They called her Miss Morgan
Miss Morgan was only five feet tall, slender, plainly dressed, and frail in appearance. People said she had an almost Quaker look. She spoke softly, but “when she gave orders, it was with the authority of a Marine drill sergeant.”
Miss Morgan was Julia Morgan, an architect. She graduated from the University of Berkeley in 1894 with a degree in Civil Engineering. She waited two years to be admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris because of her gender, eventually becoming the first woman to graduate there. She was also the first woman registered as an architect in California.
In 1904, Julia opened her own architectural firm, where she shared profits with her associates. Her career lasted 42 years, during which she designed approximately 790 buildings, including the famous Hearst Castle.
Dily Ftfinder
𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭 ~
[𝘋𝘔 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭]
Do you know about these famous American women who lived in Paris back in the day?
“In 1922 Beach published James Joyce’s monumental Ulysses, which had been rejected by several established publishers. She worked closely with Joyce in the exceedingly difficult task of reading and correcting proofs and with the French typesetters, much less Joyce’s complex wordplay and portmanteau words. The 1,000-copy first printing was sold exclusively by her shop, and over the next 11 years she sold some 28,000 copies of 14 further printings.”
More so her iconic bookstore in Paris? Do you know it?
‘J’ai Deux Amours’ — Josephine Baker
With its famous line ‘I have two loves, my country and Paris …’ ‘J’ai Deux Amours’ has become the unofficial theme song for American expats in Paris, but it’s equally a call-to-arms for anyone who dreams of Paris yet must live elsewhere.
LINK: Josephine Bakers Daring Double Life as a World War II Spy | HISTORY
“An American painter and printmaker, Mary Cassatt was an impressionist painter, who depicted the lives of women, especially the special bond between mother and child. She traveled extensively as a child, and was probably exposed to the works of the great masters at the World’s fair in Paris in 1855. Other artist’s, such as Degas and Pissarro, would later become her mentors and fellow painters. She began studying art seriously at the age of 15, at a time when only around twenty percent of all arts students were female. Unlike many of the other female students, she was determined to make art her career, rather than just a social skill. She was disappointed at her art education in the United States, and moved to Paris to study art under private tutors in Paris. Painting 306 paintings.”
“One of the Harlem Renaissance artists who blazed new artistic trails in Paris, sculptor Nancy Elizabeth Prophet fled racism and sexism in the United States to create thoughtful depictions of African-Americans.“
“During the Great Migration, African-Americans fled the tyranny of the Jim Crow South to seek refuge in Northern cities. As the Black population in New York City surged, the neighborhood of Harlem became the epicenter of cultural transformation. This Harlem Renaissance produced a seismic wave of culture, including literature, music, and visual art. The movement not only defined an era, but radically shaped the Black experience across America.
And the Harlem Renaissance resonated far beyond New York. In the 1920s, Black cultural leaders relocated to France, seeking a safe haven from ongoing segregation and racism. Paris’s 18th arrondissement of Montmartre became a spoke of Harlem’s intellectual hub.
Sculptor Nancy E. Prophet was the first Black woman to graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design. In 1922, four years later, she moved to Paris. She would spend twelve years in France studying at the École des Beaux-Arts, showing at salons, and perfecting her skills…” via Curationist: Opening Cultures Together.
LINK: American Women Rebuilding France
“American Women Rebuilding France, 1917 – 1924opened at the National WWI Museum and Memorial on May 11, 2010.
The exhibition, organized by the Franco-American Museum, Château de Blérancourt, France, consisted of more than forty vintage photographs and rare silent film footage that bring to life the extraordinary work undertaken between 1917 and 1924 by 350 American women – all volunteers – who left comfortable lives in the United States to help the war-ravaged civilian population of northeastern France. The dynamic leader of this effort was Anne Morgan, daughter of financier J. Pierpont Morgan, who collected private funds and founded the American Committee for Devastated France.
In the tradition of Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale, these women lived alongside the rural people of Picardy in wooden barracks at the Château de Blérancourt. At the wheel of their Ford trucks, they directed the reconstruction of buildings and agricultural production; created a network of visiting nurses, libraries, social centers, and kindergartens; encouraged sports and scouting; and organized festive events designed to rebuild social ties. The exhibition illustrates how Anne Morgan and her colleagues cannily employed the media of film and photography to publicize their work and instigate social action.“
According to “The Local France” ( An English online newspaper) Officially, some 31,000 Americans are registered as living in France, with officially around half of those calling Paris home.
And some of those Americans such as Chelsea have never lived in the USA (except for her Junior year abroad.)
JULIA… serving it up.
There is no question that Americans have a long standing love affair with Paris. Over the years, artists and intellectuals have flocked to France’s capital city to be inspired. From dancers to writers, chefs, actors, editors to painters, Paris has long been a haven for creatives, many American expats carved a path for themselves, some hundreds of years ago, in the City of Light.
Would you like to know more about the real Emily’s in Paris. Those who paved a path for themselves and enriched our lives? Sylvia Beach, Josephine Baker, Gertrude Stein, Carol Fredricks, Mary Cassat, Thelma Woods, Natalie Barney, and Jean Seberg
Link: 8 American Women Who Moved to Paris– & Made History
LINK: Wow, Quel Babes!: American Teenagers in Paris in the 1950s – LIFE
Before Emily in Paris? The American women left their mark. A new series to watch about American women who lived in France.
LINK: Brilliant Exiles: American Women in Paris | French-American Histories – Villa Albertine
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