Chloethiel Woodard Smith: Advancing through Exhibitions

Chloethiel Woodard Smith (1910–1992) was the most successful female architect of her generation in the United States. From 1963 to 1983 she ran a large independent practice in Washington, DC. Crucial to her career was her role in the organization of four exhibitions, held in Washington in 1939, in Montreal in 1941, in Havana in 1950, and in Moscow in 1958. Allowing others to largely take credit for work that she played a disproportionate part in organizing helped her win her the respect of an overwhelmingly male profession. In 1960 she was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects; at that time, only five women had previously received that honor, one bestowed partly as a result of the good will she had accumulated through her efforts. Smith’s involvement in exhibition design also trained her to think in terms of the public for which she designed rather than only in terms of an audience of her peers. This proved key to her ability to work with developers to build housing across much of the country and office buildings in downtown Washington that were popular with those who lived and worked in them.