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THE PHILOSOPHER’S CHICKEN: Which came First, the chicken or the egg?

6/28/2019

AsapSCIENCE YouTube - Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown

DEATH OF A CLICHÉ
For lo those many years, perhaps for millennia, mankind has been plagued with the paradox of which came first, the chicken or the egg. The philosophical conundrum of the ages. How many zillion nights of sleep have been lost pondering this mind-bending, earth-shaking dilemma since Plutarch first posed the question in his essay “The Symposiacs” written in the first century?

We shall never know, but at last we can sleep soundly with the knowledge that modern science has settled the question once and for all. We can now retire this old cliché and relegate it to medieval lore.

Or can we?

YOU STILL HAVE TO TAKE SIDES
Wait a minute before you start! You still have to take sides, but the matter is now a rhetorical question; an intellectual disagreement about semantics. Think about it.

This cliché – Wikipedia calls it a metaphoric adjective – is used in situations where it is difficult or impossible to discern which of two events is the cause and which is the effect. All chickens hatch from eggs, but first a chicken needs to lay the eggs. Catch 22 (an alternate cliché for the same dilemma, albeit one of more recent origin).

In terms of the phrase or metaphoric adjective – not the situation to which it refers in real life -- the dilemma only occurs because we’ve been asking the wrong question, or at least being too vague. What kind of egg are we talking about?

THE ORIGINAL EARTH DWELLER
An Egg IS An Egg Is An Egg
Eggs came first. There is no question about that. Dinosaurs laid eggs millions of years before there was anything like a chicken. Fish laid eggs, primordial thingies that swam in the sea 500 million years ago laid eggs. None of them laid chicken eggs. An egg is merely a vessel completely surrounded by a membrane inside which an embryo can grow and develop until it is able to survive on its own. Comparison on hummingbird egg, Ostrich egg, and Elephant Bird egg
(extinct) at Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, Los Angeles, CA

Going back millions of years, give or take, eggs needed water to survive. They were laid in the ocean, ponds and moist environments so the eggs didn’t dry up before they could produce offspring. Sometime between about 370 and 312 million years ago, amniotic eggs evolved which had three membranes and provided an all-in-one life support system, including nutrients, extra fluids, and a tough shell for protection.

This important event opened a world of opportunities for laying eggs on land rather than in water and for larger eggs. Evolution was and running. Today’s mammals, reptiles and birds are all descendants of the first amniotes. Photo by Rabarberian Jan, 8, 2018
https://imgur.com/gallery/jh6mY
The Question Redefined
Which came first: the chicken or the chicken egg?

Ah, ha!. Now that’s a question worthy of the Greek philosophers like Plutarch and Aristotle. When the question is about any old egg, science can produce a lineal time line showing that eggs preceded any kind of bird including a chicken. However, when the question defines what kind of egg, the cause and effect becomes a circular no-win argument.

Hats Off To Darwin
Using the redefined question about chicken eggs specifically, the answer is still the egg. How we get to that answer is less straightforward than the “random egg” conundrum.

The first species of anything on earth would take place as the result of genetic mutations over a long period of time. Some sources claim modern birds, including our philosopher’s chicken, evolved from small, carnivorous dinosaurs. The first intermediate species between birds and therapods, such as Archaeopteryx, lived during the late Jurassic, and the true ancestor of birds probably arrived during the late Cretaceous.
https://bigthink.com/mind-brain/which-came-first-chicken-egg

Fast forwarding from the first hard-shelled egg to 370-312 million years ago, to 58,000 years ago, we find the ancestors – the proto-chickens – cavorting around somewhere between India, Indonesia, and China. The male proto-chicken does whatever a proto-chicken does to attract a female and the result produces genetic mutation in the DNA of the zygot (a fertilized ovum). Two proto-chickens mated and produced the very first chicken with genetic mutations that replicated themselves in cell of the now-chicken growing in the egg.

As Neil deGrasse Tyson put it, "Which came first: the chicken or the egg? The egg—laid by a bird that was not a chicken."

Red Junglefowl Common Rooster
By Francesco Veronesi, Italy, IMG_5008, CC BY-SA 2.0 Photo source and photographer Cath Andrews
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47310294 https://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/why-have-rooster.html

ARE WE DONE YET?
No, not quite. It’s complicated. Who knew there was so much to write about chickens. Well, after all, humans have been putting together arguments on both sides of the bed for 3,000 years.

Pro-Chicken Arguments
The Pro-Egg supporters tout the scientific explanations above, but you haven’t heard the Pro-Chicken side.

