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Abstract
This article contributes to the growing literature on women's contributions to planning, especially in the UK, the USA, and Australia, and to research into the phenomenon of life partners who work together professionally. The subject is Flora Crockett Stephenson (1914–1979), the first woman to complete the Master in City Planning degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Presented as a biographical exposé, the discussion introduces Flora's background and reveals her largely unrecorded contributions as the life and professional partner of British architect-planner Gordon Stephenson (1908–1997), already the subject of several academic studies.
Acknowledgements
An early version of this article was delivered at the 15th IPHS conference, Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 2012. The author acknowledges the assistance of Flora Stephenson's daughter Ann Peluso and grandson Jon Rose; Lawrence Vale and Colleen McHugh, MIT; staff of: the MIT archives particularly Christina Tanguay, the University of Liverpool Library Special Collections and Archives, the Environmental Design Archives and the Bancroft Library, both at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Scholars Library, University of Western Australia; Rachel Hurst and Julie Collins, University of South Australia; colleagues in the international team involved in the Gordon Stephenson project 2009–2012; Robert Freestone and Mark Clapson for their comments on an early draft of this article; and the comments of three anonymous reviewers.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on the contributor
Christine Garnaut is Associate Research Professor in Planning and Architectural History and Director of the Architecture Museum in the School of Art, Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. She is Vice-President and President-elect of the International Planning History Society. Her research focuses on twentieth-century planned environments primarily in Australia. Her study of Flora Stephenson evolved from her research into Australian post-war university campuses planned by Gordon Stephenson.
Notes
1. Gordon Stephenson (hereafter GS) to Larry Lawrence, 14 February 1979, University of Liverpool Library Special Collections and Archives (hereafter ULSCA) D307/5/1/17/18.
2. Dix, “The Compassionate Planner,” v.
3. “Statement made by Mrs. Gordon Stephenson before the Board of Immigration Appeals, US Department of Justice, on Monday March 19, 1956,” 1, ULSCA D307/2/16/131; Stephenson, On a Human Scale, 51.
4. Bever, “The Women of M.I.T”; Flora submitted in September 1939; Jane Rodman Steiner in May 1940. Stephenson, “Holiday, School and Evacuation Camps”; Steiner, “A Study for Replanning an Area.”
5. GS to Mums, 13 March 1938, ULSCA D307/5/1/2/12/123.
6. Massey, “Under My Care”; Batey, “Gordon Stephenson's Reform”; Gregory and Gordon, “Special Issue.”
7. Birch, “From Civic Worker,” 490; Stephenson, On a Human Scale; Stephenson, “Oral History.”
8. Gregory and Gordon, “Conclusion,” 400.
9. Darling, “The Star in the Profession”; Clapson, “The Rise and Fall”; Shoshkes, Jaqueline Tyrwhitt; Freestone, “Anti-planning in the 1940s.”
10. See Acknowledgments and endnotes for collections and family members consulted.
11. GS to Dulcie, 26 April 1979, ULSCA D307/5/17/56.
12. Collins, “A ‘Powerful, Creative History',” 181, 186.
13. See for example Epstein, “Law Partners and Marital Partners”; Chadwick and de Courtivron, Significant Others; Colomina, “Collaborations”; Kirkham, Charles and Ray Eames; Wright, “A Partnership.”
14. Colomina, “Collaborations,” 462; Chadwick and de Courtivron, Significant Others, 7; Wright, “A Partnership,” 187.
15. Colomina, “Collaborations,” 462–6.
16. Kirkham, Charles and Ray Eames, 83.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid., 489.
19. Ibid., 491.
20. Ibid., 490.
21. Biographical material supplied by Ann Peluso unless noted otherwise. Hariett's death date in Virginia Carew to GS, 14 March 1979, ULSCA D307/5/1/17/42.
