R. Buckminster Fuller Patent Drawing Posters 1933-1983

Steven Mandeville Gamble was Head of the Special Collections Research Center, NC State University Libraries.

R. Buckminster Fuller was an architect, designer, inventor, and humanitarian born in Milton, Massachusetts on July 12, 1895. He started his academic career at Harvard University in 1913 but was expelled twice. He later worked at a mill in Canada and learned how to improve manufacturing equipment. Fuller then entered the United States Navy in 1917 and developed a winch for rescue boats that increased the likelyhood of saving pilots from downed airplanes.

Fuller received his first of many patents in 1926 alongside his father-in-law, James Monroe Hewlett, for a method for constructing reinforced concrete structures. The next year, he designed the Dymaxion, a mass produced home that could be airlifted to its permanent location. Fuller also invented the Dymaxion Car. One of his most renowned designs is the Geodesic Dome, a stable sphere structure, which he patented in 1954. Fuller also created the Dymaxion Map, a design that illustrates the entire planet without presenting certain regions as more prominent or central. This map relates to his humanitarian projects and his studies on how to equally distribute the world's resources.

Throughout his life, Fuller published in multiple magazines and wrote almost 30 books. He also taught at universities such as Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Southern Illinois University, and the University of Pennsylvania. He died on July 1, 1983.

Collection includes 3 posters depicting the patent drawings for Buckminster Fuller's dymaxion car (1933), laminar geodesic dome (1965), and hanging storage shelf unit patent (1983).

Steven Mandeville Gamble was Head of the Special Collections Research Center, NC State University Libraries. R. Buckminster Fuller was an architect, designer, and inventor.

Buckminster Fuller Institute, About Fuller

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[Identification of item], R. Buckminster Fuller Patent Drawing Posters, MSS 00507, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC

Gift of Steven Mandeville-Gamble, 2005. Mandeville-Gamble was presented these reproductions of R. Buckminster Fuller's patent drawings by Thomas Zung, co-founder of the architectural firm Buckminster Fuller, Sadao, and Zung Architects.

Finding aid updated by Ella Mayfield, 2026 September.