A 2010 research study conducted by two British universities (Sheffield and Warwick) has identified a protein (OC-17) found in modern chickens which is produced in the hen in utero and causes formation of thickened calcium carbonate around the eggs.

The Daily Mail (UK) quotes Dr. Colin Freeman, from Sheffield’s Department of Engineering Materials as saying, “It had long been suspected that the egg came first but now we have the scientific proof that shows that in fact the chicken came first … The protein had been identified before and it was linked to egg formation but by examining it closely we have been able to see how it controls the process. … It's very interesting to find that different types of avian species seem to have a variation of the protein that does the same job.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1294341/Chicken-really-DID-come-egg-say-scientists.html

The conclusion of the British study is that chicken eggs can only form with the help of the OC-17 protein found solely in the ovaries of a chicken. Because chickens lay more eggs more quickly than other animals, chicken eggs need the protein to accelerate the normal process. “Therefore, it would be impossible for a chicken egg to form unless it has emerged from within a hen’s body.”

This argues that the first hen hatched from a non-reinforced egg and then produced this protein for the first time, would be the first chicken.

ISN’T THAT THE SAME AS EVOLUTION?
It’s clear the little (inconsequential) question of which came first has been answered by science. Evolution. But that really isn’t what the question is all about.

It’s also clear in the realm of quantum mechanics. According to Dr Jacqui Romero (a quantum physicist at the University of Queensland, Australia) that, in fact, both came first because “In quantum mechanics, cause-and-effect is not so straightforward as being one event leading to another.” Who knew?

The big question Plutarch (46 CE – 119 CE) was posing dealt with whether or not the world had a beginning or whether it had existed forever and the implications that accompany the idea. I’m not going there.
□
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_or_the_egg
https://www.thestructuralmadness.com/2014/02/chicken-or-egg-causality-dilemma.html
https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/finally-answered-which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg
https://youtu.be/1a8pI65emDE
https://www.science.org.au/curious/everything-else/which-came-first-chicken-or-egg
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/01/31/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg-heres-the-official-scientific-answer/#4bde9f6e8ab8
https://bigthink.com/mind-brain/which-came-first-chicken-egg
https://futurism.com/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg
http://time.com/4475048/which-came-first-chicken-egg/
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1013880/chicken-or-egg-what-came-first-quantum-mechanics-physics-philosophy
https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/genetic/question85.htm
https://www.valuewalk.com/2018/09/chicken-or-egg-scientists-answer/
https://www.theperspective.com/debates/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/
https://www.livescience.com/3072-eggs-chickens-scientists.html
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2562098
https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2013/02/11/171706769/the-egg-makes-its-move-in-a-new-version-of-which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-e
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_junglefowl”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1294341/Chicken-really-DID-come-egg-say-scientists.html

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Rhetorical And Literary Devices And Their Unfriendly Neighbors, The Clichés

6/21/2019

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Photo source: Clipart Library.com

MEET THE DIVICES, RHETORICAL and LITERARY
Rhetorical and literary devices have been around since the time of ancient Greece, and they haven’t changed much since the Greeks identified and named them. Neither has human nature.

These “devices” are the way human beings use language to express ideas and meaning in spoken and written words. Literary devices help us communicate thoughts with imagination and artistic flair; rhetoric appeals to logic (logos), emotion (pathos), ethics (ethos) and finally to time (kairos).

A person doesn’t need to be an academic scholar to understand and use them. We all employ them in everyday life.
As writers, it is our job to know and use these powerful tools to communicate our stories, to capture readers’ attention and hold them in thrall, to make them cry or laugh. We do a good job at it, but sometimes “terminology” gets in the way. Authors may know how to use devices, but aren’t always sure what to call them … or maybe I’m the only one who gets confused.

Let’s meet part of the Device Family. These are only a few, but the most important of hundreds.

● Figure of Speech
A Figure of Speech is a distinctive spoken or written expression; a word or phrase that departs from straight-forward, literal language. Richard Norquist writes “A figure of speech is a rhetorical device that achieves a special effect by using words in a distinctive way.” https://www.thoughtco.com/top-figures-of-speech-1691818

They are also referred to as figures of rhetoric, figures of style, rhetorical figures, figurative language, and schemes. Too many names may be part of the confusion.

