Telling (Her)Story: Women Designers in Rhode Island

16 Locations | Curated by Brown University students in "Telling Her Story: Women Designers in Rhode Island," Fall 2017

This tour focuses on the design-related work of women in Rhode Island from the late 19th century to the present day, exploring how women—as individuals and in collectives—practiced design in ways that were often oriented toward social progress and change. Women fulfilled an array of important roles as activists, entrepreneurs, inventors, and leaders. In confronting expectations of domesticity in a patriarchal society, these women gained recognition within their communities and took on an active role in changing their communities for the better.


Their stories have faded over the years, but archival resources in the region enable us to uncover the details of their activities: early professional women’s organization and networking; their right to vote; the development of feminist pedagogy within architectural practice; the struggle for gaining respect and recognition as professionals in their fields of design;

education reform; the

employment of World War I veterans; philanthropy; low-income housing; ecological conservation; sustainable development; and the planning of urban public spaces.


The locations visited on this tour—places where these women lived, worked, and organized, as well as aspects of the built and material environments that they designed—represent various spaces carved out by women of disparate social classes, with a shared emphasis on collaboration and gender equity. Given the fact that women’s work and recognition are less likely to survive in the historical record, built or otherwise, we focus on the spaces and ways in which women networked, shared ideas, and held dialogues to foster social and creative growth, in sites defined by collaboration rather than steel beams and concrete. Taking an expansive approach to both the concept of design and the idea of site, the tour brings these women’s diverse stories together to demonstrate the essential ways in which they have shaped Rhode Island.

From August 13–26, 1978, 78 women from 17 states as well as Canada gathered at Roger Williams College (today Roger Williams University) in Bristol, RI, to discuss the integration of values and identities they held both as women and as designers. The Women’s School of Planning and Architecture…
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On any given summer day in the city of Providence, you’re likely to notice a steady flow of people—Rhode Island locals, university students, families and young children—making their way down North Main Street towards Wickenden St., in the Fox Point neighborhood of the city. It’s more than likely…
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What should an architect’s new house look like in a historic neighborhood? This is the question that Margaret B. Kelly and J. Peter Geddes had to address when designing 29 Manning Street in the 1930s. The small, two-story brick house was modern in many ways, but it was also cleverly designed to fit…
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Frances Henley’s involvement in the construction of Wheeler School in Providence can be interpreted as a means of positioning herself in the collective memory of the city by linking her name with the values of education. Both Henley and Mary Colman Wheeler, the founder of the eponymous school, had…
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It might be hard to imagine that Benefit Street hasn’t always been considered a special historic area. Many groups worked for years to protect, preserve, and improve the architecture and historic character of the neighborhood. One woman, Margaret Burnham Kelly Geddes, bridged the gaps between many…
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“Over ten years ago, two women, both lovers of antique Colonial furniture, decided to popularize its beauty by making artistically perfect, made-to-scale doll’s furniture. Equipped with a child’s circular saw, they opened a tiny shop in the tiniest State in the Union. “ Tynietoy Catalogue,…
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In 1904, ten women gathered together, led by former school teacher Julia Lippitt Mauran, to form a club in Providence devoted to “the promotion of interest in all kinds of handicraft and to provide a place where such work could be done.” This was, in part, a response to the growing interest in hand…
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Have you ever imagined yourself juggling six children’s needs, housework, and professional career? It may sound like a bit of a challenge; yet, these two women, Sarah (“Sally”) Harkness, a mother of seven, and Jean B. Fletcher, a mother of six, were able to manage their professional lives while…
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Life wasn’t easy for immigrants at the turn of the century, but Italian sisters Anna and Laura Tirocchi chose their path well. After less than a decade of life in America, they were known in Providence as premier dressmakers with little serious competition. To their credit, this success did not appear to come with the conceit of rising in society, and they created a business that supported and…
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“What the group did is, we sat down and we got organized, ok, we talked about how we want our community to look…. We had input, ok, they allowed us to have input into what we wanted to see [in] the community.” – Fannie Johnson, WDC design meetings participant, 2011
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If you walk into the woods of East Greenwich, you would hear the shouts and laughter of children from the forest. Where is the sound coming from? A few more steps later, you would encounter not Hansel and Gretel's House, but surprisingly, a raw-looking concrete, modern building which would not…
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