Papers of Pioneering Architect Jeh Vincent Johnson Come to Vassar

Architectural drawings and personal papers of the late Jeh Vincent Johnson, a renowned architect who taught architectural design at Vassar from 1964 to 2001, are now housed in the College’s Archives and Special Collections Library. And two architects who studied with Johnson at Vassar, Johnson’s family, and others who knew him say those papers are exactly where they ought to be.

“It’s important for us to have these documents because Jeh taught here for so many years and was also a prominent architect himself, so his papers are something we want to preserve,” said Ronald Patkus, Head of Special Collections and College Historian.

“I am proud and pleased that Vassar has chosen to honor my father’s legacy by housing his photos, papers, and artwork in its Special Collections Library,” said Jeh Charles Johnson, his son, who had served as United States Secretary of Homeland Security in the Obama Administration. “These records reflect [his] active and creative mind.”

As a pioneering Black architect, Jeh Vincent Johnson was a strong and tireless champion of women and people of color in architecture, a field where they were and continue to be underrepresented. He co-founded the National Organization of Minority Architects, served on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s National Commission on Urban Problems, and chaired the National Committee on Housing for the American Institute of Architects (AIA). He was elected to the AIA’s College of Fellows, the highest honor for any practicing American architect, and was awarded a special citation from the New York chapter of the AIA for his advocacy on behalf of equal opportunity and housing issues.

Karen Van Lengen ’73, FAIA, a practicing architect and Kenan Professor and former Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, noted that Johnson had broken barriers in his career, then helped women and other underrepresented groups do the same. She herself had been inspired to pursue a career in the field after studying with Johnson. “He became a prominent architect at a time in this country when Black architects numbered fewer than one percent of American architects,” she said. “His contributions are especially noteworthy for those of us who studied with him and went on to become architects. There was a period of time when Jeh was responsible for steering more women into the field of architecture than any other teacher in a liberal arts college.”

Johnson died in January 2021. Two years later, the ALANA Cultural Center, which he designed, was renovated and renamed the Jeh Vincent Johnson ALANA Cultural Center. Edward Pittman ’82, retired Senior Associate Dean of the College who worked closely with Johnson on the design of the ALANA Cultural Center for its opening in 1993, said he admired the architect’s willingness to his and the students’ ideas on what the center should look like. “Jeh took our input and shaped it into the design,” said Pittman, the center’s founding director and a dean for campus life and diversity initiatives at Vassar for nearly 30 years. “He was open to translating our ideas and vision into the physical space.”

Professor of Art Yvonne Elet, an art and architectural historian who has studied Johnson’s work for her course about the campus, said, “Jeh Johnson believed in the agency of architecture to combat poverty and discrimination. And his advocacy took many forms, from his design work, to teaching and mentoring, and his professional service to the field.”

Liliane Wong ’81, Professor of Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design and a former student of Johnson’s, praised Johnson for his forward thinking. “Today, many of us are talking about the need for affordable housing, and when Professor Johnson was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to the National Commission on Urban Problems, he was actively involved in designing low-cost housing. Hopefully, his archives will make this and other information about his legacy available to students and researchers.”

“It’s important that all of his drawings and documents be housed in one place,” Elet said. “And since he did most of his design work in the Hudson Valley and taught here for 37 years, Vassar’s Special Collections Library is an ideal place for them.”

—Larry Hertz

Anyone who has spent time at Vassar has likely seen the image—founder Matthew Vassar standing proudly next to a tin box containing $408,000 in securities and a deed to 200 acres of land upon which the College would sit. He presented these treasures to Vassar’s Board of Trustees on February 26, 1861, during their first meeting.

Matthew Vassar made an impassioned speech that day, and the College preserved it on a parchment document that today resides in Vassar’s Archives and Special Collections. “Matthew Vassar’s statement to the Board of Trustees truly is a foundational document, because he was talking about his vision for the College,” says Ronald Patkus, College Historian and Head of the Archives and Special Collections. But after more than 160 years, Patkus said, the document was in need of conservation.

It was conserved in conjunction with the Libraries’ Adopt-a-Book Program, which allows donors to support the conservation of fragile and damaged items in the collection, thereby enabling them to be accessible to faculty and students. After lifting the document from its acidic backing, conservators placed it in archival housing and protected it with an archival matte. A note on that matte reads: “Adopted by John Mihaly ’74 in appreciation of an extraordinary group of faculty, students, alumni, administrators, and friends.”

Mihaly, former Associate Vice President for Regional and International Programs in Vassar’s Advancement Office and Co-Chair for the College’s Sesquicentennial, retired in 2023 after more than 30 years at the College. He said he made the gift in honor of the more than 160 members of the faculty as well as alums and students who selflessly brought to life the many programs he organized over time on campus, throughout the country, and abroad to engage alums, parents, and friends. —Elizabeth Randolph

There are many books and manuscripts in the Vassar Libraries in need of conservation. For more information on how you, your regional or affinity group, or class can contribute to the effort, visit library.vassar.edu/specialcollections/adoptabook.