Figures of speech are figurative language. Literal language explains exactly what it meant. Figures of speech are imaginative and indirect, using a comparison of concepts to more familiar objects or ideas. Usually, figures of speech are classified in five categories, although Norquist indicates there are hundreds and lists twenty of the most common. I’ll stick to a smaller number.
Photo Source: https://penlighten.com/hyperbole-examples

▪Hyperbole
Hyperbole overstates, emphasizes, or exaggerates a concept to emphasize or make a point and are descriptions are not intended to be taken literally.
Photo source: Clipart Library.com

▪Symbol
Symbols are images with non-literal meanings; they stand for something other than what they seem to be on the surface, such as a heart as a symbol for love.

Poetry and creative writing make extensive use of symbolism. Yourdictionary.com uses an example from William Blake’s Ah Sunflower where the author refers to life cycle and uses sunflowers to represent humankind and how they desire everlasting life. “Ah Sunflower, weary of time, Who countest the steps of the sun; Seeking after that sweet golden clime Where the traveler's journey is done.”

Photo Source: K5learning.com ▪Simile

A simile compares two concepts or objects that are not alike. They demonstrate how even items that are unlike have some similarities. They also can be used to make a description particularly vivid and arresting, with the purpose of sparking an interesting connection in a reader's or listener's mind.

If the phrase includes the words “like,” “as,” “than,” or “resembles” for comparison purposes, then the phrase is a simile. Example: Happy as a clam.

▪Personification
Personification treats animals and inanimate objects as if they were human with human characteristics. The use of personification allows readers to relate to animals and objects as they imagine them reacting or feeling the way a human would; transfers a human emotion to something that is non-living. Yourdictionary.com uses the following examples of personification.
“The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky.”
“The first rays of morning tiptoed through the meadow.” Photo source: Clipart Library.com

▪Metaphor
A Metaphor states that one thing is another thing. In metaphors the meaning is not literal, but the first thing mentioned shares common characteristics with the second. With metaphors, words or phrases that are ordinarily applied to one thing are applied to something you wouldn't necessarily pair it with.

Two metaphors in the same sentence (mixed metaphors) can create confusion. A metaphor does not contain the words “like” or “as.” Examples from Yourdictionary.com include:
“He broke my heart. - Your heart isn't literally broken; you're just feeling hurt and sad.”
"You light up my life. - Of course, no one can provide physical light. This expression is simply saying that someone brings them joy.”

▪Alliteration
The repetition of the beginning consonant sounds of neighboring words.
Example: "She sells seashells by the sea-shore."

▪Euphemism
A mild, indirect, or vague term that often substitutes a harsh, blunt, unpleasant, or offensive term. Examples: “Passed away - instead of died; Put to sleep - instead of euthanized; Whacked - instead of murdered.”

▼Photo source: commongunsense.me/the-irony-gun-lobby-logic

▪Irony
Irony occurs when there's a marked contrast between what is said and what is meant, or between appearance and reality. Sarcasm is an extreme form of irony, but in addition implies a little bit of a mean twist or a derogatory statement. In their purest form, that's a good way to distinguish the two whenever you're uncertain. Examples of verbal irony:

Saying, "Oh, fantastic!" when the situation is actually very poor
Saying something confusing is “...as clear as mud.”
A food critic telling the chef, "Your steak was as tender as a leather boot."

▪Onomatopoeia
The term for a word that sounds like what it is describing.

▪Oxymoron
Two contradictory terms used together. In fact, the word itself is an “oxymoron.” “Oxy” is Greek for "sharp" and "moron" means "dull".

▪Synecdoche
Occurs when a part is represented by the whole or, conversely, the whole is represented by the part. Example: “Do you like my new wheels?” = “Do you like my new car?”

Here endeth the Figures of Speech. Let's go on to other Rhetorical and Literary Devices.

● Analogy
An Analogy is a comparison of two things to show their similarities. Sometimes the things being compared are quite similar, but other times they could be very different. Nevertheless, an analogy explains one thing in terms of another to highlight the ways in which they are alike. A comparison of two otherwise unlike things based on resemblance of a particular aspect(s) or similarity, typically used for the purpose of explanation or clarification.

An analogy is also an inference that if two or more things agree with one another in some respects they will probably agree in others. The implication of likeness is in relationships, rather than appearance or qualities, such as an analogy of seasons of the year as compared to the stages of life.

We all make comparisons in speech and writing, and as you have seen similes and metaphors, both figures of speech, also make comparison, but in a specific manner. Analogies are not figures of speech because they are more like a logical argument. Examples given by Your Dictionary: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/analogy-ex.html

“▪Finding a good man is like finding a needle in a haystack: Finding a small needle in a pile of hay takes a long time, so the task at hand is likely to be hard and tedious.

