Margaret Henderson Floyd was a graduate of
Wellesley College, the
University of New Mexico, and
Boston University, where she received her Ph.D. in 1975. She taught for many years at Tufts where she was Professor of American Art and Architectural History. Over the years, she developed detailed knowledge of the architecture of the
Boston area and she became deeply involved in historic preservation and often provided expert testimony in an effort to save older buildings from demolition. She played a key role in the preservation of the
Robert Treat Paine Estate in
Waltham; she was one of four founding members of Friends of Longfellow House formed to support
Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site. Floyd was a contributor to the ongoing reassessment of the "standard narrative" of nineteenth-century American architectural history. Her work on Longfellow, Alden and Harlow argued for a broader appreciation of the wide influence of the architect
Henry Hobson Richardson. Her final book, a biographical monograph on Richardson was published after her death from
cancer. In her memory, the Department of Art and Architectural History at Tufts established the Floyd Lecture Series in 1999 and the Architectural Studies Prize in 2005. ==Books==