Collection documents the work of display and window designer Michael Cipriano for Connecticut and New York stores including sketches, business records, correspondence, and photographic materials.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents Cipriano's short professional career as a table setter and window designer for retailers in Connecticut and New York City. It consists of business records, correspondence, photographs, and colored pencil sketches for Barney's Christmas windows dating from 1988-1989. In addition, there are approximately five hundred color 35mm slides documenting window displays for Macy's Incorporated, Bloomingdale's Incorporated, Bergdorf Goodman Incorporated, and Barneys New York. The collection covers the full range of Cipriano's design career from 1983 to 1993.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into two series:
Series 1: Photographic Materials, 1979-1991, undated
Series 2: Client Files, 1982-1993, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Michael Louis Cipriano (August 10, 1960-October 8, 1993) was born in Waterbury, New Haven, Connecticut to Michael Cipriano (1940-) and Evelyn M. Piperas (1941-2013). He studied fine art and art history at the University of Connecticut. His professional interests included costume, set, and theater design of the Art Deco, Art Moderne, and Art Nouveau styles. Prior to 1983, he did freelance displays for small shops in Connecticut. Cipriano began his professional career as a display trimmer for Macy's department store in New York in 1983. He designed for Bloomingdale's Incorporated from 1984-85, and for Bergdorf Goodman Incorporated Home Department from 1985 to 1986. Cipriano died of complications from AIDS in 1993 in New York City at the age of thirty-three.
Related Materials:
Materials at the Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Beverly Partridge Shopping Bag Collection, NMAH.AC.0493
Edward J. Orth Memorial Archives of the New York World's Fair, NMAH.AC.0560
Archives Center Shopping Bag Collection, NMAH.AC.0570
Dorothy Shaver Papers, NMAH.AC.0631
Landy R. Hales Papers, NMAH.AC.0906
Gene Moore, Tiffany & Company Photographs, NMAH.AC.1280
William L. Bird Holidays on Display Collection, NMAH.AC.1288
Provenance:
This collection was donated in 1993 by D. Thomas Shoemaker.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
These photographs document Nicholson's work for Lord & Taylor Company from 1946-1947. Nicholson created 100 window displays for the department store and only 25 are in this collection. The collection does not include any supporting documentation for these photographs.
Arrangement:
This collection consists exclusively of 25 8 x 10 inch black-and-white photographs.
Biographical / Historical:
Window designer and restaurateur, John Nicholson, born in St. Louis, Mo. in 1916. The only son of Romanian immigrants, Johnny Bulica changed his name to John Nicholson in the 1920s to lose the Old World connection.
Mr. Nicholson received some practical design experience while working for the St. Louis department store, Stix, Baer & Fuller before coming to New York City in the early 1940s. Mr. Nicholson worked for two years with Lord & Taylor as a display and window designer before opening Cafe Nicholson--a restaurant that he has managed for nearly 50 years and which closed in 1999.
Related Archival Materials:
Materials at the Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Gene Moore, Tiffany & Company Photographs (NMAH.AC.1280)
Michael Cipirano Papers (NMAH.AC.1274)
Materials at the Smithsonian Libraries
Donald Deskey collection (SIL-CH.1975-11-77)
The Museum of Modern Art has an artist file on Mr. Nicholson containing miscellaneous uncatalogued materials.
Provenance:
Photographs were donated to the museum by John Nicholson in 2000.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
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 is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
General correspondence files contain all communications that do not pertain to a specific project. Because Friedman's personal life and business were so interconnected, many of his business associates also shared personal correspondence with the designer.,Materials in this collection document Friedman's work from 1967, as a student, until his death in 1995.
Files that document his affiliations with Yale University and the State University of New York at Purchase include administrative memos, proposals, lecture outlines, syllabi, bibliographies, examples of students' work, and design projects Friedman did for each school. A copy of the goals and objectives of the Division of Visual Arts within the School of the Arts at SUNY Purchase written by Friedman is included.
Project files include business correspondence, invoices, sketches, contracts, clippings, photographs, and slides. In the case of his graphic projects, some samples of stationery and brochures are included. Extensive documentation exists for Friedman's projects for Citibank, WilliWear, National Public Radio, and Bonwit Teller. Some correspondence is in German. Friedman's lecture notes, proposals for articles and books, and drafts of many articles are included. Clippings of articles on the designer and his work are arranged chronologically.
Research files consist of articles and Friedman's notes on topics of interest to him, such as typography, structure, simultaneity, and information theory. Photographs, slides, and transparencies of many of Friedman's projects, his sources of inspiration, and the work of his students are included.
Arrangement:
Record Groups include:
1: General Correspondence
2: University Affiliations
3: Project Files
4: Lectures and Writings
5: Clippings
6: Research Materials
7: Photographs and Slides
Biographical / Historical:
Educator, graphic and furniture designer. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, 1945. Friedman recieved a BFA from Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburg, PA. He studied graphic design at Hochschule fur Gestaltung, Ulm, and studied with Armin Hofmann and Wolfgang Weingart at Allgemeine Gewerbeschule, Basel. Friedman returned to America in 1969 and began his career as graphic designer for large corporations.