▪That's as useful as rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic: It looks like you're doing
something helpful but really it will make no difference in the end.

● Turn Of Phrase
A Turn of Phrase is an expression worded in a distinctive way, especially one which is particularly memorable or artful; a manner of expression; spoken or written expression; a way of saying something. The following examples are from Wikipedia.

A Turn of Phrase may be a Figure of Speech, but not necessarily.

▼ Photo source: www.cdouloff.com/hosting

● Idiom
A group of words established by common usage as having a meaning not logically deducible from those of the individual words (e.g., raining cats and dogs, see the light). It doesn’t mean what the words say.

It can also be the grammatical or structural usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either grammatically (such as no, it wasn't me) or in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements (such as ride herd on for "supervise")

Examples: http://www.scholastic.com/printables/promosite/pdfs/0439237785_e039.pdf
“▪ We’re in hot water. – We’re in trouble.
▪ We don’t see eye to eye. – We don’t agree.
▪ It’s no skin off my nose. – I don’t care, because it doesn’t affect me.
▪ The cat has your tongue. – You can’t say anything"

● Expression
An expression is the process of making known one's thoughts or feelings; the act, process, or instance of representing those thoughts and feelings in a medium, such as words. Symbolism.

● Adage
A well known and wise saying or short statement expressing a general truth that has become widely accepted as a general truth and reflection of life. They are pithy and philosophical. Examples: ▪The early bird catches the worm.
▪ A penny saved is a penny earned. ▪ Eat to live, and not live to eat."

● Aphorisms
An opinion-based, concise statement accepted for truth, short and often witty. Aphorisms are considered to be definitions or concise statements of a principle, a matter-of-fact sentiment, and generally accepted as truth. Examples: ▪ A bad penny always turns up.
▪ A barking dog never bites. ▪ A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Photo source: twitter.com/idiomland/status

●Proverb
A phrase or short sentence that expresses ideas well-known by many people, words of wisdom, truth, or morality based on common sense and practical experience; a basic truth or rule of conduct which should be followed by all. Examples:
▪ Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone.
▪ Money doesn’t grow on trees. ▪ Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

WAIT JUST A DARN MINUTE!
Every example here qualifies as being a cliché. Now you’re telling me these are all perfectly acceptable literary devices? I can use a metaphor but I should avoid clichés like the plague? No wonder I’m confused.

MEET YOUR UNFRIENDLY NEIGHBORS, THE CLICHÉS

Ever since I began writing with the intent of becoming published, I’ve battled with the cliché. I know what a cliché is -- personally, I like cliché; it’s my best language -- but I know they are a writing weaknesses most disliked by editors and possibly by readers.
So, in my pursuit of excellence, I’ve tried to pin down the pure essence of the cliché with the intention of avoiding them as ordered. There are plenty of definitions available.

●Oxford English Dictionary
“▪ A phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.
▪ A very predictable or unoriginal thing or person
▪ A stereotype or electrotype”
●Merriam Webster
“▪ A trite phrase or expression also: the idea expressed by it.
▪ A hackneyed theme, characterization, or situation.
▪ Something (such as a menu item) that has become overly familiar or commonplace.”
●Stephen Wilbers
“▪ A phrase or expression used so frequently that it has become trite and tedious.”
●Grammar Monster
“▪ An overused and worn-out expression used to convey a popular thought or idea.”

Okay, okay! I get it. A cliché is an action, opinion, thought, story plot, phrase, event, fashion statement, name – pretty much anything -- that has been overused to the extent that it loses both the original/ true meaning and its novelty, becoming very predictable and boring.

However, frequent use of a word in writing and speaking is one of the major requirements for a word or phrase to be included in the dictionary. We can thank modern communication technology and the rate of change in our society for speeding up the process to the point that by the time a word or phrase is used commonly enough to put in the dictionary, it has become a cliché. Just sayin’.

Because these phrases are used often, everyone understands what they mean in the current context. The original meaning may not be the same, but they say something true about the world we live in. Something about the human experience, something enduring. That is, perhaps, why they may outlive the original meaning. They are clichés for a reason. In fact, some words have been saved from extinction primarily because they were imbedded in a lasting adage, proverb, or idiom. In the 21st century, we probably wouldn’t say we wend our way to through the park. We would say “We went through the park.”

Here’s another problem: A phrase that is familiar and boring to one person may be different for someone else.

