Julian Francis Abele (1881-1950), B.S. in Architecture 1902. (Photo courtesy of University Archives Digital Image Collection)
Photo of UPenn's Architectural Society (with Abele, center) (Photo courtesy of University Archives Digital Image Collection)
A historical marker commemorating commemorating Julian Francis Abele stands outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (Photo by Flickr user jcapaldi via a Creative Commons license)
During his career Julian Abele, the first black graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Architecture, designed buildings that millions of people visit every year. Among the 250+ works are the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Free Library of Philadelphia, The Land and Title Building, and many of the English Gothic and Georgian buildings on the campus of Duke University in North Carolina.
Despite these notable accomplishments, Abele was barely recognized outside of the architecturial community during his lifetime. His work was primarily attributed to his employer -- the Horace Trumbauer Company. Decades later in 1986, in the midst of student-led protests against South African apartheid at Duke University, Julian Abele's great-grand niece, Susan Cook, wrote a letter to the student newspaper that brought his story back to light.
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