He worked with the firm Anspach Grossman Portugal as a senior designer from 1975 to 1977. Friedman contributed significantly to what came to be known as "post-modern" or "new wave" typography in the 1970s. He taught graphic design at Yale University, 1970-73. He became Assistant Professor and Chairman of the Board of Study in Design at the State University of New York at Purchase, 1972-1975. Friedman designed catalogs and brochures for both universities. Friedman worked with Pentagram Design in New York City from 1979 to 1984. He designed corporate identity programs, posters, publications, packaging, letterheads, and logos, for clients such as Citibank, and Williwear.
Friedman was a long-time friend of artist Keith Haring, and designed the book, "Keith Haring", 1982. He was the author of "Dan Friedman: Radical Modernism", 1994, and co-authored with Jeffrey Deitch, "Cultural Geometry", 1988, and "Artificial Nature", 1990. He designed the books "New Italian Design", 1990, and "Post Human", 1992. He also designed furniture, lighting, screens, wall elements, and interiors. Many of his furniture designs were done especially for Galerie Noetu in Paris. Among his best known furniture designs are the 1989 Virgin Screen, 1989 Zoid sofa and chair, and the Three Mile Island lamps.
Friedman served as the Frank Stanton Professor of Graphic Design at the Cooper Union in New York city, from 1994 until his death in 1995.
Related Materials:
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Drawings and Prints Department
Hundreds of designs for letterheads, logos, business cards, invitations, greeting cards, furniture, lighting, screens, office interiors, shoppings bags and gift boxes, calendars, packaging, weather pattern diagrams and maps, book covers, and posters
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Applied Arts Department
"U.S.A." table and dome-shaped floor lamp.,.
Friedman's work can be found in the collections of the following museums: Museum of Modern Art, New York City; Museum of Decorative Arts, Montreal, Canada; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Seibu, Tokyo; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; and Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Provenance:
This collection was donated to the museum by the designer's brother, Ken Friedman in 1995.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
Collection primarily consists of photographic materials including color slides, color and black & white transparencies, and black & white photographs; press releases, articles, correspondence, press releases, client lists, and surveys documenting the life and work of packaging, industrial, and graphic designer Saul Nesbitt.
Scope and Contents:
Series 1, Background and Biographical Information, 1951-1984
Consists of Nesbitt's resume, an artist/designer statement, list of clients and accomplishments of Nesbitt Associates, Ltd., press releases, articles, and photographs of the designer.,The materials in this collection document Nesbitt's work from 1951 through 1984.
Series 2, Records of the Public Relations Office, 1955-1963
Includes press releases and clippings describing some Nesbitt's products, his theories on consumer motivation, and the results of his surveys, as well as correspondence with members of the press.
Series 3, Correspondence, dates
Contains general office communications
Series 4, Photographic Materials, 1951-1981
Consists of color slides, color and black and white transparencies, and black and white photographs of most of Nesbitt's designs for packaging from 1951-1981.
Series 5, Samples, undated
Includes three samples of fitted presentation boxes designed by Nesbitt, as well as a prototype for a design award for Parsons School of Design in New York, and two "Multiplication" cubes commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Oversized materials include books jackets and booklets designed by
Nesbitt, as well as some renderings for packaging designs done in color.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into five series:
Series 1, Background and Biographical Information, 1951-1984
Series 2, Records of the Public Relations Office, 1955-1963
Series 3, Correspondence, dates
Series 4, Photographic Materials, 1951-1981
Series 5, Samples, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Saul Nesbitt was a packaging, industrial, and graphic designer born in New York City on August 10, 1920. He was a student of sculptor Chaim Gross and studied art at many New York institutions including: Art Students League; New York University (NYU); Columbia University; Pratt Institute of Art; and the New School.
Nesbitt served in the United States Army from 1942 to 1945 where he worked as a cartographer and as the head of the visual aid section in a military intelligence training center. In 1945, he joined the staff of Harper's Bazaar magazine where he was an illustrator assisting art director Alexey Brodovich. In 1946, Nesbitt was hired by the industrial design studio of Raymond Loewy as a handletterer and packaging designer.
Saul Nesbitt worked with Lippincott Industrial Design from 1948 to 1951. He opened his own design studio, Nesbitt Associates, Ltd. in 1951. The firm specialized in package design, trademarks, and corporate identities. Some of his most recognizable designs were for the label for Campbell's Soup and the Florists' Telegraph Delivery (F.T.D.) Winged Mercury 'Interflora' figure, still used today. Nesbitt's other clients included: Franco American; Revlon; Ballantine Beer; Borden; Champion spark plugs; Kodak; Phillip Morris cigarettes; Schick razors; and Archway cookies. In addition, Nesbitt developed the "Karry Kit" for Ballantine Beer which came to be widely used and known as the six pack.