YA GOTTA KNOW WHEN TO CHOOSE’EM; KNOW WHEN TO LOSE’EM
Relax! Hopefully, humanity won’t be facing any more plagues, and the Cliché Police won’t arrest you if you use one. All of us use them, particularly in speech.

Is Nothing Simple?
There are two types of clichés: figurative and literal.
● Literal cliché = A common overused phrase which can be translated literally.
“All’s well that ends well,” means exactly what it says.
● Figurative cliché = A common overused phrase which, if translated in any other language, they will not make any sense at all. “It’s raining cats and dogs,” if translated, wouldn’t make any sense. P.S. It doesn’t mean anything in English, either.

Really! These need separate names? Oh, come on.

When To Use Them
Leslie Jamison writes that “Clichés lend structure and ritual and glue: They are the subterranean passageways connecting one life to another … They allow us to look outward, to recognize the ordinariness of our experience, to understand the resonances between our own lives and the lives of others. They privilege commonality over singular self-expression. They humble us toward one another.” https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/books/review/why-do-we-hate-clich.html

That’s a big job for a little cliché. I’m not sure I agree with all of it, but I do understand how clichés can connect our lives. In my opinion, the use of clichés in our writing is all right if it is thoughtful and there for a purpose:
● When they make sense and aren’t easily misunderstood.
● When you want to be in sync with readers who use the same language style.
● In dialogue, when that is the way your character(s) speak.
● When their use can make a complex topic easier to understand.
● When you want to befuddle a foreign listener who doesn’t speak much English.
● When you can give it a little twist to make it more imaginative.

Leah McClellan say, “Seriously, people. Don’t worry about them too much. The cliché naysayers are clichés themselves and fit right in with the grammar Nazis.”

When To Lose Them
Clichés are general and lacking in specificity and complexity; thus their appeal and acceptance to a wide range of people. For the same reason, they do not make memorable or profound contributions to your writing. They are thought of as “bad” because they imply no thought was given to them. They don’t represent any original thinking or imagination.

Readers skip over them. So, if you are writing about something you feel is important, you don’t want the reader to be blind to your words. If they don‘t see your clichés, they won’t see the rest of the text. Lose the clichés because they:

● Make you seem boring. By using a cliché, you’re telling your reader that you lack originality, making them want to yawn and stop reading your book.
● Make your writing interchangeable with anybody else’s.
● Are vague. Specific details and explanations make better evidence than generalizations and trite phrases.
● Give the appearance of laziness and avoiding creative work.
● Make the author lose credibility. Your reader will not trust you as an authoritative source if you can’t come up with a better description than a cliché.
● Are poor substitutes for actual evidence, and are not strong commentary for making a point.
Clichés work against an author when they replace the writer’s own voice and message and supplant our thoughts.

THE REVELATION
The big news is that a cliché is not a part of speech or a literary device. Any words, concept, idea, etc. used too often becomes cliché. Any of the figures of speech or literary and rhetorical devices can be a cliché; anything can. Fashion, ideas, words, actions, colors … you name it.

Just as you look for inappropriate clichés in your writing, you should look for them in your characters and plot as well.□

Sources:
https://www.thoughtco.com/top-figures-of-speech-1691818
https://penandthepad.com/list-five-types-figures-speech-8443530.html
http://www.idionconnection.com/proverbs.html
https://literarydevices.net/figure-of-speech/
http://www.literarydevices.com/symbolism/
http://learnersdictionary.com/qa/Idioms-metaphors-similes-and-hyperbole
https://www.britannica.com/art/figure-of-speech
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-cliches.html
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/28878/when-should-i-use-archaic-and-obsolete-words
https://www.merriam-webster.com
http://www.wilbers.com/FigurativeLanguage.htm
http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/clicheterm.htm
http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/whatarecliches.htm
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/12-cliches-all-writers-should-avoid
http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/cliches.htm
http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/10-tips-to-bypass-cliche-and-melodrama
https://tobiasmastgrave.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/what-is-a-cliche/
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/clich%C3%A9#Alternative_forms
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/books/review/why-do-we-hate-clich.html
http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/cliche.html
http://www.be-a-better-writer.com/cliches.html
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/cliches/
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-cliches.html
http://www.clichelist.net/
https://www.merriam-webster.com/help/faq-words-into-dictionary
https://literaryterms.net/cliche/
https://literaryterms.net/figures-of-speech/
https://literaryterms.net/how-to-write-an-aposiopesis/
https://literaryterms.net/trope/
https://literaryterms.net/figures-of-speech/
https://literaryterms.net/zeugma/
https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-lay-scientist/2015/mar/03/why-the-oed-are-right-to-purge-nature-from-the-dictionary
https://www.thoughtco.com/top-figures-of-speech-1691818
https://www.britannica.com/art/figure-of-speech
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_device
https://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm
http://udleditions.cast.org/craft_ld.html
https://knowyourphrase.com/raining-cats-and-dogs
http://simplewriting.org/why-cliches-can-be-good-for-your-writing/
http://www.be-a-better-writer.com/cliches.html
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/cliches/
https://unravellingmag.com/articles/euphemisms/
http://www.oogazone.com/2018/top-singing-clip-art-library/top-girl-singer-clipart-library/
https://www.topsimages.com/images/silly-cartoon-laughing-7e.html https://twitter.com/idiomland/status/1025013895692513281
http://www.cdouloff.com/hosting/99_kyunghwa/idiom3.html
https://lifebeyondthekitchen.com/creatively-crafty-link-party-153/
https://commongunsense.me/2015/04/28/the-irony-of-the-gun-lobby-logic/

