This collection documents the career of Lester Beall, graphic designer and commercial artist from approximately 1933-1967.
Arrangement:
Record Groups include:
I. "Scope" Magazine
II. Modern Art 5,000 Years Ago
III. Red Cross Magazines
IV. Greeting Cards
V. Time Magazine ads
VI. Logo Designs
VII. Cone Automatic Machine Co., tear sheets
VIII. Miscellaneous Covers
IX. George Bijur, Inc.
X. Labatt's of Canada and Catch! Narragansett Ale design campaigns
XI. Exhibition, Art Center, California
XII. Abbott Laboratories, "What's New"
XIII. Marshall Field and Company
XIV. Miscellaneous Advertisements
Biographical / Historical:
American designer Lester Beall (1903-1969) was educated at Lane Technical School in Chicago and received a bachelor's degree in art history from the University of Chicago. Upon discovering the work of the European avant-garde, Beall was inspired to bring American design of the 1930s and 1940s to a higher level of effective visual communication. Self-taught, Lester Beall was one of the first Americans to have his work shown in a German monthly graphics periodical, Gebrauchsgraphik, and was one of the first Americans to incorporate the New Typography, using techniques such as photomontage, collage and the use of cut-out flat colored paper in combination with photography and economical line drawing, reworking the element of European modernism into distinctive American style. He produced solutions to graphic design problems that were unique among his American contemporaries.
Beall moved from Chicago to New York in 1935 and did work that was influential to the field of editorial design. Between 1938 and 1940, he redesigned twenty magazines for McGraw Hill, in 1946 he designed two covers for Fortune and in 1944, he began designing Scope magazine for UpJohn Pharmaceuticals which he did until 1951. In 1952, Beall opened a design office on Dumbarton Farm, his home in rural Connecticut. In 1973, four years after his death, Lester Beall was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame.
Philip B. Meggs credits Beall with "almost single-handedly launching the modern movement in American design". In 1973, four years after his death, the Art Directors Club of New York belatedly elected him to its prestigious Hall of Fame. Bob Plisken, who worked for Beall in the early 1940s, said on that occasion, "In my opinion, Beall did more than anyone to make graphic design in American a distinct and respected profession".
Bibliographic References:
Lester Beall. Brookfield Center, Conn. : Lester Beall, Inc., [197-?].
Nine Pioneers in American Graphic Design / Roger R. Remington and Barbara J. Hodik. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 1989.
Lester Beall : trailblazer of American graphic design / Roger R. Remington. New York : W.W. Norton, 1996.
Graphic Design History / Steven Heller and Georgette Balance. New York : Allworth Press, 2001.
Provenance:
All materials were donated to the museum by Mr. Lester Beall, Jr. in 1998.
Restrictions:
Collection open for research on site by appointment. Unprotected photographs must be handled with gloves.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Fall catalog for Department 9. Includes tables, milking stools, wall pockets, cabinets, mirrors, clock shelves, towel rings and racks, and other furniture. Illustrated with reproductions of drawings. As a "holiday" catalog, this was presumably intended for gift-giving ideas.
Local Numbers:
AC0060-0001727-01.tif through AC0060-0001727-22.tif
Series Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogs are restricted due to fragile condition. Researchers should consult microfilm in NMAH library for 1880-1983 editions, drawer 692. Some additional items may be restricted due to fragile condition. Off-site materials must be requested in advance. Consult Archives Staff.
Series Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Dry Goods, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
