The Ryan Family Collection of the Park List was created by Jim and Colleen Ryan, Tim and Mary Gray, and Pat and Ann Ryan in honor of the four brothers under which the Ryan Companies grew and prospered. All four graduated from Notre Dame: Francis (’36), Russell (’39), Edward (’42), and John (’45). They Ryan Company was created when the four brothers planned to attend a Notre Dame—Minnesota football game, but Francis’s job required him to cancel at the last minute. Dismayed, their father created what would become a three-generation family business nationally renowned for its supermarkets, shopping centers, industrial office buildings, and retail stores.

The “List of Architectural Books Available in America Before the Revolution” by Helen Park, or the “Park List” as it has become known, has evolved into a basic reference for the study of American architectural history. Detailing the stylistic, pictorial, and structural sources of much of colonial architecture, this list of 106 works — all but eight bearing a British imprint — portrays America’s 18^th-century builders from numerous cultural and technical perspectives. The Park List also establishes which books were present in America at various stages of its colonial period, as well as their locations in 18th-century and modern collections.