Nesbitt was known for his revealing studies and surveys of the buying needs and preferences of the "average American housewife" and consumers in general. His opinions on what he referred to as "underpackaging" were widely publicized in professional magazines and journals. In 1984, Nesbitt retired from the design field and went to California to resume his career as a sculptor until his death in 1993 at the age of seventy-three.
Related Materials:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
NW Ayer & Sons, incorporated Advertising Agency Records (NMAH.AC.0059)
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (NMAH.AC.0060)
Alan and Elaine Levitt Advertisement Collection (NMAH.AC.0303)
Marlboro Oral History and Documentation Project (NMAH.AC.0198)
Campbell Soup Advertising Oral History and Documentation Project (NMAH.AC.0367)
Caroline R. Jones Papers (NMAH.AC.0552)
Virgil Johnson Collection of Cigarette Packages (NMAH.AC.0645)
Albert W. Hampson Commercial Artwork Collection (NMAH.AC.0561)
Borden Company 1939 New York World's Fair Collection (NMAH.AC.1063)
Smithsonian Institution
Archives of American Art
Esta Nesbitt Papers, circa 1942-1981
Smithsonian Institution Archives
Archives Collection Management Records, 1989-2006
Provenance:
Collection donated by the designer's wife, Mrs. Saul Nesbitt, in 1994.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
Philip, Prince, consort of Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, 1921- Search this
Extent:
1.5 Cubic feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photostats
Scrapbooks
Clippings
Correspondence
Contracts
Drawings
Photographs
Slides
Catalogs
Brochures
Invoices
Press releases
Date:
1924 - 1981
Scope and Contents:
This collection covers the period 1924-81 and consists of exhibition catalogs, correspondence, photographs, slides, drawings, photostats, contracts, book proofs, and related biographical material on Lissim. Extensive material on the designer's work for the Sevres porcelain factory includes correspondence, original contracts, photographs of porcelains and designs for porcelains, slides, drawings, and invoices.
Most of the material relating to Sevres is in French. A copy of the brochure for the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, 1925, is included, which features many of his designs. Also included are his designs for commencement caps and gowns, and other related ephemera for the City University of New York's City College.
The collection contains a mock-up of his 1952 publication, "How to be an Artist", which describes different techniques and how to apply them to greeting cards, porcelains, and textiles. Copies of the introduction and biographical sections of his book "An Artist's Interpretation of Nature", published in 1958 are included.
A scrapbook consists of articles, reviews, personal correspondence, press releases, and brochures. Among Lissim's personal correspondence are letters exchanged with Prince Philip of England, an avid collector of his work. Material on Lissim's work for the theater consists of exhibition brochures, correspondence, and lists of institutions in possession of his work. In addition, the collection contains photographs of Lissim's designs for jewelry, flatware, and textiles.
Biographical / Historical:
Porcelain, theater, and metalwork designer. Born, Kiev, Russia, 1900. Lissim left Russia in 1919 and moved to Paris where he resided until 1940. In all of Lissim's designs, his appreciation for nature is apparent in his use of fish, birds, flowers, and other motifs.
In 1921, he began designing scenery and costumes for the Theatre de l'Oeuve in Paris. In 1924, he created his first designs for the Sevres porcelain factory. His relationship with Sevres lasted for more than 40 years and some of his designs are still being produced. His work achieved a gold medal at the 1929 Exposition Internationale Des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Barcelona. Lissim made his first journey to the United States in 1935, and by 1936, his designs for the theater were featured in exhibitions in this country. His porcelains were featured in exhibitions at The Smith College Museum of Art, 1939, and Georg Jensen, Inc., 1941.
Lissim became Head of the Art Education Project at the New York Public Library in 1942. In 1947 he began teaching at the City Univerity of New York's City College campus, where he also designed commencement costumes for the Chancellor, President, and Chief Marshal. In 1952, Lissim became an art consultant for Castleton China, Inc. in New Castle, Pennsylvania. His work was featured in the exhibition, "A Designer's Interpretation of Nature", held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 1953. In 1954, Lissim created his first silver pieces of jewelry and flatware manufactured by Carl Sorensen & Son, Copenhagen, Denmark. In the early 60s, Lissim created three designs for plates that were executed by Claude Boulme. He continued to work and hold exhibitions at his studio in Dobbs Ferry, New York, until his death in 1981.
Related Archival Materials:
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Applied Arts Department
A Lenox vase, plates, cups, and saucers. A sterling silver pin, paperweight, and cutlery.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Department of Drawings and Prints
Additional archival materials can be found at The New York Public Library, Theater Division; City University of New York, City College Archives; and Columbia University Libraries, Bakhmeteff Archive, New York City.
Porcelains designed by Lissim are in the collections of the following museums: Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York; and The Museum of the City of New York, New York City, among others.
