Ellen Weill Kramer (1915-1993) was Deputy Director of Research with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission from 1972 to 1976, and a consultant from 1966. She was a founder of the Committee to Preserve Architectural Records, an active member of the Society of Architectural Historians, and a founder of the Victorian Society in America (Metropolitan New York Chapter). In the mid-1940s, she embarked on this pioneer inquiry into the life and work of Detlef Lienau, focusing on some 800 original drawings, photographs, and documents in the Lienau Collection at the Columbia University Avery Library of Architecture and Fine Arts.