The historical record left by architect Marion Mahony Griffin has been obscured by time, distance, and the prejudices of her age and profession. To begin with, much of her built work was on the other side of the globe, in Australia. She disdained self-promotion and the public spotlight, rather literally—she seldom faced a camera. She’s primarily associated with Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the most domineering egos in all of architecture. And of course, she practiced in a time when women were prescribed very particular social and professional spheres, outside of which which she brazenly operated.
A new exhibit at the Elmhurst History Museum in suburban Chicago, In Her Own Right: Marion Mahony Griffin, traces the career of Illinois’ first woman architect as she flit between design practices and continents. The exhibit is mostly a chronological collection of photos and wall-text, with a handful of wood models. Overall, the show provides a rare occasion where her husband, Prairie School architect Walter Burley Griffin (whom she promoted relentlessly), slots into the background of his wife’s expansive talents.
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