03/31/2025
As women's History month comes to an end, we wanted to acknowledge some of the women who have paved the way in the field of architecture.
(Slide 1) Esther Pariseau (1823-1902) was one of the first woman architects in North America and was a pioneer in the field. She designed eleven hospitals, seven academies, five schools for Native American children, and two orphanages in an area encompassing today's Washington state, northern Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.
(Slide 2) Louise Blanchard Bethune (1856-1913), was the first American woman known to have worked as a professional architect. She worked as a draftsmen for five years, proving she could hold her own in what was a masculine profession. In 1881, she opened an independent office with her husband, earning herself the title as the nation's first professional female architect, and the first female associate of the American Institute of Architects.
(Slide 3) Minerva Parker Nichols (1862-1949) was the first American women to work as a professional architect without a male partner. She practiced in the Philadelphia area in the 1880s and 1890s, and taught architecture and historic ornament at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. She closed her formal practice in Philadelphia in 1896 when she moved to Brooklyn with her husband, but she continued to design buildings throughout her life.
(Slide 4) Marion Mahony Griffin (1871-1961) was an American architect and artist. She was one of the first licensed female architects in the world, and is considered an original member of the Prairie School. She was the second woman to study architecture and graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her work in the United States developed and expanded the American Prairie School, and her work in India and Australia reflected Prairie School ideals of indigenous landscape and materials in the newly formed democracies. The scholar Debora Wood stated that Griffin "did the drawings people think of when they think of Frank Lloyd Wright (one of her collaborating architects)."