The School was founded in 1915 as the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and was the first to produce women graduate training in these two professions, coordinated under a single faculty. Due to Harvard University's policy of a male institution, the school ran as a "little experiment" in the office of Henry Frost, professor of architectural design at Harvard University, with only nine to twelve students, all women. In 1924 it was incorporated under Massachusetts law as an educational institution. In 1934 the School was affiliated with Smith College as a Graduate School, retaining its own name and independent organization, but with the privilege of recommending its students to the College for the graduate degrees of Master in Architecture and Master in Landscape Architecture. Two years later the graduate degrees of Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Landscape Architecture were introduced, preceding the Master's degrees, which since that time have been granted for advanced work. In 1938 the School became actually a part of Smith College as its Graduate School in the two professions for which it prepares students, while the school itself was to remain in Cambridge.

The Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Records are comprised of Alumnae Bulletins, sketches, bookplates, certificates, brochures, correspondence, examinations, photographs, reports, slides and information on student careers.

This collection is organized into four series:

• I. Background
• II. Alumnae
• III. Correspondence
• IV. Publications