Q 01/05

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in 1867, but which birth year did he claim throughout his life?

A) 1869

B) 1865

C) 1871

D) 1875

Answer · why

A) 1869

Biographer Brendan Gill also claimed his middle name was originally Lincoln, though no earlier record supports it.

Q 02/05

Wright's mother's family, the Lloyd Joneses, had emigrated to Wisconsin from which country?

A) Scotland

B) Ireland

C) Wales

D) Norway

Answer · why

C) Wales

The family motto, 'The Truth Against the World', came from the Welsh poet Iolo Morganwg; his uncle Jenkin was a leading Midwestern Unitarian.

Q 03/05

How did Wright's mother decorate his nursery to nurture an architect?

A) With drawings of Roman ruins

B) With engravings of English cathedrals

C) With her own watercolours of barns

D) With Japanese woodblock prints

Answer · why

B) With engravings of English cathedrals

She believed her first child would grow up to build beautiful buildings, and tore the pictures from periodicals.

Q 04/05

Which educational blocks, found by his mother in 1876, did Wright credit with shaping his sense of geometry?

A) Montessori Bricks

B) Lincoln Logs

C) Meccano

D) Froebel Gifts

Answer · why

D) Froebel Gifts

'All are in my fingers to this day,' he wrote of the maple cubes, spheres and triangles.

Q 05/05

Wright studied which subject at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before leaving without a degree?

A) Architecture

B) Fine art and drawing

C) Music composition

D) Civil engineering

Answer · why

D) Civil engineering

The university gave him an honorary doctorate of fine arts in 1955, when he was 88.