Kathleen James-Chakraborty and George Francis-Kelly will be presenting at the SAH 78th Annual International Conference in Atlanta. See the full programme and register at https://www.sah.org/2025.

Kathleen James-Chakraborty – Session: Fostering Female Taste versus Manufacturing Masculine Fame

That the exhibition of modern architect held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1932 had any immediate impact upon architectural culture or practice in the United States is a myth fostered by Philip Johnson, Henry-Russell Hitchcock , and the Museum of Modern Art long after the fact.  The many other means through which news of new European developments crossed the Atlantic included the shelter magazine House Beautiful.  There is a critical distinction between the awareness of European architecture and design that House Beautiful fostered among female consumers during the years in which Ethel Power was editor (1922-33) and continued as a contributor (1934-37), and the focus on establishing the fame of individual male architects that Hitchcock and Johnson encouraged.  Not surprisingly, considering the gendered roles involved, one was far more subtle than the other, but House Beautiful arguably had a greater immediate impact than the MoMA exhibition upon the direction of domestic architecture in the United States.  A comparison of the trips Power made between 1925 and 1930 to Europe in the company of her partner, the architect Eleanor Raymond, and the one the Hitchcock and Johnson made together casts further light on how differently the two women perceived many of the same places and architects as the two men, but also emphasizes how much more important Swedish architecture and design, including as marketed by Estrid Ericson’s influential shop Svenskt Tenn, was to Power and would be to her readers than it was to Hitchcock or Johnson.

George Francis-Kelly – Session: Wealth of Knowledge: The Nurses’ Home at Meharry Medical College

Meharry Medical College, a historically Black medical school in Nashville, underwent a major redevelopment in the 1920s and early 1930s, creating one of the most expensive and prestigious sites for Black education and healthcare in the US South. The nurses’ house which accompanied the hospital and medical school has often been forgotten as an important part of this development. This paper explores the role of Margaret Hulda Lyttle, Head of Nursing at Meharry, in shaping this accommodation. Her role as an educated science professional opened a rare opportunity for an African American women to exert agency over the design and construction of innovative modern architecture through her conversations with the building’s architects, Gordon and Kaelber.  While the involvement of faculty and university leadership was usually a customary  aspect of campus development, this was not as common within HBCUs, where the opinions of Black educators were not always taken seriously by white officials. This also highlights some of methodological challenges involved in exploring race and gender within in architectural history: the notable absence of Lyttle’s voice and opinions within archival documents relating to the building. Yet though recontextualizing this material, Lyttle’s role in shaping a key site of Black wealth in ways that paid close attention to the racially specific needs of Black nurses becomes more clear. While Black wealth may have engendered greater opportunities for accumulation and respectability, African American clients, particularly Black women, were still involved in continual struggles to have their voices heard and their views implemented in the construction of these spaces.