Architectural Details from Bourges

American architect Arnold William Brunner's sketch studies of French Gothic architectural elements, including pinnacles, buttresses, spires, and decorative finials from the Cathedral of Bourges. These pen-and-ink drawings on aged paper represent the architectural record-keeping practices of late 19th-century designers who traveled to Europe to document historical structures. Such sketches formed the foundation of architectural education and served as reference material for ornamentation in American institutional and ecclesiastical buildings of the Gilded Age.