A ‘powerful, creative history’: the reticence of women architects to donate their professional records to archival repositories

Abstract

This paper arose in response to observing the frustration expressed by researchers that there were so few accessible documents from which to write biographies of early women architects, planners and designers. As an archivist, it is a disheartening experience to explain to users that, because of limited donations, few such records exist in archival collections. Exemplifying the current predicament is the absence of the architectural work of the first woman officially qualified in South Australia, Beverly Bolin, from any archival collection in her own name. Moreover, extant items that were uncovered about Beverley Bolin, following months of searching, spoke more of her personal, than of her professional life. This led to the question: where are the professional records of women architects and why have they not donated their records to archival repositories? Through a survey of literature and the author’s own direct observation as manager of an archival collection specialising in architecture, this paper discusses possible reasons and offers potential strategies to attract future donations.