Pioneer Information
Born in Lapeer, Michigan, Robinson graduated from Kalamazoo College in 1908 with a Bachelor of Philosophy degree. That same year she obtained a second such degree from the University of Chicago by completing correspondence courses. For the next eighteen years Robinson taught high school courses in Detroit in such subjects as drafting, botany, biology, chemistry, physics, and physiography. From 1913 to 1915 she studied architecture at the University of Michigan. After completing her B.S. in Architecture, Robinson obtained a Master of Landscape Design degree from the University of Michigan in 1924. While maintaining a small, private landscape design practice, she worked as an architectural draftsman for J.W. Case in Detroit from 1918 to 1926. That year Robinson began her teaching career at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Department of Landscape Architecture as an associate faculty member. Three years later she was appointed an assistant professor. Robinson taught planting design and plant identification, typical courses for female instructors at the time. She retired in 1951 as a full professor, something that no other female landscape architecture teacher would accomplish until the 1970s.
Robinson published extensively in such periodicals as Landscape Architecture, House and Garden, and Country Life. Her card index system of plants was made commercially available as Deciduous Trees, Deciduous Shrubs and Conifers as early as 1932 and was later published in summary form as Tabular Keys for the Identification of the Woody Plants (1941). Robinson’s books include Planting Design (1941) and Palette of Plants (1950). She frequently spoke to art leagues, garden clubs, cemetery associations, and the local PBS radio station on topics which included garden design, choosing shrubs, and the use of hybridized plants. Robinson was active in the American Planning and Civic Association and the National Conference of State Parks. She died in Hendersonville, North Carolina, at the age of 87.
