Women Architects at Work
Making American Modernism
Published on 18. February 2025
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-691-20669-1 (ISBN)
Description
A comprehensive history of the women architects who left their enduring mark on American Modernism
In the decades preceding World War II, professional architecture schools enrolled increasing numbers of women, but career success did not come easily. Women Architects at Work tells the stories of the resilient and resourceful women who surmounted barriers of sexism, racism, and classism to take on crucial roles in the establishment and growth of Modernism across the United States.
Mary Anne Hunting and Kevin D. Murphy describe how the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in Massachusetts evolved for the professional education of women between 1916 and 1942. While alumnae such as Eleanor Agnes Raymond, Victorine du Pont Homsey, and Sarah Pillsbury Harkness achieved some notoriety, others like Elizabeth-Ann Campbell Knapp and Louisa Vaughan Conrad have been largely absent from histories of Modernism. Hunting and Murphy describe how these innovative practitioners capitalized on social, educational, and professional ties to achieve success and used architecture to address social concerns, including how modernist ideas could engage with community and the environment. Some joined women-led architectural firms while others partnered with men or contributed to Modernism as retailers of household furnishings, writers and educators, photographers and designers, or fine artists.
With stunning illustrations, Women Architects at Work offers new histories of recognized figures while recovering the stories of previously unsung women, all of whom contributed to the modernization of American architecture and design.
In the decades preceding World War II, professional architecture schools enrolled increasing numbers of women, but career success did not come easily. Women Architects at Work tells the stories of the resilient and resourceful women who surmounted barriers of sexism, racism, and classism to take on crucial roles in the establishment and growth of Modernism across the United States.
Mary Anne Hunting and Kevin D. Murphy describe how the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in Massachusetts evolved for the professional education of women between 1916 and 1942. While alumnae such as Eleanor Agnes Raymond, Victorine du Pont Homsey, and Sarah Pillsbury Harkness achieved some notoriety, others like Elizabeth-Ann Campbell Knapp and Louisa Vaughan Conrad have been largely absent from histories of Modernism. Hunting and Murphy describe how these innovative practitioners capitalized on social, educational, and professional ties to achieve success and used architecture to address social concerns, including how modernist ideas could engage with community and the environment. Some joined women-led architectural firms while others partnered with men or contributed to Modernism as retailers of household furnishings, writers and educators, photographers and designers, or fine artists.
With stunning illustrations, Women Architects at Work offers new histories of recognized figures while recovering the stories of previously unsung women, all of whom contributed to the modernization of American architecture and design.
Reviews / Votes
"Winner of the Documentation Citation of Merit, Docomomo US Modernism in America Awards" "A Library Journal Best Book of the Year" "Shortlisted for the Architectural Book Award in History, Booklaunch" "Highly readable and brilliantly researched. . . . [T]his book is more than an important resource for educators, historians, and students. It is an active reminder of what is true: women have helped to build and continue to build the world we inhabit." * Places Journal * "[Mary Anne Hunting and Kevin D. Murphy] succeeded in reviving the work of scores of impressive women. A well-populated, deeply researched history." * Kirkus Reviews * "This book models the research and scholarship needed to more fully represent women in the history of architecture. The result is a richer story of both women in architecture and modernism in the United States." * Library Journal starred review * "A valuable survey of modernist women architects. . . . Interspersed with ample photos and sketches, this is a comprehensive and welcome revival of a lesser-known chapter in the history of architecture." * Publishers Weekly * "Architecture in the 20th century was a male-dominated profession (and not much has changed), but this study of the alumnae of the Cambridge School of Architecture in Massachusetts makes the case for women as necessarily shrewd operators." * Apollo Magazine * "A pointillist account, touching on dozens of designers, and substituting an atomized collage for a few singular narrative trajectories. . . . The Modern project for the women of Women Architects at Work was creating places where the choice between domesticity and design could be a capricious and joyous one."---Zach Mortice, Metropolis "[Women Architects at Work] offer[s] new perspectives on recognized designers while also shining a light on lesser-known practitioners, whose contributions to the field are equally deserving of recognition."---Sydney Shilling, Azure Magazine "An exhaustive work of setting the record straight. . . . Hunting and Murphy's project details the erasure of women in modernism as much as their contributions-it's a necessary if painful symbiosis."---Laura Raskin, Architect's Newspaper "A great new book. . . . [that] really dives deep into a fascinating aspect of architectural history and American history that deserves a lot of attention."---Nicholas Redding, PreserveCast podcast "Drawing from two decades of research, compiling archives, letters and documents [Women Architects at Work] presents invigorating, inspiring and, at times, vexing tales of women who refused to remain ghosts"---Bansari Paghdar, STIR World "Women Architects at Work is an instrumental stride towards correcting inequities in women's architectural histories, and a testament to women's prevailing contributions to American Modernism. Hunting and Murphy show us history need not be encumbered with austerity-it is enlivened through learning not only what people built, but how they did it, and who they were. After all, what is better than reading about a complex and insightful architect's professional achievements?"---Sherya Balaji, Arcade "Women Architects at Work is deeply researched, fastidiously documented, keenly intelligent, and utterly fascinating."---Beth Dunlop, Magazine Antiques "This book is well worth reading and stands out from the crowded field of books about architecture with "women" in the title due to its specificity, clarity, wealth of research, and narrative propulsion.... . I await the day, perhaps decades in the future, when we will be asked to read Men Architects At Work. In the meantime, Women Architects at Work will serve us well."---Eva Hagberg, Panorama "Invaluable.... [a] pioneering study of the first order; all feminist historians of US architecture will remain in Hunting and Murphy's debt as they scour its pages, including a thorough bibliography, in order to build new structures upon this very firm foundation."---Kathleen James-Chakraborty, Women's Art Journal "Women Architects at Work is a formidable undertaking, enriching our understanding of the history of women in architecture substantially. It is a model for researchers, showing what they can achieve by going beyond the formal archives and how important such efforts are for the investigation of minoritized subjects. It is also a beautiful book, showcasing a wide range of fascinating projects, many unfortunately lost to the wrecking ball. In addition, its wealth of information, shared in appendixes as well as in the text and images, should fuel an exciting new wave of research on twentieth-century women architects."---Jessica Ellen Sewell, Journal of the Society of Architectural HistoriansMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
74 color + 88 b/w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 283 mm
Width: 235 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
1490 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-20669-1 (9780691206691)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2025
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
€63.49
Available for download
Persons
Mary Anne Hunting is an architectural historian and the author of Edward Durell Stone: Modernism's Populist Architect. Kevin D. Murphy is the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities and professor and chair in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Vanderbilt University. His books include Jonathan Fisher of Blue Hill, Maine: Commerce, Culture, and Community on the Eastern Frontier.