Provenance:
These materials were donated to Cooper-Hewitt by the museum's former Curator of Drawings and Prints, Elaine Evans Dee, in 1996. Transferred to the Archives Center in 2012.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
The eleven boxes contain documentation relating to project files including business correspondence, invoices, sketches, contracts and agreements, research materials, brochures, photographs, slides and models.
This collection, which includes some biographical material and which is specifically related to the design process and to the use of plastics, is interesting because it sufficiently covers the work of this inventor and experimenter. This collection includes Winfield's work in plastics in conjunction with architecture, building and design.
Biographical / Historical:
Armand G. Winfield, pioneering plastics researcher and consultant. Throughout the past fifty-six years Winfield has done extensive research and development in the areas of plastics in architecture and building, art, museum work, industry (applications engineering), and low cost housing for developing countries. In addition, he has worked in the entertainment field on the application of plastics for stage sets and amusement parks. His career is documented in over 300 published articles, chapters and books on plastics and other subjects, almost 90 of which are concerned with plastics in building and architecture.
Armand G. Winfield has been involved professionally in the plastics and business fields since 1939. He graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in 1941 and did graduate work at the University of New Mexico, the State University of Iowa and at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. He began his career in museum work using synthetic lattices and acrylics for the preservation of specimens. His interest shifted to the plastics materials in the mid-1940s, and he invented the first mass-producible process for embedding specimens in acrylics. As a principal in Winfield Fine Art in Jewelry in New York City, he conducted precursory work for the electronics encapsulation field and pioneered biological, medical and art embedments in the United States.
Professor Winfield has been on the teaching faculties of Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa. (Undergraduate Teaching Fellowship: 1939-1941); Harris Teachers' College (1950) and Washington University School of Engineering (1956) in St. Louis, Mo.; Yale University Art School (1960-1961) in New Haven, Conn.; Pratt Institute Industrial Design Department (1964-1970) in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Visiting Critic in Architecture (Plastics), The College of the City of New York (1968-1969), New York, N.Y.; Adjunct Professor of Plastics Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell (1978-1981), Lowell, Mass.; and Research Professor Mechanical Engineering (Plastics), the University of New Mexico (Appointed 1993), Albuquerque, N.M. He has also been an invited lecture at over 40 other colleges and universities in the United States and abroad.
Provenance:
All materials were donated to the museum by Armand G. Winfield in 1992. Transferred to the Archives Center in 2012.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
Biographical files cover the period from 1938-1989 and include resumes, clippings, correspondence, certificates, awards, speeches, brochures for exhibitions, and artwork.
The project files cover the period from 1934-1961 and contain clippings, catalogs, brochures, and scrapbooks. This material documents Bach's work as an industrial designer, architect, and painter from 1934-1992.
The files on the Ridgeway Center mall are particularly extensive. Photographs cover the period from 1937-1961 and document Bach's design projects, particularly the Ridgeway Center, his house in Stamford, and the Miami and New York offices of Callaway Mills. Portraits of Bach and his family are included as well.
Glass lantern slides document Bach's interior and exterior design projects. Also included are several signed and numbered prints of Bach's watercolor scenes of the Riviera.
Arrangement:
The Collection i s arranged into three series.
Series 1: Biographical Materials and Project Files, 1934-1989
Series 2: Photographs, 1942-1961
Series 3: Lantern slides (glass), undated
Biographical / Historical:
Industrial designer, architect, and painter. Born in Germany, 1904. Bach studied film directing and design in Europe. He turned to industrial design upon immigrating to the United States in 1926. His design work from 1932-1953 include a Philco radio, furniture for Heywood-Wakefield, carpets for Bigelow-Sanford, and appliances for General Electric. Bach designed and built his own home in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1938.
In the late 1940s, he developed a plan for one of the first shopping malls in America, the Ridgeway Center in Stamford, Connecticut. He remodeled the interior and exterior of Sach's furniture store, 1948-1949, and redesigned the Seneca Textile Building on 34th Street in Manhattan in 1952. Bach moved to Florida in 1959, where he designed the Palm Trail Plaza, a marina apartment complex in Delray Beach, completed in 1961. In addition, Bach was also a noted painter. His watercolors were featured in numerous exhibitions in the United States and Europe.
Related Archival Materials:
Materials at the Smithsonian
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Drawings and Prints Department holds 431 drawings of designs for furniture, textiles, lamps, pianos, clocks, appliances, and retail, office, and home interiors
Provenance:
Collection donated by Alfons Bach in 1993.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
Materials consist of project catalogs for Mohawk Paper Mills and Neenah Paper, a division of Kimberly-Clark. The collection documents Robins' work as a graphic and industrial designer.
