Records of Howe, Manning & Almy, Inc. and the papers of Lois Lilley Howe, Eleanor Manning O'Connor, and Mary Almy
Title:
Records of Howe, Manning & Almy, Inc. and the papers of Lois Lilley Howe, Eleanor Manning O'Connor, and Mary Almy
The firm of Howe, Manning & Almy is believed to be the first architectural firm in Boston founded by women and the second in the United States. Lois Lilley Howe (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, SB 1890), whose commissions began in 1894, established her own firm in 1900 and asked Eleanor Manning (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, SB 1906), one of her draftsmen, to be her partner in 1913, creating the firm of Lois Lilley Howe & Manning. In 1926, another draftsman from the office, Mary Almy (Radcliffe College, 1905, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, SB 1922) became a partner, assuming responsibility for the business aspects of the firm. Manning focused on the technical architectural work and design problems, and Howe continued to concentrate on design. The firm dissolved in 1937 when Howe retired, and Manning and Almy started separate practices. The emphasis of the firm was on domestic architecture and the partners did both building and remodeling. They were interested in urban housing problems and worked with the Architects' Small House Service Bureau of Massachusetts and the Boston Housing Association throughout the 1920s and 1930s. They submitted small house designs to the Department of the Interior for the Subsistence Homestead Communities, remodeled apartments for the Lynn Slum Clearance Project, and developed housing in Mariemont, Ohio. Materials of the firm include correspondence, financial data, reports, specifications, photographs, blueprints, drawings, and research materials that document the firm's projects and commissions. The collection also includes personal papers of the three architects including illustrated travel diaries, watercolors, sketchbooks, and architecural scrapbooks. Records from Eleanor Manning O'Connor's private architectural work after 1937 and material from the Seventeen Associated Architects are included. There are a number of documents about the Howe family in the personal papers of Lois Lilley Howe.
ArchivalResource:
25.0 cubic feet; (21 record cartons, 4 manuscript boxes, 1 half manuscript box, 5 flat storage boxes, 1 glass negative box, 1 roll, 54 oversize folders)
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