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ACHITECT MARION MAHONY GRIFFIN

6/7/2019

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My formal training is in architecture and, although that part of my life has been relegated to a box in my closet, along with other faded souvenirs of past existences, architecture still remains a passion. Sometimes I really miss it.

I spent most of my career in urban planning, a related field of endeavor, at times requiring many of the same skills as architecture, but not architecture. When I’m feeling nostalgic, I wonder why I took that path. Then I remember how difficult it was for a woman to get a job in the field, even in my generation, and I recall some of the pioneers in my field who did “make it” and made a lasting impression on the world.

MARION MAHONY GRIFFIN
Marion Mahony Griffin, a woman you’ve probably never heard of, was one of the first licensed female architects in the world, but she was also the first employee of Frank Lloyd Wright, a name you are likely to be familiar with know. One of the twentieth century’s most renowned architectural critics, Reyner Banham, once described Marion Mahony Griffin (1871–1961) as “America’s (and perhaps the world’s) first woman architect who needed no apology in a world of men.”
Marion Mahony the same year she went to work for Frank Lloyd Wright
Photo source: historyrat.wordpress.com/marion-mahony-griffin

Their pleasant existence there tragically ended when Marion was eleven. Her father died and later, after their house burned down, her mother Clara and the five children moved to Chicago. An aunt, Myra Perkins, moved in with them to take care of the children while Clara Mahony studied for and passed the examinations to become an elementary school principal.

A family friend funded Marion’s higher education. Influenced by her cousin Dwight Perkins, she attended MIT and studied architecture. She graduated in 1894, the second woman to receive a degree in architecture from that university (Sophia Hayden was first and an associate of Marion’s), and went to work for her cousin Dwight in Chicago. Below, the three female graduates from MIT 1894: Marion Mahony, Harriet Gallup, Sara Hall, the first women to receive degrees in Architecture. Photo Source: chicagopatterns.com/marion-mahony-griffin

Wright’s “Capable Assistant”
Cousin Dwight happened to share a building (Steinway Hall) with several other young and progressive-minded architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright. After working for her cousin for two years, Mahony was hired as Frank Lloyd Wright’s first and, at the time, only employee. Mahony worked for Wright off-and-on for over fourteen years and became good friends with Wright and his wife, Catherine Tobin Wright (Kitty) and the rest of Frank’s family.

She passed her state licensing exams in 1898 and was probably the first women licensed as an architect in the United States. During this time she designed her own buildings but also heavily influenced Wright’s designs and did the drawings of Wright’s projects. Her renderings became identified with his work and were key in establishing his reputation.

The only credit she got was being called by Wright “His capable assistant.”

David Amberg House, Grand Rapids 1909 Mahony Irving House, Decatur, Ill., 1909 Mahony with von Holst Mahony House, Elkhart, Ind., 1907 by Mahoney
PhotoSource:www.historygrandrapids.org/amberg PhotoSource:www.mcnees.org/decatur_Mahony PhotoSource: commons.wikimedia.org/mahony

Mahony rendered drawings in a fluid style derived from Japanese woodblock prints and, with it, she blended the natural environment surrounding the elevations as integral to the design. Her artwork was defined by her innovative representations of nature in which the land and architectural forms were inseparable.

This was a new technique which people identified as Wright’s hallmark (and attributed to Wright himself) and soon her style of rendering became the standard for architectural presentations throughout the profession.