Biographical / Historical:
Seymour Robins is a graphic and industrial designer. Born in Canada, he has lived most of his life in New York City and had his design practice there. Although locking together slotted pieces of paper has been done for many years, in the two decades that Robins has been designing these shapes that become forms when opened, he has developed them into a unique art form in itself. Robins' interlocking paper sculptures have been called "magic". He has had successful design assignments for AT&T, Diamond International Corporation, Genesco, Mohawk Paper Mills, Neenah Paper, Creative Playthings, and a host of other names in American industry. Robins designed the complex and precise Armillary Sphere for the Smithsonian, and has done paper sculptures for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Whitney Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Philadelphia Museum, and others. Over the years his demands and guidance for perfection in production have forced graphic arts suppliers into innovative improvements that have raised the level of die-makers' and the die-cutters' crafts. His work appears regularly in international design journals and is in the permanent collection at the Cooper-Hewitt Archives. He now lives and works in Sheffield, Massachusetts, in a barn he has converted into a studio and home.
Provenance:
All materials were donated by Mr. Robins in 1992. Transferred to the Archives Center in 2012.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
The materials in this collection span the years from the late 1920s to the 1970s and document Metzig's work in Germany and the United States. Little background and biographical information is available.
Project files : More than 500 examples of the designer's work, including letterheads, logos, trademarks, brochures, book jackets, magazine covers and layouts, certificates, awards, and product labels.
Printed Materials : Includes articles written by Metzig and a copy of his publication, "Art Lettering and Design," which was done for the International Correspondence Schools of Pennsylvania in 1957. This collection does not include any business records or correspondence.
Other Visual Materials : Photographs, slides, and transparencies of many of Metzig's designs.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into three record groups: 1) printed materials; 2) project files; and 3) other visual materials. Project files are arranged in alphabetical order by name of client. Extensive files for projects done for distilleries and publishing companies are alphabetized separately.
Biographical / Historical:
Graphic designer and artist. Born Hanover, Germany, 1893. Metzig apprenticed with a lithographer prior to establishing his own studio in the 1920s. He designed trademarks, logos, letterheads, brochures, and posters for clients. He is best known for his work for Pelikan Ink Company.
He also designed book covers, magazine covers, and page layouts. In the 1930s, Metzig became known as a leading calligrapher and advertising artist in Germany. He immigrated to the United States in 1939 and settled in New York where he taught calligraphy and did freelance graphic design until his death in 1989.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Mr. Metzig's daughter, Mrs. Matthew Murgio, and a former student and friend of Metzig's, Lili Wronker, 1990.
Restrictions:
Permission of staff required to photograph materials.
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
Collected display window photographs assembled by Gene Moore, artistic director of Tiffany & Company from 1955 to 1995, documenting window displays at Tiffany & Company's flagship store in New York City, New York.
Scope and Contents:
This collection of photographs originally consisted of 78 notebooks containing approximately 50 8" x 10" photographs each.This photographic record was compiled by Tiffany & Company artistic director Gene Moore. These photographs document window displays of Tiffany & Company, 5th Avenue, New York City, New York during Moore's tenure as artistic director from 1955-1994. Nearly all of the imaginative and inventive window displays created by Moore and other designers during his almost 40-year association with Tiffany's are documented in these photographs. Many of the photographs are dated in the lower right corner and in some instances divided by designer. The "Original Archive Box" notation that appeared on the spine of each notebook has been copied in the container listing under each entry. These entries include the names within the notebooks. While the majority of the photographs are in black and white, there are a few color images for later window treatments. Photographers credited on the reverse of some of the photographs are Virginia Roehl, Nick Malon, Malon Studios Incorporated, and Fifth Avenue Display Photographers. The collection does not include any supporting documentation for these photographs. None of Moore's displays for other clients is included.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in one series.
Series 1, Display Window Photographs, 1955-1995.
Biographical / Historical:
Gene Moore was born in Birmingham, Alabama on June 10, 1910. Although Moore studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago, he was mainly self-taught in design. His first display job was with I. Miller in New York from 1936-1938. Moore became a display assistant at Bergdorf Goodman (Delman Shoe division) in New York in 1938. Moore then became display manager at Bonwit Teller in New York City in 1945, where he frequently collaborated with well-known artists of the Pop Art movement including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg.
During this time, the profession of window display was gaining acceptance with the work of Moore and his contemporaries Henry F. Callahan at Lord & Taylor, Sidney Ring at Saks Fifth Avenue, and John R. Foley at Macy's, among others.
Moore joined Tiffany & Company in 1955 and is best known for his highly acclaimed work as Display Manager, Artistic Director, and Vice President. Walter Hoving, Chairman of the Board of Tiffany, charged Moore with the following mission: "I want you to make our windows as beautiful as you can according to your own taste ... Above all, don't try to sell anything; we'll take care of that in the store." There he created innovative, imaginative window displays for almost 40 years, from 1955 to 1994. His designs were famous for combining and juxtaposing common, everyday objects with exquisite pieces of fine jewelry.