22. GS to William Holford, 21 February 1937. Courtesy Jon Rose.
23. GS to William Holford, 21 February 1937; GS to Kathleen Barat, 2 January 1987, ULSCA D307/2/21/139.
24. GS to Mums, 30 September 1937, ULSCA D307/5/1/2/134.
25. United States Government Printing Office, “Register,” 430.
26. GS to William Holford, 21 February 1937.
27. “Mount Holyoke.”
28. Nora Murphy (Archivist MIT) to Christine Garnaut 26 January 2013.
29. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 260.
30. Vale, Changing Cities, 14.
31. Ibid., 14–15, 19.
32. Birch, “From Civic Worker,” 489.
33. GS to William Holford, 21 February 1937; Nora Murphy (MIT Archives) to Christine Garnaut 26 January 2013.
34. Hall, “A Pivotal Group,” 79; Stephenson, “Oral History,” 66.
35. GS to Mums, 15 February 1937, ULSCA D307/5/1/2/116.
36. Hall, A Pivotal Group, 81; Stephenson, On a Human Scale, 50.
37. GS to William Holford, 21 February 1937.
38. Stephenson, On a Human Scale, 16; Parents details in “US Visa Forms”, ULSCA D307/2/16/168.
39. GS to Mums, 15 February 1937.
40. “Ghost Train Runs in Mystery Drama.”; “Morrison Resigns from Dramashop.”; “Dramashop Holds Tryouts for Membership.”
41. GS to William Holford, 21 February 1937.
42. Ibid.
43. Gordon's letters to his parents described their various social activities. See ULSCA D307/5/1/2.
44. GS to Mums, 15 February 1937.
45. GS to Kathleen Barat, 20 January 1987, ULSCA D307/2/21/139; GS to Mums, 15 February 1937.
46. Crockett, “A Low-Rent Housing Project,” 1, 3. Copy courtesy Larry Vale and MIT Archives.
47. Ibid., 3–5.
48. Ibid., 5, 7–8.
49. Ibid., 8–9.
50. Bauer, Modern Housing; Stephenson, “A Low-Rent Housing Project,” 14–18. Flora recommended American architect Albert Mayer's plans for row housing in the new town of Greenbrook, New Jersey. See Stein, Toward New Towns.
51. GS to Mums, 23 May 1937, ULSCA D307/5/1/2/129.
52. Jack Kent to GS, 20 March 1979, ULSCA D307/5/17/45; GS to Mums, 23 May 1937, ULSCA D307/5/1/2/[129].
53. Jack Kent to GS.
54. He travelled with a South African bio-chemist named Kits van Heyringe. GS to Mums, 16 May 1937, ULSCA D307/5/1/2/128.
55. Flora Stephenson (hereafter FS) to Larry Lawrence [February 1979], D307/5/1/17/19.
56. GS to Mums 15 February 1937, ULSCA D307/5/1/2/116.
57. GS to Dad, 13 November 1937, ULSCA D307/5/1/2/136.
58. “Diary of Flora Stephenson” (Flora kept a diary from the day of her wedding to 22 July 1938. It covered the first seven weeks of Flora and Gordon's honeymoon and provides details of their itinerary and of places and people visited). ULSCA D307/5/2/2; GS to Mums, 8 June 1938, ULSCA D307/5/1/2/14.
59. GS to Mums and Dad, 11 September 1938, ULSCA D307/5/1/2/161; “Diary of Flora Stephenson,” ULSCA D307/5/2/2.
60. Riboldazzi, “The IFHTP Congresses,” 163; FS to Larry Lawrence.
61. FS to Larry Lawrence.
62. GS to Mums and Dad, 11 September 1938.
63. FS to Mr Winship, 30 September 1954, ULSCA D307/2/16/42; “Statement Made by Mrs. Gordon Stephenson,” 1.
64. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 73; Address details for all homes to 1949 in “US Visa Forms,” ULSCA D307/2/16/68.
65. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 73.
