Josephine Wright Chapman (1867–1943) was a pioneering woman architect, one of fewer than 100 practicing nationally in the first half of the 20th century. She was also the first woman architect "in the history of American architecture to start and head her very own firm," which she accomplished at the tail end of the 19th century. Practicing both in Boston and New York, she got her start as an apprentice in the prestigious Blackall, Clapp and Whittemore firm. Her first practice opened in 1897 in Grundmann Studios, a Boston-based women's art collective. A member of the New York Society of Architects, and one of only 70 female architects in the United States at the time, she was refused admission by both the American Institute of Architects and the Boston Architectural Club on the basis of he