Moore selected each object to echo the shapes, forms, and textures of the others. In addition, he designed jewelry and silver objects for Tiffany, most notably, his 1988 "Tiffany Circus" which featured 28 miniature circus animals and performers. Moore also worked as a freelance designer, starting in 1955, for Clarence House, Seagram Building, Delmar Shoe Salon, Madison Avenue Bookstore, American Museum of Natural History, Museum of Modern Art, Castelli Gallery, and Paul Taylor Dance Company, among others. In addition, he is credited with the design of the lobby of Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. His autobiography, My Time at Tiffany's, was written with Jay Hyams and published in 1990. His work was the subject of the 1996-1997 exhibition, "Moon Over Pearls, Gene Moore's Tiffany Windows and Beyond"; held at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.
"Gene Moore, 88, Window Display Artist, Dies"; The New York Times, November 26, 1998, page C17.
Related Materials:
Additional material on Gene Moore's work for Tiffany & Company may be found at the Tiffany & Company Archive in Parsippany, New Jersey.
Provenance:
These photographs were donated to the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution by Gene Moore in 1997.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
This material does not cover all clients and projects undertaken by Dreyfuss. This collection consists of theater design materials, industrial design materials, primarily, though not exclusively, from the 1950s and 60s, draft copies of his books, including extensive research files for the "Symbol Sourcebook," texts of lectures delivered by Dreyfuss, and biographical material. Included is Dreyfuss's Brown Book which provides an outline of his achievements. Photographs and slides of many of his designs are included. Materials relating to three publications include original drafts of the books with author notes, drawings, photographs, correspondence, and research materials. Also contains materials relating to the symbols exhibition held at the Hallmark Gallery in New York City in 1972.This collection was the source of many of the objects and issues addressed in Cooper-Hewitt's 1997 exhibition, "Henry Dreyfuss: Directing Design", and companion book, "Henry Dreyfuss, Industrial Designer: The Man in the Brown Suit", both conceived by Russell Flinchum. 311 reels of microfilm documenting most of the projects undertaken by Dreyfuss Associates were created by the firm and added to the collection later.
Arrangement note:
Materials are arranged into four record groups: 1) Biographical information; 2) Theater design; 3) Industrial design; and 4) Publications.
The biographical material is arranged into four sub groups:1) Lectures and Articles by Dreyfuss; 2) Articles about Dreyfuss; 3) Dreyfuss firm promotional mailings; and 4) Other material (photos, awards, etc.).Each sub-group is filed chronologically.
The Industrial Design records are divided into two sub groups:Early Industrial Design, 1929-1935, and Industrial Design, 1936-1969, and arearranged alphabetically by client name.
The publication materials arearranged alphabetically by title of publication.
Biographical/Historical note:
Industrial and stage designer. Born New York, March 2, 1904. Attended Society for Ethical Culture High School in New York. Apprenticed to designer Norman Bel Geddes, 1922-1924. Established his own industrial design firm in 1929. His clients included Bell Telephone Laboratories, Deere & Company, Honeywell, Inc., Polaroid Corporation, General Electric, the 1939-40 and 1964-65 New York World's Fairs, New York Central Railroad, Hoover Company, Singer Sewing Machine Company, Royal Typewriter Co., Lockheed Aircraft, McCall's magazine, and others.
Dreyfuss was a founding member of the Society of Industrial Designers, and the first president of the Industrial Designers Society of America. He is best known for his designs for the Bell 500 and Trimline telephones, the Westclox Big Ben alarm clock, Deere & Company tractors, Polaroid's Automatic 100, Swinger, and SX-70 Land Cameras, and New York Central Railroad's 1938 Twentieth Century Limited. In the 1950s, Dreyfuss was one of the pioneers in the application of anthropometrics (the study of human dimensions and capabilities) in his designs. In 1969, Dreyfuss retired from his firm, but remained active as a corporate consultant. He was the author of several important books including: "Designing for People", 1955; "Measure of Man", 1959; and "Symbol Sourcebook", 1972.
Location of Other Archival Materials Note:
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Applied Arts Department. Models and realized objects including control knobs for GM and Deere vehicles, plastic plates and various ceramic pieces with international symbols, Trimline telephones, an RCA Victor radio, a Westclox "Big Ben" alarm clock, and a Presco "AirClip" hair clipper.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Drawings and Prints Department. Hundreds of drawings of designs for tractors, train, plane, and ship interiors, television and radio cabinets, product labels, logos, packaging, office buildings, and costumes.
Other archival repositories containing Dreyfuss materials include: AT&T Archives, Warren, New Jersey; Deere & Co. Archives, Moline, Iowa; Honeywell Archives, Minneapolis, MN; Hoover Company, Canton, Ohio; Polaroid Archives, Cambridge, MA; Billy Rose Theater Collection, New York Public Library; Ethical Culture/Fieldson School Archives, New York; New York Central System Historical Society, Inc.
United Scenic Artists Local 829 Archives, New York; New York World's Fair 1939-40 Archives, Manuscript Division, New York Public Library; and San Diego Aerospace Museum Archives.
