Julian Abele

Julian Abele (April 30, 1881 – April 23, 1950) was a prominent African-American architect, known best for his work on the Duke University campus and on the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Biography

Born in Philadelphia, Julian Abele attended the Quaker-run Institute for Colored Youth, which later became Cheyney University, where he excelled in math and was chosen to deliver the commencement address. In 1898, he completed a two-year architectural drawing course at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art (PMSIA). Following PMSIA, Abele became the first black architecture graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Architecture in 1902.

After his formal education in the States, Abele travelled to Europe with the support of his future employer, Horace Trumbauer. While some contemporaries asserted that Abele studied at the Ecole Des Beaux Arts in Paris, there are no records of his attendance at the school. Regardless, Abele spent significant time in France and Italy, an influence that was to direct his design work throughout his life. Abele additionally listed travel to England, Germany, Switzerland, and Spain on his application for membership in the American Institute of Architects.

In 1906, Abele joined the firm of legendary Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer, as an assistant to Trumbauer's chief designer, Frank Seeburger. When Seeburger left the firm in 1909, Abele advanced to chief designer, a position which he would hold until Trumbauer's death in 1938.

Abele designed or contributed to the design of some 250 buildings, including Harvard’s Widener Memorial Library, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Central Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Shadow Lawn Mansion which currently serves as the administrative headquarters of Monmouth University, and many Gilded Age mansions in Newport and New York City. Abele was also the Chief Designer of the Duke University campus in Durham, North Carolina.

External links

* [http://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/21458 Abele, Julian (1881 - 1950)] - "Philadelphia Architects and Buildings" biography
* [http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/history/julian_abele.html Julian Abele: Hidden in the Shadows] - Duke University Historical Note
* [http://www.uarts.edu/stuserv/libraries/archives/alumni/abele.html Julian Abele] at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art
* [http://findingaid.winterthur.org/html/HTML_Finding_Aids/COL0754.htm The Winterthur Library] Overview of an archival collection featuring Julian Abele.