66. Simpson, Thomas Adams.
67. GS to Mums, 29 March 1938, ULSCA D307/5/1/2/142.
68. GS to Mums, 30 April 1938, ULSCA D307/5/1/2/[14].
69. Ibid.
70. Stephenson, “Holiday, School and Evacuation Camps.”
71. GS to Mums and Dad, 12 February 1939, ULSCA D307/5/1/2/[163].
72. Housing Centre, Camps Exhibition Handbook, title page.
73. Walker, “Golden Age,” 25.
74. Darling, “The Star.” Research for this article has not extended to the Housing Centre records. Further research may reveal personal correspondence between Flora and/or Gordon and leading Housing Centre personnel but there is no surviving evidence of correspondence between them in the archival collections consulted.
75. Stephenson, “Holiday, School and Evacuation Camps,” 26–7. Housing Centre records may provide further information about the exhibition.
76. Carrington, “Country Camps,” 321–3.
77. Stephenson, “Camp Administration,” 10.
78. Stephenson, “School and Holiday Camps,” 9–11, ULSCA D307/5/1/9/46.
79. FS to Lou, 19 July 1939, ULSCA D307/5/1/1/67 ULA.
80. The Stephenson's friend Jack Kent took the thesis to MIT. He called through Welwyn in September 1939 and Flora's brother Bob arranged a passage home for him to the USA. Flora's thesis records that it was completed in London in 1939. Stephenson, “Diary starting Friday, September 1st, 1939,” ULSCA D3-7/5/2/3/2, 10; Jack Kent to GS, 20 March 1979; Stephenson, “Holiday, School and Evacuation Camps.”
81. Stephenson, Community Centres, 3.
82. Ibid., 6. The centres were: Filwood Social Centre, Bristol: Frecheville Community Centre, Sheffield; Slough Social Centre, Slough, Bucks; North Kensington Community Centre, London; Craigentinny-Lochend Social Centre, Edinburgh; Impington Village College, Camridgeshire; Townhill Community Centre, Swansea; Werrington and District Village Hall, Staffs.
83. GS to Dad and Mums, 18 June 1939 ULSCA D307/5/1/2/165; GS to Dad and Mums, 3 March 1940, ULSCA D307/5/1/2/167; FS to Lou, 19 July 1939 ULSCA D307/5/1/1/67; Stephenson, On a Human Scale, 51.
84. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 74.
85. Department of Labour, “Community Centres,” 49.
86. “691 Receive degrees today,”; ‘Degrees are given to thirteen women’.
87. Stephenson, “Diary Starting Friday, September 1st, 1939,” 1, 15.
88. Ibid., 2.
89. Ibid., 4. The Athenia was sunk on 3 September 1939.
90. Dix, “Obituary,” v.
91. Ward, “Gordon Stephenson,” 279.
92. FS to Larry Lawrence. The ‘guns’ refers to the Z Rocket Battery located in Hyde Park, London, and manned by civilians. See also GS to Clarence Stein, 28 August 1961 ULSCA D616.
93. FS to Larry Lawrence; Stephenson, On a Human Scale, 62.
94. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 99.
95. Ibid., 99, 260.
96. Huxley, TVA.
97. Stephenson, “Report”; Stephenson, “Oral History,” 66.
98. Sorensen, “Phoebe Pool.”
99. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 260.
100. Stephenson and Pool, A Plan, 56.
101. Huxley, “Foreword,” 8.
102. Ward, “Gordon Stephenson,” 284–5.
103. Larkham, “The Place.”
104. “Statement Made by Mrs. Gordon Stephenson,” 1.
105. Batey, “Gordon Stephenson's Reform.”
106. Massey, “Under My Care,” 167.
107. Ibid., 169–75.
108. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 130–1.
109. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 130–1; Massey “Under My Care,” 182.
110. The TPR Archives, held in the ULSCA, contain no minutes of editorial meetings at the time when Gordon Stephenson was editor. Correspondence with David Massey, author of an article on Stephenson's role as TPR editor, confirms the absence of records which might assist in explicating Flora's role as an Assistant Editor and/or why she wrote the review of Adams’ book. David Massey to Christine Garnaut 20 July 2015.