Provenance:
Henry Dreyfuss and Doris Marks donated his papers to Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, in the fall of 1972.
Additional materials were transferred to the museum in 1973 from the University of California at Los Angeles, which held a small collection of material deeded by Henry Dreyfuss in 1962.
311 reels of microfilm were donated to the museum in 1992.
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research use onsite by appointment. Permission of staff required to photograph material.
The project files include booklets: "Elements of Design" (1953-54); "Appearance Design" (1954); packaging and label designs and prototypes, photographs of drawing machinery, clippings, and misc. designs and printed advertisements for shoes, antennas, and candies.,This collection documents Hombordy's work as a graphics designer in the late 1940s and 1950s while employed at A.W. Lewin, General Electric, and Houbigant, Inc.
Arrangement:
Unprocessed; The archive material consists of labels, booklets, drawings, photographs and printed materials related to Hanna Lore Hombordy's work while employed at A.W. Lewin advertising agency, General Electric and Houbigant, Inc. in the 1940s-1950s.
Recent work has been included in twenty national juried shows and in 1987 she received the Monarch Best Tile Award. In California, she won an Award of Merit at the State Fair. Locally, she has received numerous awards, among them 1st place in the Thousand Oaks City Competition, the Oxnard Art Association Competition, the Ventura Assembly of the Arts and the Ventura County Fair. She has had fourteen solo exhibits in the southern California area. Hombordy works at her studio home in Ventura, Calif. She creates clay and sculpture and vessels as well as decorative custom tiles and house numbers. She does research and experimental work in clay and uncommon fine art materials such as expanded polystyrene foam. Discoveries in airbrushing on clay are documented in the December 1991 issue of Ceramics Monthly. An article on her work has been published in Ceramic Review, the British ceramics magazine. Recent publications include: Pottery Making Illustrated (Spring 1999) and Clay Times (November 2000 and 2001).
Related Archival Materials:
Works by Hombordy are in the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art collection in Logan, Utah; Moorpark College, UCSD, Santa Paula Savings and Loan, and Monarch Tile Co., in Texas.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Hanna Lore Hombordy in 1993.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
This collection consists ofcorrespondence, scrapbooks, catalogs, brochures, original drawings, photographs, financial records, resumes, legal documents, magazine articles, business records, press releases, artwork, and samples of boxes, bags, and buttons. Files documenting the company's history include a statement of the company's philosophy and records pertaining to the establishment of new stores in various cities. Project files document the furniture, fabrics, rugs, and accessories imported and design by Design Research, Inc. Bound reprints of articles that appeared in Interiors and International Design magazines are included. Clippings and other records documenting the design and construction of D/R stores are provided in the files pertaining to Benjamin Thompson & Associates, Inc. Also found in these files is a printed and bound presentation copy of Thompson's address, "The Craft of Design and the Art of Building", along with other articles by and about Thompson. Additional information pertaining to D/R's association with Marimekko can be found in the Cooper- Hewitt Design Archive's Marimekko Collection.
Arrangement note:
Unprocessed. Consists of six record groups: 1) Company history; 2) Office records; 3) Project files; 4) Clippings and Scrapbooks; 5) Benjamin Thompson & Associates, Inc. for D/R; and 6) Photographs.
Biographical/Historical note:
Retail establishment and product design. Design Research, Inc. (D/R), founded in 1953 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by architect Benjamin Thompson, specialized in the latest post-war products for the modern home. The displays in the stores were considered unique in that they were designed at domestic scale and the products were shown in realistic, homelike arrangements.
Products were sought and selected based on the anticipated preferences of customers, not on traditional retail buying patterns. At the time, the availability of "good design" was limited to wholesale firms such as Herman Miller and Knoll. Thompson was the first to introduce the work of many European and Asian designers to the American retail market, including the work of the design firm of Marimekko for which D/R was the exclusive U.S. represenative. The company also created many of its own products including chairs manufactured by Thonet. D/R later opened stores in New York City, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Thompson's own architectural firm, Benjamin Thompson & Associates, Inc., designed all of the D/R stores. For the San Francisco store, Thomspon renovated the former Ghirardelli Chocolate factory. Even after the stores officially closed in 1978, D/R remained a model for many merchants.
Provenance:
The materials in this collection were donated to Cooper-Hewitt in 1995 by Benjamin and Jane Thompson.
Restrictions:
Unprocessed; access is limited. Permission of Library Director required for use.
Topic:
Furniture design -- United States -- History -- 20th century Search this
This collection does not represent the entire Parzinger archive. The German firm, K.P.M., has the drawings Parzinger produced for the line of ceramics and a part of the documentation for the work in the United States was damaged or lost in a 1951 flood in the Madison Avenue office. However, enough of the archive remains to document a significant part of the designer's work from the 1940s-1970s. Included in the collection are brochures, ad sheets, magazine pages, chart-like sheets of furniture designs, drawings or blueprints, clippings, photographs, press articles, and pages of notes. The collection does not include business papers which were deliberately excluded for space reasons.
