Eleanor Raymond photographic collection

Historical/Biographical Note

Historical/Biographical Note

Eleanor Raymond was an architect in the city of Boston, practicing between 1919 and 1973. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1909, was active in the suffrage movement, and practiced during a time when the field of architecture was primarily dominated by men. In 1948, Raymond partnered with Massachusetts Institute of Technology solar energy researcher Dr. Mária Telkes to design the first solar-powered home in the United States. This house, located in Dover, Mass., was known as the Dover Sun House. It was occupied by Telkes’ cousin, Dr. Anthony Nemethy, and his wife and child for three years. Amelia Peabody, some of whose properties in Dover are included in this photographic collection, funded the project.

For most of her career, Raymond specialized in private home construction and renovations. Designing houses for individuals and families was Raymond’s passion, and she articulated the special meaning such work had for her in a 1981 interview with the Boston Globe: "Houses were the things I liked. I couldn’t imagine doing an office building where offices were going to be rented and you would never know the people who were going to be in them. I like the personal contact with whoever is going to use what I design."

During the early years of her career, Raymond had a professional partnership with Henry Atherton Frost, her former professor at The Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, a school for women which was the predecessor to the Harvard University Design School. In 1932, The Cambridge School became an official affiliate of Smith College. In 1928, Raymond opened her own office at 126 Newbury Street in Boston. In 1931, she published the book, Early Domestic Architecture of Pennsylvania. This book was unique in its focus on simple, small houses and outbuildings in the Pennsylvania countryside. Raymond retired in 1973 and set up a fund for female architects at Harvard’s Design School. Raymond was born in 1887 and died at the age of 102 on July 24, 1989.

For more information on her life and work, see the book Eleanor Raymond, Architect by Doris Cole (The Art Alliance Press, 1981) and the many articles from House Beautiful included in this collection. Ethel Power, editor of House Beautiful, was a friend of Eleanor Raymond and wrote many articles about Raymond’s projects. They met as students at the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and formed a professional collaboration; Raymond designed homes and Power wrote about them in House Beautiful. Additionally, she and Raymond shared Raymond’s Boston duplex home at 112 Charles Street. See the chapter "Designing Woman" of the book Singular Women: Writing the Artist for further information on Power and Raymond’s personal and professional relationship.

Sources

Alumnae Achievement Awards 1982: Eleanor Raymond 1909. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.wellesley.edu/alumnae/awards/achievementawards/allrecipients/eleanor-raymond-1909
Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. (2014, March 25). Built by women: Dover Sun House, Eleanor Raymond and Mária Telkes [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://bwaf.org/built-by-women-dover-sun-house-eleanor-raymond-and-maria-telkes/
Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. (2014). Retrieved from http://sophia.smith.edu/blog/smithipedia/academic-life/cambridge-school-of-architecture-and-landscape-architecture/
Frederickson, Kristen, and Sarah E. Webb, Editors (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). Singular women: writing the artist. Retrieved from http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt5b69q3pk
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (n.d.). MIT Solar Decathalon team history: Solar 6. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/solardecathlon/solar6.html
Taylor, J. (1989, July 28). Obituaries: Eleanor Raymond, 102; architect, designed first N.E. solar house. The Boston Globe, 17.