fbpx
Rectangle 1 + Rectangle 1 + Rectangle 1 Created with Sketch.

Bertha Yerex Whitman

Bertha Yerex Whitman_image|Whitman_Obit_with photo|1717_HARRISON_STREET_EVANSTON_er|2715_PAYNE_STREET_EVANSTON_er|Otto Schulz in Evanston_Whitman Bertha Louise Yerex Whitman (1920). Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library

Name: Bertha Yerex Whitman

Date of Birth / Location: 1892 / Newaygo, Michigan

Date of Death / Location: 1984 / Cass City, Michigan

Education: Bachelor's of Architecture, University of Michigan College of Architecture and Design, 1920. Bertha was the first woman to graduate from that College, earning her degree in 1920.

Firms and Partnerships Perkins, Fellows & Hamilton. In 1934, she took a job as a social worker for the State of Illinois. While in that position, she helped remodel state offices.

Professional Organizations & Activities: Whitman received her license in 1926. Whitman, Juliette Peddle, and Ruth Perkins produced an exhibit at the Women’s World’s Fair of 1928 for the Chicago Woman’s Architectural Club. She co-founded the Chicago Women's Architectural Club (CWA), which would merge into AIA. She was vice-president of Chicago Women’s Architectural Club (CWA) in 1930.

Awards & Honors: Winner of a Better Homes contest sponsored by a contractor’s association in 1931 for her design of the B.G. Lawrence House in Evanston, Illinois.

Primary Field: Architect

Work History:

  • John Strom House, Evanston, Illinois, 1930. (It is believed that Whitman desgined multiple houses for Strom, including 2444, 2440, 2436, 2430 Central Park Avenue.)
  • B.G Lawrence House, 2710 Payne Street Evanston, Illinois, 1930
  • Raymond L Schied House, Glencoe, Illinois, 1931. The Sheid House was exhibited at the 1933 Century of Progress World Fair in Chicago.
  • Otto Schultz House, Evanston, Illinois, 1931
  • Whitman designed more than 50 houses between 1928-1967, including 2420,2430, 2436, 2440 Central Park in Evanston, Illinois; 3015, 3025, 3031, 3028, 3034 Park Place and 2430 Central Park Avenue (the latter was built in 1930).

Additional Information:

Plan for the Otto Schulz Home (1931) at 2715 Payne Street in Evanston. Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan.

Whitman “She Builds A Well Planned House”

“Housing Expert to Appear before Engineering Unit”

Bertha Louise Yerex Whitman Known Work History as of August 18, 2021

Sources:

Early 20th Century Women Architects in Chicago — Julia Bachrach Consulting

Bertha Yerex Whitman: An Early Female Architect – Evanston Women's History Project

Bertha Whitman â Evanston Women's History Project

Additional Images:

Bertha Louise Yerex Whitman Obituary (1984). Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune.
1717 Harrison Street, Evanston, Illinois. Courtesy of Erica Ruggiero
2715 Payne Street, Evanston, Illinois. Courtesy of Erica Ruggiero.
Filter by Profession
Filter by Keyword
Nancy Ann Abshire (Courtesy of CWA)
Nancy Ann Abshire

Name: Nancy Ann Abshire

Date of Birth / Location: Dayton, Ohio

Education: Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design, Northwestern University; Bachelor of Architecture, University of Illinois; 1965-1969

Firms & Partnerships: C.F. Murphy Associates 1961-1968; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), interior design department, also design architect and project manager on various architectural projects, 1968-2019, promoted to Associate 1988.

Professional Organizations & Activities: Chicago Women in Architecture, Founder AIA, RIBA, NCARB; Executive director of SOM foundation 2010-2019; National Trust of Great Britain; Architecture and Design Society of the Art Institute of Chicago; Chicago Architecture Foundation, Auxiliary Board Member since 1971

Awards & Honors: SAH award 2010; Chicago Women in Architecture Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, 2021

Aileen Anderson Colville

Name: Aileen Anderson Colville

Date of Birth / Location: November 1, 1905 / Illinois

Date of Death / Location: September 22, 1983 / Oak Park, Illinois

Firms & Partnerships: Architect for Sears, Roebuck & Co., 1937 (According to "Houses by Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears, Roebuck & Company" by Katherine Cole Stevenson and H. Ward Jandl.) Aileen was part of the Modern Homes Division at Sears, Roebuck, & Co.

Professional Organizations & Activities: Chicago Women's Architectural Club (CWA), Secretary.

Edith C. Antognoli_image Edith C. Antognoli (circa 1965). Courtesy of the Park Forest Star.
Edith Antognoli

Name: Edith Antognoli

Date of Birth / Location: January 2 1912 / Georgetown, British Guiana

Barbara Armstrong

Name: Barbara Armstrong

Iris Ashwell (1952)
Iris Ashwell

Name: Iris Ashwell

Date of Birth / Location: August 16, 1897 / British Columbia, Canada

Date of Death / Location: November 5, 1987 / British Columbia, Canada

Education: University of British Columbia; Iowa State College; Ashwell also studied for two years in England with the urban planner Thomas Mawson.