111. Stephenson, “Adams, Children and the City,” 318.
112. Stein, Toward, 7.
113. Parsons, The Writing, 487.
114. Stephenson, “Oral History”, 70.
115. Stein, Toward, 8.
116. Stephenson, On a Human Scale, 135; Gregory, “Stephenson,” 291.
117. Stephenson, On a Human Scale, 135; Gregory, “Stephenson,” 301.
118. GS to Clarence Stein, 27 July 1953, ULSCA D616.
119. “Statement made by Mrs. Gordon Stephenson,” 2.
120. Stephenson, On a Human Scale, 154.
121. Ibid., 154–5;
122. “Statement made by Mrs. Gordon Stephenson,” 2.
123. Ibid.
124. GS to Clarence and Aline Stein, 30 December 1954, ULSCA D616.
125. Stephenson, On a Human Scale, 156; Shoshkes, Jaqueline Tyrwhitt, 146–7, 152.
126. GS to Clarence and Aline Stein, 30 December 1954,
127. GS to Clarence Stein, 26 February 1956, ULSCA D616.
128. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 166–7;
129. GS to Dulcie, 26 April 1979.
130. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 176.
131. FS to GS, [18 September] 1959, ULSCA D307/5/1/12/15.
132. GS to Dulcie, 26 April 1979.
133. GS to Clarence Stein, 10 January 1959, 4. D616 ULA.
134. Garnaut, “Gordon Stephenson,” 382–4.
135. FS to GS, [18 September] 1959.
136. GS to Clarence Stein, 30 December 1954, ULSCA D616.
137. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 176.
138. Gordon and Nicholson, “Beyond the Tabula Rasa,” 339; GS to Cricket [Flora], 8 July [1956] ULSCA D307/5/1/11/11; GS to J. McCulloch, n.d.1958, ULSCA D307/1/5/6/26.
139. Grant and Paterson, “Scientific Cloak,” 321–4.
140. GS to Cricket (Flora), 8 July 1956.
141. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 170.
142. Grant and Paterson, “Scientific Cloak,” e.g. 325, 328–31; GS to Kathleen Barat, 2 January 1987. The research has not located sources that indicate Flora's actual contributions in any more specific detail.
143. Grant and Paterson, “Scientific Cloak,” 323; Stephenson, On a Human Scale, 159–60.
144. GS to Kathleen Barat 2 January 1987.
145. S.L. Prescott to GS, 8 October 1959, University of Western Australia Gordon Stephenson HR File No.763; FS to Larry Lawrence.
146. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 134. My endeavours in 2015 to locate the slides and card files either in the School of Architecture or in the library at the University of Western Australia were unsuccessful.
147. GS to Clarence Stein, 7 March 1961, ULSCA D616.
148. FS to Jack Kent, 24 August 1961, Wurster: Dean's Files Box 12, S-correspondence 1961–1962, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.
149. Stephenson and Stephenson, “Planning.”
150. FS to Larry Lawrence.
151. Freestone, “Gordon Stephenson,” 53.
152. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 234.
153. Ibid., 228–9.
154. Stephenson, G. “University of Tasmania. Campus Development,” Unpublished Report, 1972. Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office, AE342/1/116, 2.
155. In 1980, Nanyang University merged with the University of Singapore to form the National University of Singapore. Nanyang Technological University is on the site of the original Nanyang University.
156. GS to FS, 11 February 1972, “Nanyang University”, Box 4, File 4.45, GS papers, Scholars Library, University of Western Australia.
157. Stephenson, The Design, xi.
158. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 223.
159. FS to Lou and Clive, 20 June 1977, ULSCA D307/5/1/1/46.
160. FS to Larry Lawrence.
161. FS to Lou and Clive (Flora's emphasis).
162. GS to Herbert Finch, 8 May 1978, ULSCA D307/5/1; GS to Dulcie.
163. “Donation Pledge Form,” ULSCA D307/2/21/175.
164. GS to Lloyd Rodwin, 30 July 1979, ULSCA D307/2/21/191.
165. Stein, Toward New Towns, 8.
166. Stephenson, “Oral History,” 260.