PRAIRIE STYLE ARCHITECTURE
Frank Lloyd Wright is considered the father of the Prairie Style of Architecture, although the movement involved others, a reaction of young American architects in the Midwest to the then-currently dominant Revivalist style.

The group of architects working at Steinway Hall were dedicated to creating a new American architecture suitable to the American Midwest that was independent of historical styles. They didn’t call their new style the “Prairie school”; it was coined later by architectural historian H. Allen Brooks. Marion Mahony flourished working side-by-side with these architects in a vigorous intellectual and artistic debate.

Wright relocated his office to Oak Park outside Chicago, and it became the Mecca of the new style of architecture. In addition to Frank Lloyd Wright, inspired by Louis Sullivan and the Arts and Crafts movement, the architects associated with the New School of the Middle West “included George Elmslie, Myron Hunt, George Washington Maher, Dwight Perkins, William Gray Purcell, Thomas Talmadge, and Vernon Watson, as well as Wright’s later associates Marion Mahony, Walter Burley Griffin, William Drummond and Francis Byrne.” https://flwright.org/researchexplore/prairiestyle

Even today, Mahony is identified as a “later associate” even though she was his first employee. What’s with that?

A major characteristic of this style is its integration and unity with surrounding landscape and horizontal lines intended to reflect and amalgamate the structure with the native prairie landscape of the Midwest. The style is earmarked not only by the horizontal emphasis, but flat or hipped roofs with broad eaves, windows marching across the façade in horizontal bands and restrained decoration with natural motifs.
Adolph Mueller House 1911 Designed by Marion Mahony
Photo source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/527906387542891944/?lp=true

THE WASMUTH PORTFOLIO
In 1909, when Wright left for Europe to publish a book on his designs (The Wasmuth Portfolio), he offered to leave the studio’s commissions to Mahony, who wisely declined. Hermann von Holst wasn’t as smart and took over only to find that Wright had been paid most of the money in advance.

Wright, the money, and Wright’s married client and neighbor, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, were in Europe together, and it soon became apparent that none of them were coming back soon.

Mahony was incensed that Wright had abandoned his family and marriage. There were no kind words for Frank Lloyd Wright from Marion Mahony, and there were hard feelings between them. She was hired back into the firm by Von Holst on the condition that she had full control of the designs. In that position she designed several of Wright’s commissions for which Wright reaped the credit.

In 1910 the Wasmuth Portfolio, the book of Wright’s designs, was published in Germany, and the project made Frank Lloyd Wright world famous. It is now believed Marion Mahony created over fifty percent of the drawings (possibly more) in the Wasmuth Portfolio. She wasn’t even mentioned as draftsman or illustrator, much less as an architect or collaborator on the designs.

Unity Temple 1905 Wasmuth Library
PhotoSource: www.curbed.com/mahony Photo source: www.timeout.com/chicago

Bock Ateliers 1910 Wasmuth Portfolio Plate LXII Photo source: Pinterest
PhotoSource: www.steinerag.com/Bock_Ateliers 2.bp.blogspot.com/_ILuyCbeYKOc Photo Source: hoydenabouttown.com/macdonald-and-mahony

Lance Tawzer, curator of exhibits for the Elmhurst History Museum where an exhibit of Mahony’s work was shown, says, "She was a woman doing a man's job at the turn of the century, which was of course very unusual. It's only recently that we're starting to see her legacy and her importance be recognized."

PhotoSource: https://www.classicist.org/articles/marion-mahony-griffin/

LIFE GOES ON
In 1911, Mahony married architect Walter Burley Griffin, who also worked in Wright’s Oak Park office. They opened their own business together and ultimately designed and built hundreds of projects throughout the world. When they won the commission to design the new Australian capital Canberra, they moved to Australia. There they developed a construction method called knitlock construction.

Although Mahony and Wright had a permanent falling-out when he left his family, Wright didn’t hesitate to emulate, inexactly, the Knitlock method in his block houses in California in the 1920s. According to placesjournal.org, he also never lost an opportunity “to reject and publicly renounce his former association with Mahony and her husband, both of whom had worked closely with him at Oak Park, one might easily wonder whether Wright’s very public expressions of disdain and disrespect for his former assistants were fueled by insecurities and disappointments exacerbated by their earlier closeness.”

The Saltar House in Castlecraig, Australia, is one of the few houses designed by Mahony that is still standing and has been restored. PhotoSource: http://www.7dayadventurer.com/2014/09/15/the-wizard-of-castlecrag-ii-keeping-faith-with-the-landscape/

Marion Mahony retired from the firm while in her sixties and spent time documenting Australia’s natural beauty and cataloging indigenous plant life, using the principles of her anthroposophical beliefs to guide her work of running a kindergarten, and supporting the arts and the community’s shared intellectual and religious pursuits.

