Francis A. Comstock, professor and lithographer

Francis Adams Comstock, Class of 1919 (1897-1981) studied in the first classes offered at Princeton University in architectural design, added to the curriculum in 1915. He graduated the same year Princeton officially opened a School of Architecture and joined its faculty only a few years later, where he remained for the next forty years.

Comstock later served as director and chief architect of the Newport Restoration Foundation, the preservation group founded by Newport heiress Doris Duke.

A noted draftsman, calligrapher, and printmaker, Comstock rendering landscapes and architectural studies in the Precisionist style, not unlike that of Charles Sheeler (1883-1965). As a friend and colleague of graphic arts’ first curator Elmer Adler, he agreed to design the final print for the Princeton Print Club, published in 1952 (top left).

Each year, the Print Club invited an outstanding American artist to make sketches of the Princeton campus for the annual Club Dividend Print. A signed proof of this print was presented to each member. Once Adler left the campus, the Club was also discontinued.