Women -- History

The Architectural League of New York created the Archive of Women in Architecture collection in 1973 to gather biographical and project data about women professionals in the field of architecture and other related disciplines. This information was used to create a 1977 exhibition and the book, Women in American Architecture: A Historic and Contemporary Perspective, edited by Susana Torre.

The records largely document the recent history of Smithfield Plantation, ancestral home of the Preston family, focusing particularly on its restoration beginning in 1962. While much of the renovation occurred in the 1960s, many of the records detail other renovation projects done in the 1970s and 1980s. The collection also includes historical and other related documents dating from before the original Preston family's residence at Smithfield.

The collection contains work by Austrian architect Maria Aubock and includes an exhibition catalog, fliers, speaking notes from a conference, a magazine with an article by Aubock, and a competition catalog with an intro by Aubock. Also included are 2 color publications, three folded color brochures, and one smaller catalog.

Italian architect Gae Aulenti's ability to transform historic public buildings into museum spaces is documented by newspaper and magazine articles, biographical information, and her conceptual computer-drawn designs for the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, California.

Architectural drawings of Diana Balmori, landscape architect and design principal of Balmori Associates. Includes schematic and construction drawings and presentation boards for three design projects.

Papers of Roanoke, Virginia resident Vivian Coleman Bear, including correspondence from E. Ferd Weigand and other suitors; family correspondence and financial documents relating to the Clemens and Staley families; Bible with genealogical notes and clippings; photographs; and ephemera.

Letter written August 26, 1861, from Aunt Netty in a springs resort in Pennsylvania, to "Dear John," in the West. Netty writes about the distracted state of the country, seeing Confederate colonel John Pegram at the Springs (listed under an alias, recruiting his health after surrendering to McClellan in the West Virginia Operations), and her opinion of traitors to the Union.