Emily Helen Butterfield (August 4, 1884,
Algonac, Michigan
Algonac is a city in St. Clair County of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,110 at the 2010 census.
Algonac is located at the southern end of the St. Clair River, just before it splits into a large delta region known as the St. C ...
– March 22, 1958,
Neebish Island
Neebish Island is located in the U.S. state of Michigan, in the St. Marys River, which connects Lake Superior and Lake Huron at the easternmost point of Michigan's upper peninsula.
Located west of the international border that separates the Uni ...
) was a pioneer in the
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
women's movement
The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such is ...
.
She was Michigan's first licensed female
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
, one of the founders of the
Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Gamma Delta (), also known as Alpha Gam, is an international women's fraternity and social organization. It was founded on May 30, 1904, by eleven female students at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, making it the youngest member ...
sorority, active in
Greek life, and a founding member of the
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
Business Women's Club, the first professional women's club in the nation.
Early life
Butterfield was born in
Algonac,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
, in
St. Clair County. She attended Detroit Public Schools. Butterfield and her father shared a great love of art. In her teenage years she and her father went on sketch trips to the western United States and Europe.
[Fro]
Butterfield page
of Michigan Women Hall of Fame, accessed December 18, 2006
Career
Architecture
In 1903 Butterfield was accepted into the
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
program at
Syracuse University in New York. After graduation, in 1907 she became the first licensed woman architect in the state of Michigan. With her father, in 1917 she established the firm of Butterfield and Butterfield. The firm specialized in
church architecture. It led the transformation of churches, especially
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
, from Sunday meeting halls to centers of daily community and social activities. She practiced architecture in Detroit and
Pontiac Pontiac may refer to:
*Pontiac (automobile), a car brand
*Pontiac (Ottawa leader) ( – 1769), a Native American war chief
Places and jurisdictions Canada
*Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality
** Apostolic Vicariate of Pontiac, now the Roman Catholic D ...
, designing 26 churches throughout the state. Her other projects included factories, summer camps, stores, schools, and homes.
Detroit Business Women's Club and the BPW
Butterfield was among the three co-founders, along with publisher Emma Spoor, and manufacturer's agent Grace Wright, of the Detroit Business Women's Club in 1912. It was the first professional women's club in the nation and Butterfield served as founding president.
:"I think it never occurred to us that we were doing something absolutely unique, I know I never would have had the idea if it had not been that all of my business acquaintances were men, and I was actually lonesome for speaking acquaintances with business women as I pattered up and down the avenue at the noon hour looking for a place where a lone woman might eat." --Emily Butterfield
[quoted at th]
BPW/MI
(Business and Professional Women, Michigan chapter) website, "About us section", accessed December 17, 2006
In a series of mergers, the Club became part of what is now known as BPW/Michigan. This chapter is a part of
Business and Professional Women (BPW), the oldest and largest organization for working women in the world. The national BPW organization is made up of federations from each of the 50 states, the
District of Columbia
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
,
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
, and the
Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Cro ...
.
Greek activities
Butterfield was active in the college Greek movement, which flourished with new chapters established in the early 20th century with the expansion of college education. As an associate of the
George Banta George Riddle Banta, Sr. (July 16, 1857 – September 23, 1935) was the founder of the George Banta Company (later the Banta Corporation) and an influential figure in the development of the collegiate Phi Delta Theta fraternity and Delta Gamma wome ...
publishing company, Butterfield combined her design abilities and her knowledge of
heraldry to design the
coats of arms of several sororities and fraternities, among them her own sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta (ΑΓΔ), coat of arms in the spring of 1906.
She also designed the coats of arms for
Lambda Omega (later merged with
Delta Zeta
Delta Zeta (, also known as DZ) is an international college sorority founded on October 24, 1902, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Delta Zeta has 170 collegiate chapters in the United States and Canada, and over 200 alumnae chapters in Cana ...
),
Theta Phi Alpha
Theta Phi Alpha (), commonly known as Theta Phi, is a women's fraternity founded at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor on August 30, 1912. The main archive URL iThe Baird's Manual Online Archive homepage Theta Phi Alpha is one of 26 nation ...
, and
Phi Beta
Phi Beta Fraternity: National Professional Association for the Creative and Performing Arts () is an American national professional college fraternity for the creative and performing arts. It was founded in 1912 at Northwestern University in Evan ...
sororities. She co-designed the
Zeta Tau Alpha
Zeta Tau Alpha (known as or Zeta) is an international women's fraternity founded on October 15, 1898 at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Virginia. Its International Office is located in Carmel, Indiana. It ...
sorority coat of arms and the crest of
Tau Kappa Epsilon
Tau Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as or Teke, is a social college fraternity founded on January 10, 1899, at Illinois Wesleyan University. The organization has chapters throughout the United States and Canada, making the Fraternity an interna ...