In early 1936, Mahony’s husband was offered the design for the United Provinces Industrial and Agricultural exhibition in India. Marion came out of retirement to help him, for there were many buildings to be constructed in a period of eight months. In 1937, Walter died suddenly of peritonitis following surgery for a burst gallbladder. He was buried there. Marion was needed to settle the affairs of the Griffin architectural business, and the project was completed by another architect on the project.Mahony returned to the Chicago in 1938 and eventually wrote a memoir which was never published -- and which did not have any kind words for Frank Lloyd Wright -- and continued to lecture, design, and write, but refused to do any more architectural work until her death in 1961.
Marion Mahony Griffin in later years
Photo source: www.handeyesupply.com/marion-mahony

CONCLUSION
Marion Mahony was a brilliant, gifted and versatile architect, draftsperson, designer and artist. She broke plenty of “glass ceilings” long before the term existed. I doubt anyone could say Marion Mahony Griffin had a bad life or was unsuccessful. Quite the opposite. She was a pioneer for women in architecture but also in the women’s rights movement.

● Marion Mahony was the second woman to get a degree in architecture from MIT, and one of the first women licensed to practice architecture (perhaps in the world).

● She revolutionized the way architecture was presented within the whole profession worldwide.

● She played a strong role in helping to create a distinctly American style of architectural design.

● Her design work spanned continents, from envisioning whole cities, designing architectural projects large and small, to painting and designing decorative housing elements, and

●Last but not least, her designs and illustrations made many of Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous projects possible… some completely without him!

However, because she was a women, she never received the acclaim she deserved. Even in publications today, her husband Walter Burley Griffin is given the credit for the work of their firm, even when Marion was the sole designer.

At the time she was writing her memoir, she admits that her memory was not what it had been. Claire Zulkey writes in curved.com “Something that did not escape Marion’s memory, however, was her hatred of Wright, whose reputation enjoyed a revival at the time, as he worked on the Guggenheim, enjoyed a brisk private practice, and was the subject of an exhibit at the MOMA. Marion never names him directly, but it’s accepted that he’s who she had in mind in writing, “The Chicago School died not only because of the cancer sore in it—one who originated very little but spent most of his time claiming everything and swiping everything.” https://www.curbed.com/2017/6/8/15755858/marion-mahony-walter-burley-griffin-wright-drawings

At the age of 90, Marion Mahony Griffin died, financially poor, in Cook County Hospital. Her ashes were interred with no marker. There is now a small plaque in memory of her at Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery, which is also the final resting place of Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham, and her cousin Dwight Perkins.

Sources:
https://historyrat.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/marion-mahony-griffin-breaking-through/
http://www.prairieschoolarchitecture.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Mahony_Griffin
https://pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org/marion-mahony-griffin/
https://www.revolvy.com/page/Marion-Mahony-Griffin
https://www.handeyesupply.com/blogs/hes/35145729-marion-mahony-griffin-the-artist-architect-behind-the-prairie-school
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/01/arts/design/01maho.html
https://www.classicist.org/articles/marion-mahony-griffin/
https://www.pbs.org/wbgriffin/marion.htm
https://www.curbed.com/2017/6/8/15755858/marion-mahony-walter-burley-griffin-wright-drawings
https://placesjournal.org/article/marion-mahony-griffin/?cn-reloaded=1
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marion_mahony_griffin,_vetrata_dalla_gerald_mahony_residence,_1907.jpg
https://flwright.org/researchexplore/prairiestyle
http://myfranklloydwright.com/2018/08/19/original-wasmuth-portfolio-frank-lloyd-wright-1910-1-of-only-30-remaining/
http://www.historygrandrapids.org/photo/4517/amberg-house
http://www.mcnees.org/architecture/prairie_arch_images/illinois/decatur/flw_irving_hse_decatur_west_3_remc.jpg
http://www.7dayadventurer.com/2014/09/15/the-wizard-of-castlecrag-ii-keeping-faith-with-the-landscape/
https://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/01/arts/20080101_MORG_SLIDESHOW_index/s/morg5.html
https://www.handeyesupply.com/blogs/hes/35145729-marion-mahony-griffin-the-artist-architect-behind-the-prairie-school

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THE PHILOSOPHER’S CHICKEN: Which came First, the chicken or the egg?

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Author R. Ann Siracusa

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