Colter, Credit, and Collaboration

Colter, right, is pictured looking at drawings with Grand Canyon National Park superintendent Miner Tillotson and Anna Ickes, c. 1935 (Grand Canyon Museum Collection, 16942). 

Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter worked as an artist, decorator, and architect for the Fred Harvey hospitality company from 1902 until her retirement in 1948. On January 9, 1958, the day after Colter died, newspapers from Connecticut to California carried her obituary. The Los Angeles Times described her as a “nationally known architect, designer and decorator.” The Santa Fe New Mexican called Colter an “internationally known architect, designer and decorator.”

So how is Colter is so little-known now compared to how well-known she was in 1958? Colter is not entirely unknown today; she is best-known in the Southwest where her work had the greatest influence, and two books have been written about her work (Grattan, 1992 and Berke, 2002). But I know very few architects or architectural historians who learned about Colter in school or are familiar with her work.

One explanation is that Colter’s name wasn’t on the door—she didn’t have her own firm like Louise Bethune or Julia Morgan—so her work was attributed to her employer instead of to her. Another reason is that she designed relatively few buildings owing to her decorating and supervisory responsibilities. But a third reason is that our culture believes in the myth of the lone architect, and that lone architect is always male. This belief flies counter to the way architecture is practiced and to Colter’s (and many other women’s) very real design contributions. It has led a man to self-publish a book attempting to strip away Colter’s legacy and attribute her work to male architects.

And that has caused me to write an article explaining how architecture is a collaborative practice, and how Colter’s design contributions are supported by archival records. You can read my article “Understanding Mary Colter’s Contributions in the Context of Architectural Practice” in the Grand Canyon Historical Society’s magazine.

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