Though architecture has long been (and continues to be) a male dominated profession, women have been working as architects since the professionalization of the field in the 19th Century. Smith Collection Special Collections holds a number of collections documenting the work of female architects in the United States, with a particular focus on the intersection of architecture and feminist activism during the 1970s. Additionally, the history of architectural education at Smith is well documented in the College Archives. This guide provides an introduction to collections related to architects, architecture, and landscape design within the Sophia Smith Collection (SSC) and the Smith College Archives (CA).

Collections in the Sophia Smith Collection

An example of the intersection between architecture and feminist activism is the Women's School of Planning and Architecture, an experiment in feminist education for women interested in architecture, planning, and environmental design. The founders had met as a result of the formation of professional organizations for women architects and planners (beginning in 1972) and through attendance at the first U.S. conferences on women in architecture in 1974 and 1975. These opportunities to meet and share experiences with other women professionals led them to a conviction that an alternative educational experience would be a valuable way to address the "shared common goals and interests not being met within the existing professional contexts" according to the 1975 WSPA brochure. The School aimed to attract participants from diverse backgrounds and geographic locations by making an interest in environmental design the only admission "requirement" and by holding each session at a different location. Tuition was kept to a minimum and work-study scholarships were available. While the focus of the earlier sessions could be characterized as "consciousness raising, skill building, and [theoretical discussion]" among women who were primarily professionals and academics, in its latter years WSPA was moving toward involvement in political activism based on collaboration with "grassroots women."

Collections in the Smith College Archives

Smith is preeminent in the study of landscape, from its distinguished alumnae, to its campus resources. In 1891, Smith College Trustees began planning to beautify their campus, while also developing a scientifically organized botanic garden, to serve the new botany department established the year before. They brought in Frederick Law Olmsted to turn the entire campus into an arboretum. Smith College was only twenty years old when Olmsted delivered his first set of plans the following January. Olmsted formed the upper campus in an irregular circle of buildings, which he approvingly characterized as “informal and unpretentious…irregular [and] homelike”. Olmsted’s views were formed by the New England village setting he grew up in, and when laying out any college campus, he proposed a “domestically scaled suburban community, in a park-like setting”. The founders of Smith shared these views, wanting curved lines, open spaces, and diverse plantings. Today, Smith is the first liberal arts college in the country to launch a program in landscape studies. The department joins architecture, landscape architecture, landscape history and theory, art, art history and literature with the sciences and social sciences to investigate critical issues in the built environment.

[For more information, see: "Smith College, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site," National Park Service]