Abstract

Dr. Milka T. Bliznakov founded the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA) in 1985. At the time, Bliznakov recognized the magnitude of the void in the written history of architecture that needed to be filled—women’s contributions to the discipline were virtually absent. The collection and preservation of women’s works in an archive became therefore crucial to balancing history. The original papers, projects, photographs, correspondence, and artifacts in a collection are the necessary fragments that spark the curiosity and imagination of the researcher and fuel the process of history writing.