Florence Luscomb was born in Lowell on February 6, 1887 in Lowell. She was among the first women to graduate from M.I.T. with a degree in architecture, and in 1912 she and a fellow MIT graduate formed a two-woman firm in Waltham, specializing in designing public buildings and housing for workers. Luscomb’s true love was the woman suffrage cause.

Bust portraying Florence Luscomb at the Massachusetts State house. Image provided by Mass Humanities.

Massachusetts had the nation’s best-organized and well-financed movement against woman suffrage, but the state also had a growing number of suffrage supporters. In 1914 and 1915, they succeeded in getting the Massachusetts legislature to approve a constitutional referendum to enfranchise women. A bust portraying Florence Luscomb at the Massachusetts State House honors the contributions of women to public life in Massachusetts.

Continue reading at Mass Moments: Activist Florence Luscomb Born.