Louise bethune biography

A new book and exhibitions highlight Louise Bethune’s career and trailblazing influence on women’s rights

As America's first professional female architect, Louise Blanchard Bethune, FAIA, broke barriers in a male-dominated profession that was emerging as a vital force in a rapidly growing nation during the Gilded Age.

Louise Blanchard Bethune, FAIA, was the first woman to practice as a professional architect in the United States.  She participated in the design of approximately 180 (known) buildings in the Buffalo and Western New York in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and she was the first woman member of the Western Association of Architects (W.A.A.), the American institute of Architects (A.I.A.) and the first woman to be honored as an A.I.A.

Fellow.

Yet, Bethune herself is an enigma. Due to scant information about her life and her firm, Bethune, Bethune & Fuchs, scholars have struggled to provide a complete picture of this trailblazer. Usin