Research
This web site is the product of a research project conducted by the Women in Architecture Committee of the AIABaltimore Chapter with the help of students from Morgan State University. It came to the committee's attention that there was little information available about early women architects in Maryland. We wanted to know more about these women; we knew we could learn a lot from them, considering the adversity they overcame to practice architecture.
Exhibit
The committee was able to find 12 woman in architecture and landscape architecture who impacted Maryland's built environment. An exhibit was created with the information collected, which will travel in the state of Maryland, in order to increase awareness of who these hard working woman were. By unveiling the lives of these women we hope to empower today's women to contemplate what they are capable of.
Introduction from the Exhibit
In Maryland, women have been professionally practicing architecture in Maryland for over 80 years, yet, with the exception of a few, little is known about those from earlier generations. The Women in Architecture Committee (WIA) of the Baltimore Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) is proud to present this traveling exhibit that shares the stories of 12 extraordinary women who contributed to architecture from the 1920s to the 1960s. They practiced through the lean years of the World Wars and the Great Depression, designing buildings in Maryland and across the country.
The exhibit is the culmination of research begun in the Summer of 2014, in collaboration with the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and the Morgan State University (MSU) Honors Program in association with the School of Architecture & Planning. The WIA Committee heartily thanks MSU students Thania Villalobos and Douglas Butari, and their Faculty advisor Professor Dale Green, who took on the challenge of an independent research project to kick off our initiative. We are also grateful to the many family members and colleagues who helped bring to life these women and the times they lived in through their personal recollections and photographic documentation. The research team was fortunate to interview two of these women, still full of life in their 80s and 90s - Shirley Kerr Kennard, AIA, and Helen Ross Staley.
Exhibit Organization
The exhibit would not have been possible without the generous support of the Maryland Humanities Council and our numerous financial sponsors. A special thank you to Maryland Reproduction Specialties, Inc. whose exceptional care in printing our exhibit on mylar at their expense allowed us to proceed with showcasing it in such an unusual manner. On the final panel of the exhibit, we share the names of the many volunteers, advisors, and institutions who have contributed to the planning, design, production, and research that such an exhibit of this scope entails. Our team could not have been a success without them and without the vision and determination of our WIA Committee Chair, Jillian Storms, AIA, and the exhibit’s designer, Sadie Dempsey, Assoc. AIA.
Exhibit Organization
The exhibit starts with an overview and then features the stories of 9 women organized in order of their birth year with a biography, images of area projects, and a timeline of life events. For the last 3 women in the exhibit, less is known, but we share their stories in hopes to inspire others to develop them more fully. In all cases, we refer to the women by their first names to prevent confusion as some had fathers or husbands in the profession and some changed their last name over time. This does not lessen the respect we have for them, but highlights the personal nature of the exhibit.
The women were selected based on the number of projects we found in Maryland as well as on the availability of material. All were registered architects except one - Hildreth Meière - a muralist and architectural decorator who contributed greatly to many projects of merit, including 10 Light Street in Baltimore and the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC. Most of the women lived at some point in either Maryland or the District, but two solely resided in New York: Hildreth Meière and Ida Webster, AIA. Because this exhibit focuses primarily on contributions to this region, timelines often do not list the many commissions in other parts of the country.
In Maryland, women have been professionally practicing architecture in Maryland for over 80 years, yet, with the exception of a few, little is known about those from earlier generations. The Women in Architecture Committee (WIA) of the Baltimore Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) is proud to present this traveling exhibit that shares the stories of 12 extraordinary women who contributed to architecture from the 1920s to the 1960s. They practiced through the lean years of the World Wars and the Great Depression, designing buildings in Maryland and across the country.
The exhibit is the culmination of research begun in the Summer of 2014, in collaboration with the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and the Morgan State University (MSU) Honors Program in association with the School of Architecture & Planning. The WIA Committee heartily thanks MSU students Thania Villalobos and Douglas Butari, and their Faculty advisor Professor Dale Green, who took on the challenge of an independent research project to kick off our initiative. We are also grateful to the many family members and colleagues who helped bring to life these women and the times they lived in through their personal recollections and photographic documentation. The research team was fortunate to interview two of these women, still full of life in their 80s and 90s - Shirley Kerr Kennard, AIA, and Helen Ross Staley.
Exhibit Organization
The exhibit would not have been possible without the generous support of the Maryland Humanities Council and our numerous financial sponsors. A special thank you to Maryland Reproduction Specialties, Inc. whose exceptional care in printing our exhibit on mylar at their expense allowed us to proceed with showcasing it in such an unusual manner. On the final panel of the exhibit, we share the names of the many volunteers, advisors, and institutions who have contributed to the planning, design, production, and research that such an exhibit of this scope entails. Our team could not have been a success without them and without the vision and determination of our WIA Committee Chair, Jillian Storms, AIA, and the exhibit’s designer, Sadie Dempsey, Assoc. AIA.
Exhibit Organization
The exhibit starts with an overview and then features the stories of 9 women organized in order of their birth year with a biography, images of area projects, and a timeline of life events. For the last 3 women in the exhibit, less is known, but we share their stories in hopes to inspire others to develop them more fully. In all cases, we refer to the women by their first names to prevent confusion as some had fathers or husbands in the profession and some changed their last name over time. This does not lessen the respect we have for them, but highlights the personal nature of the exhibit.
The women were selected based on the number of projects we found in Maryland as well as on the availability of material. All were registered architects except one - Hildreth Meière - a muralist and architectural decorator who contributed greatly to many projects of merit, including 10 Light Street in Baltimore and the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC. Most of the women lived at some point in either Maryland or the District, but two solely resided in New York: Hildreth Meière and Ida Webster, AIA. Because this exhibit focuses primarily on contributions to this region, timelines often do not list the many commissions in other parts of the country.
Closing up after the big June opening