the University Museums at the University of Delaware

Breaking Ground:
Designing the University of Delaware Mall, 1914 - 1954

September 11 - December 14, 2001

Architects Frank Miles Day and Charles Z. Klauder applied the principals of The University Beautiful Movement to their plan for the University of Delaware. The University Beautiful Movement, derived from the City Beautiful Movement of the 1890s, promoted the application of classical French Beaux-Arts principals of landscape and urban design to American cities, through the ordering of spaces and buildings around a hierarchy of major and minor axes.

In 1904, armed with a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Marian Cruger Coffin became one of the first American women to enter the field of landscape architecture. She established her practice in New York City, and from that base created a national reputation designing formal gardens and landscapes of understated elegance. Her plans, commissioned by the University of Delaware from 1918-1952 were essential to successfully unifying the men’s and women’s campuses into one.

Breaking Ground was curated by Museum Studies graduate students enrolled in the exhibition course MS807, under the direction of Belena S. Chapp, director of museums, and Dr. J. Ritchie Garrison, assistant director of Museum Studies.

The University of Delaware Museums Fall 2001 exhibitions were made possible with the generous support of the Center for American Material Culture Studies, the University of Delaware Faculty Senate Committee on Cultural Activities and Public Events, the Museum Studies Program and an anonymous donor.

We wish to acknowledge the University of Delaware Archives for its generous assistance in the organization of Breaking Ground: Designing the University of Delaware Mall, 1914-1954.

THE UNIVERSITY MUSEUMS
of the University of Delaware


Breaking Ground: Designing the University of Delaware Mall, 1914 - 1954 September 11 - December 14, 2001
				The origins of the University of Delaware can be traced to 1743, but the early twentieth century stands out as a critical visionary moment for the institution, with the change from college to university status in 1921, the development of the Women’s College, and the subsequent move to co-education. Many individuals gave shape to that vision, including the influential philanthropists P.S. du Pont and H. Rodney Sharp. The major architects of that vision were Marian Cruger Coffin, Frank Miles Day and Charles Z. Klauder. Architects Frank Miles Day and Charles Z. Klauder applied the principals of The University Beautiful Movement to their plan for the University of Delaware. The University Beautiful Movement, derived from the City Beautiful Movement of the 1890s, promoted the application of classical French Beaux-Arts principals of landscape and urban design to American cities, through the ordering of spaces and buildings around a hierarchy of major and minor axes. In 1904, armed with a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Marian Cruger Coffin became one of the first American women to enter the field of landscape architecture. She established her practice in New York City, and from that base created a national reputation designing formal gardens and landscapes of understated elegance. Her plans, commissioned by the University of Delaware from 1918-1952 were essential to successfully unifying the men’s and women’s campuses into one.
	West Elevation, Wolf Hall, University of Delaware Courtesy of University Archives
			CLICK HERE for exhibition website
		Breaking Ground was curated by Museum Studies graduate students enrolled in the exhibition course MS807, under the direction of Belena S. Chapp, director of museums, and Dr. J. Ritchie Garrison, assistant director of Museum Studies. The University of Delaware Museums Fall 2001 exhibitions were made possible with the generous support of the Center for American Material Culture Studies, the University of Delaware Faculty Senate Committee on Cultural Activities and Public Events, the Museum Studies Program and an anonymous donor. We wish to acknowledge the University of Delaware Archives for its generous assistance in the organization of Breaking Ground: Designing the University of Delaware Mall, 1914-1954.


	THE UNIVERSITY MUSEUMS of the University of Delaware
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