in March 2004.

Easy Info on Frank Lloyd Wright

Reading Time: 5 minutes Looking (true) west toward the Taliesin estate from the edge of the parking area of the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center. I’m working on my next post. So, I figured I would throw out easy dates and pieces of information about Wright and Hillside to give you a little amusement. Wright’s height: 5 feet, 8-and-a-half […]

Looking (plan) west in Taliesin's Drafting Studio. Frank Lloyd Wright's desk is on the right, with his vault behind the stone wall. Photo by Keiran Murphy

The Restoration of Taliesin’s Drafting Studio

Reading Time: 7 minutes Today I’m going to write about the restoration of the Taliesin Drafting Studio from 1998-2000. Why? It’s a tangent. On November 9, 2023 I watched a “Wright Virtual Visit” from the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. That afternoon, they broadcast a program about the current preservation work at the Hillside theater on the Taliesin estate. […]

Taken in summer, photograph looking (plan) east in "Mrs. Wright's Garden". Taken 1961-1969. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York).

The Prisoner, Taliesin, and my sister

Reading Time: 5 minutes   The photograph above shows “Mrs. Wright’s Garden” at Taliesin. Taliesin’s Hill Crown is to the left of the wall. His sister’s house, Tan-y-Deri, is in the distance on the right. All of us have engaged in things where obscure cultural touchstones are a part of the back-and-forth discussion. For instance: You can show a […]

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