Florence Bell Robinson (November 1, 1885 – August 13, 1973) was a prominent American educator in landscape architecture and a pioneer in introducing women into the field.

Life

Born in

Lapeer, Michigan Lapeer ( ') is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is the county seat of Lapeer County. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,841. Most of the city was incorporated from land that was formerly in Lapeer Township, though portions w ...

, Robinson received her undergraduate degree in science from

Kalamazoo College Kalamazoo College, also known as Kalamazoo, K College, KC or simply K, is a private liberal arts college in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Founded in 1833 by Baptist ministers as the Michigan and Huron Institute, Kalamazoo is the oldest private college in ...

in 1908, and the BArch and MID (Master in Landscape Design) in 1924 from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. She ran her own landscape firm from 1916 to 1926 and worked as a draftsperson for J.W. Case in Detroit. She arrived at the

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the Flagship#Colleges and universities in ...

in 1926 and spent the rest of her career there, developing a highly ranked landscape architecture department with colleagues Stanley White and Karl Lohmann. In 1926 she was hired as associate teacher, then in 1929 she was hired as the first female tenure track faculty member. In 1949 she was promoted to associate professor, then in 1951 she was made full professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture. She retired in 1953. In addition to teaching she also maintained her own practice. An expert in the area of plants and planting design, she published and lectured extensively, and developed a plant cataloging system for educating students that was later published. She died in

Hendersonville, North Carolina Hendersonville is a city in Henderson County, North Carolina, United States. It is south of Asheville and is the county seat of Henderson County. Like the county, the city is named for 19th-century North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Leon ...

in 1973 after suffering a stroke.''North Carolina, Death Certificates, 1909–1976'' Many of her students went on to play a prominent role in the field of landscape architecture, including

Hideo Sasaki Hideo Sasaki (25 November 1919 – 30 August 2000) was a Japanese American landscape architect. Biography Hideo Sasaki was born in Reedley, California, on 25 November 1919. He grew up working on his family's California truck farm, and harvesti ...

, Peter Walker, and

Richard Haag Richard Haag (October 23, 1923 – May 9, 2018) was an American landscape architect. He worked on Gas Works Park in Seattle, Washington and on the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. Furthermore, he founded the Landscape Architecture Program ...

Publications

* Robinson, Florence Bell: Useful Trees and Shrubs (Champaign, IL: Garrard Press, 1938) * Robinson, Florence Bell: Planting Design (New York and London: Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1940) * Robinson, Florence Bell: Tabular Keys for the Identification of the Woody Plants (Champaign, IL: Garrard Press, 1941) * Robinson, Florence Bell: Landscape Planting for Airports. (Urbana, Univ. of Illinois, 1948) * Robinson, Florence Bell: Palette of Plants: Sequel to Planting Design (Champaign, IL: Garrard Press, 1950)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Florence Bell 1885 births 1973 deaths American landscape architects University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty People from Lapeer, Michigan Kalamazoo College alumni Architecture academics