.
Butterfield designed the coats of arms for the following fraternities:
Alpha Kappa Psi,
Sigma Delta Rho,
Sigma Tau Gamma
Sigma Tau Gamma (), commonly known as Sig Tau, is a United States college social fraternity founded on June 28, 1920, at the University of Central Missouri (then known as Central Missouri State Teachers College). The fraternity was founded as a re ...
,
Theta Upsilon Omega, and
Theta Kappa Nu
Theta Kappa Nu () Fraternity was founded in 1924 by delegates from 11 local fraternities. It later merged with Lambda Chi Alpha in .
History
Theta Kappa Nu Fraternity was founded on when delegates from 11 local fraternities from nine different ...
(later merged with
Lambda Chi Alpha
Lambda Chi Alpha (), commonly known as Lambda Chi, is a college fraternity in North America which was founded at Boston University in 1909. It is one of the largest social fraternities in North America, with more than 300,000 lifetime members a ...
).
With
George Banta George Riddle Banta, Sr. (July 16, 1857 – September 23, 1935) was the founder of the George Banta Company (later the Banta Corporation) and an influential figure in the development of the collegiate Phi Delta Theta fraternity and Delta Gamma wome ...
, she created the coat-of-arms (adopted in 1910) of
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America (colloquially known as Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Phi Mu Alpha, or simply Sinfonia) () is an American collegiate social fraternity for men with a special interest in music. The fraternity is open to men "w ...
fraternity, the national fraternity for men in music.
She designed the chapter houses of Alpha Gamma Delta at Syracuse and
Michigan State
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...
universities. When the fraternity established a summer camp (the "Alpha Gamma Delta Summer Camp Lodges") for underprivileged children in
Jackson, Michigan in 1920, Butterfield was the architect of the camp. She also served as camp manager until 1924. She served as editor of the ''Alpha Gamma Delta Quarterly'', the fraternity publication, for 7 years.
Butterfield had a strong influence on her sorority and Greek life, as noted in the 2004 Alpha Gamma Delta Centennial Keynote Address:
:"In the United States in 1900, three-quarters of the states forbade married women to own property in their name. In 1909, the members of Alpha Gamma Delta overlooked the statistic and planned ahead by starting a house fund in hopes of purchasing their own home. In 1928, they challenged the societal constraints once again by not only purchasing but building the first house — and we all know the name of the architect — Emily Helen Butterfield."
Publications
Butterfield and her father shared a love for, and studied the art of,
heraldry. Following creating many heraldry designs for fraternal organizations, she also wrote ''College Fraternity Heraldry,'' published in 1931.
To further education in architecture, she published a children's book, ''Young People's History of Architecture'' (1933). She also contributed its illustrations, which she had drawn from her many travels.
Art
Butterfield was an accomplished illustrator, working in
pen and ink
A pen is a common writing tool, writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a Nib (pen), nib or in a sm ...
and
watercolor
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...
, illustrating mainly nature, Michigan, and architectural scenes. She exhibited at the
J. L. Hudson Gallery and at the
Toledo Artists Club.
Her artwork was used in her publications.
Retirement and death
Butterfield retired to
Neebish Island
Neebish Island is located in the U.S. state of Michigan, in the St. Marys River, which connects Lake Superior and Lake Huron at the easternmost point of Michigan's upper peninsula.
Located west of the international border that separates the Uni ...
, where she served as
postmaster during World War II. She died on March 22, 1958
and was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame for her work in the field of architecture in 1990.
References
External links
*
Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Gamma Delta (), also known as Alpha Gam, is an international women's fraternity and social organization. It was founded on May 30, 1904, by eleven female students at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, making it the youngest member ...
br>
founders pagewith Butterfield capsule
Michigan Women Hall of Fame*
Business and Professional Women Michigan chapte
history site*
International Archive of Women in Architecture
The International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA) was established in 1985 as a joint program of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies and the University Libraries at Virginia Tech.
Purpose
The purpose of the Archive is to docume ...
pageon Butterfield.
*
Lambda Chi Alpha
Lambda Chi Alpha (), commonly known as Lambda Chi, is a college fraternity in North America which was founded at Boston University in 1909. It is one of the largest social fraternities in North America, with more than 300,000 lifetime members a ...
br>
history site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Butterfield, Emily Helen
1884 births
1958 deaths
20th-century American architects
Architects from Detroit
People from Algonac, Michigan
Syracuse University School of Architecture alumni
American women architects
American heraldists
Alpha Gamma Delta
20th-century American women