Women in American Architecture: A Historic and Contemporary Perspective

Women in American Architecture: A Historic and Contemporary Perspective, an exhibition curated by architect Susana Torre and sponsored by the Architectural League of New York, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts, opened at the Brooklyn Museum on February 24th, 1977. This groundbreaking event was the first major exhibition about the history of the influence of women in the field of architecture. It was created in September 1973 as a result of the efforts of a group of women and The Architectural League to develop the first national archive about women in architecture in the United States.

The archive was conceived as a resource of public interest for journalists, students, writers, and architects, and as a means to raise awareness of women’s roles in architecture. Those who undertook the archival project solicited original work from over 2,500 women architects across the United States. Their goal was to illuminate the contributions of both historical and contemporary women architects from diverse backgrounds, and to reshape the narrative of architectural history—traditionally told from a male perspective—by making space for voices that had long been overlooked. It was thus a natural progression to translate this research into an exhibition format, to bring greater visibility to these contributions. The exhibition sought to present previously unknown projects of significant historical and social value, tracing women’s access to the profession from the late 19th century onward. The exhibition paired biographies and projects from various women selected from the archive to shed light on the unrecognized history of women in architecture, one with individuals from the past and present.

This document, found in the League’s archives, outlines the exhibition’s initial goals and curatorial approach and refers to the project by its original name of Dwelling, Place and Architecture: An Exhibition of Spaces, Projects and Buildings Designed by Women. Although this initial document identifies three main sections for the exhibition—The American Woman’s Home, A Century of Women in Architecture, and Changing Spaces—the final exhibition was restructured into three overarching themes: practitioners and critics, reformers of the domestic sphere, and the Woman’s Building. This document details the curatorial framework, the preliminary selection of works, and the strategic organization of the exhibition. It offers crucial insight into a project that was the result of years of largely voluntary labor, driven by a collective effort among women in architecture to gain recognition and assert their rightful place in the profession’s history.