Gwendolyn Wright attended New York University, and in 1969 received a BA in history and art history. She did her graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, and was awarded her M.Arch in 1974 and her PhD in Architecture in 1978. She published her first book in 1980. Wright was hired by Columbia University in 1983, two years later becoming the first female to gain tenure in its prestigious Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She succeeded founder Robert A. M. Stern as director of the Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, serving in that capacity from 1988 to 1992. In 2002, she was hired by television producers to be part of what would ultimately become the new TV series "History Detectives". Back then the working title for the show was “American Attic”, and the initial concept was to tell stories of history through a focus on houses, hence their interest in adding an experienced architectural historian like Wright. The concept has evolved into solving historical puzzles that use a wide variety of tangible objects to show how historians piece together various kinds of knowledge—and conflicting evidence and diverse perspectives—about what happened, how and why. The show has become one of the most popular and successful programs on PBS. Wright has remained one of the five hosts in front of the camera from its initial broadcast season in 2003 to the present. In the show's publicity, she is held up as the team member most likely to suggest how to proceed when the rest are stymied. She has authored four books, edited two others, and written numerous articles, reviews, and essays. Gwendolyn Wright has been recognized for her achievements on numerous occasions, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 2004-5, a Fellowship in the Humanities from the Ford Foundation, 1979–80; a Nina Sutton Weeks Fellowship from the Stanford Humanities Center, 1982–83; a Fellowship from the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, 1991; a Getty Fellowship from the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1992–93; a Beverly WillisArchitecture Foundation Fellowship, 2005-6; and a Graham Foundation Fellowship, 2006. She was elected a fellow in the Society of American Historians in 1985, honoring literary quality in historical writing. Wright is married to the historian Anson Rabinbach. She has a daughter, Sophia Bender Koning, and a stepson, David Bender.