Firms & Partnerships: Chief Land Planner for the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), late 1940s-early 1950s.

Professional Organizations & Activities: Professional Women's Council Western Society of Engineers; American Society of Planning Officials; Professional Women's Club of Evanston, Illinois.

Photo of Anna Carmen Baird Walsh in “A Composite Woman,” American Lumberman, November 27, 1920- Courtesy of Julia Bachrach Consulting
Anna Carmen Baird Walsh

Name: Anna Carmen Baird Walsh

Date of Birth / Location: 1872 / Quincy, Illinois

Date of Death / Location: August 17, 1936 / Chicago, Illinois

Professional Organizations & Activities: Member, National Women's Association of Commerce; Board member, Aviation Club of Chicago; Director, Woodlawn Trust and Savings Bank; Member, Men’s Association of Commerce

Adelaide Eunice Benham Hulla

Name: Adelaide Eunice Benham Hulla

Date of Birth / Location: 1871 / New York

Date of Death / Location: 1961

Education: Wellesley College, 1884-1890; AB from Cornell University, 1887-1890; Bachelor's of Science in Architecture, Chicago School of Architecture (a joint program with the Armour Institute, now Illinois Institute of Techonoly IIT, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago), 1902. Thesids: "A Group of University Buildings."

Firms & Partnerships: According to 1938-39 Cornell Alumni directory, Adelaide was in joint practice of architecture at 104 S Dearborn in Chicago, Illinois and in the 90 Schiller Building, Chicago, Illinois with her husband John Hulla.

Professional Organizations & Activities: Adelaide was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta. (Courtesy of Martin Tangora)

Helen Bishoff

Name: Helen Bishoff

Firms & Partnerships: Interior Architect for Marshall Field & Co. in 1939

Katherine Brewster with her children Sara and Edward- Courtesy of Chicago History Museum
Katherine Brewster

Name: Katherine (Kate) Lancaster Brewster

Date of Death / Location: September 24, 1947 / Lake Forest, Illinois

Professional Organizations & Activities: Member of the Lake Forest Garden Club; Member of the Garden Club of America; President of the Chicago Public School Art Society

Awards & Honors: Legion of Honor for her work with the Chicago chapter of France Forever.

Fran Caldwell

Name: Fran Caldwell

Isabel Ling Chan

Name: Isabel Ling Chan

Education: Cheng-Kung University, Taiwan (undergraduate); University of Minnesota (graduate)

Professional Organizations & Activities: American Institute of Architects (AIA)

Pao-Chi Chang- Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune
Pao-Chi Chang

Name: Pao-Chi Chang

Firms & Partnerships: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Alfred Swenson Pao-Chi Chang Architects

Professional Organizations & Activities: Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Professor; One of the founders of Chicago Women in Architecture (CWA)

Mary Colter

Name: Mary Colter

Firms & Partnerships: Mary Colter was named the official Architect and Designer for the Fred Harvey company in 1910, she held the position until she retired in 1940.

Sue Ann Conover

Name: Sue Ann Conover

Date of Birth / Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Date of Death / Location: 2017 (Rockford, IL)

Education: Bachelor's of Architecture, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1979

Professional Organizations & Activities: American Institute of Architects (AIA); Chicago Women in Architecture (CWA)

Crawford_ in front of Lindberg Engineering Co.|Mary Ann Crawford_LINDBERG ENGINEERING_WESTERN AND CAMPBELL_CHICAGO_02|Crawford_6531_WAUKESHA_CHICAGO|Amy McCormick tomb 1_by Crawford Mary Ann Crawford in front of the Lindberg Construction Company building that she designed. Courtesy of the Chicago Daily Tribune.
Mary Ann Elizabeth Crawford

Name: Mary Ann Elizabeth Crawford

Date of Birth / Location: 1901 / Girard, Illinois

Date of Death / Location: December 19, 1988 / Springfield, Illinois

Education: Bachelor of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1929; Master's of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1930.

Firms & Partnerships: Holabird and Root, 1930s; Rand McNally, 1930s; Historical American Building Survey Work, 1930s; Montgomery Ward, n.d.; Private Practice, beginning in 1959; Designed offices, factories, displays, and machinery for Lindberg Engineering Company in the 1940s.

Professional Organizations & Activities: Chair of the Women’s Architectural Club; Officer for the Society of Western Engineers; Licensed Architect with the State of Illinois, 1941; Licensed Engineer with the State of Illinois, 1943. In 1978, some of Crawford's student drawings were featured in the "Chicago Women Architects: Contemporary Directions" exhibition at Artemisia Gallery in Chicago, Illinois. In 1980, her drawings were the focus of a solo exhibition titled "American Beaux-Arts" at the Frumkin-Struve Gallery in Chicago, Illinois.