Arrangement note:
Materials are arranged into ten record groups: I. Furniture Designs for Willow & Reed, Salterini, Parzinger Originals and others; II. Silver Design; III. Ceramic/China Design; IV. Designs for Objects made of non-precious metals; V. Objects of Miscellaneous or Obscure Materials; VI. Designs for Enamel Work; VII. Designs for Textiles and/or Wallcoverings; IX. Lighting Fixture Design (electric); and X. Miscellaneous Items. There are also seven 3-ring binders containing photographs of Parzinger's furniture, silver, ceramics, and metalwork from the 1930s--the 1970s. There are notes on the backs of many of the photographs. There are also sketches of his designs for clients. Binder 7 contains photographs of 63 furniture designs by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings.
Biographical/Historical note:
Tommi (Anton) Parzinger (1903-1981) was born in Munich and received professional design training there at the Kunstgewebeschule (School of Arts and Crafts).He began his career as a freelance designer in Germany and Austria, working in ceramics, wallpapers, lighting, textiles, and furniture. In 1932 he came to the United States as a prize for winning a poster contest for North German Lloyd, the steamship company. In 1935 he settled in New York and became associated with Rena Rosenthal ("smart furniture and accessories shop") as a designer of china, glassware and furniture. Furniture became is primary focus in 1938 he became a designer for Charak of Boston. In 1939 he formed his own business, Parzinger, Inc., 54 East 57th Street, designing silver as well as furniture. Renamed Parzinger Originals in 1946, the firm also had addresses at 32 East 57th Street; 601 Fifth Avenue and 441 Madison Avenue. Donald Cameron became his partner. In addition to his own firm, he designed furniture, fabrics, lighting and a range of accessories for other firms, including Salterini (wrought iron), Hofstatter (furniture), Dorlyn (brass), and Willow & Reed (rattan). He also produced custom designs for interior decorators and many private clients. In 1996 and 1998 his work was shown by Palumbo Gallery, 972 Lexington Avenue, New York City.
Separated Materials note:
The Cooper-Hewitt departments of Drawings and Prints, Applied Arts, and Textiles and Wallcoverings has additional materials on Parzinger in their collections.
Provenance:
All materials were donated to the museum by Donald Cameron in 1998.
Restrictions:
Unprocessed; access is limited; Permission of Library Director required; Policy.
This collection documents Wallance's career from his enrollment in the Design Laboratory School in 1936 to his death in 1990.Included are his designs for tableware, furniture, and household accessories, as well as material on his research and writings. This collection consists of sketches, drawings, photographs, correspondence, and reference materials, in addition to publicity and promotional materials. Extensive documentation exists on Wallance's pioneering designs for stainless steel flatware for H. E. Lauffer Company and his experimental furniture for the U.S. Army, Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center, and the Hard Manufacturing Company. Thorough documentation of his research for his landmark book, "Shaping America's Products," is included. The collection also contains a substantial amount of information on the Design Laboratory School, the first industrial design school in the United States to be patterned after the Bauhaus.
Arrangement note:
This collection is arranged into eight record groups: 1) Industrial Design Projects; 2) "Shaping America's Products"; 3) Other Activities; 4) General Correspondence; 5) Business Records; 6) Biographical Material; 7) Reference Material; and 8) Photographs and Slides. Within each record group, materials are arranged by client, or in lieu of a client, by project name.
Letter size, legal size, and oversized materials, photographs, slides, film, and video are all boxed separately. Where possible, subjects have been cross referenced between the various sizes and types of material.
Biographical/Historical note:
Metalworker, furniture and industrial designer. Born New York City, September 26, 1909. Wallance graduated New York University in 1930 with a B.A. in English Literature. He traveled to northern Europe where he was exposed to the International Style in architecture and design. Upon returning to the United States, he went to work in his father's furniture store and saw the need for more inventive designs in retail furnishings. He attended Design Laboratory School in New York City from its inception in 1936 until it closed its doors in 1940.
From 1941-2, Wallance served as the state of Louisiana's technical and design director for the National Youth Administration, established in 1940 by President Roosevelt to help build a young, technically capable work force. During World War II, Wallance designed mass-produced furniture for servicemen's families living abroad for the Office of the Quartermaster General, Washington. He began designing tableware, cutlery, and accessories for H.E. Lauffer in 1951.
Among his most recognizable designs for Lauffer were Design One, a highly sculptural, brushed stainless steel flatware created in 1953, and Design Ten, a colored plastic flatware created in 1978-79. Both designs are now produced by Towle Manufacturing Company. ln addition, Wallance designed auditorium seating in steel and upholstered polyurethane foam for Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center in 1964 and hospital furniture in steel and plastics for Hard Manufacturing Company in 1965. Wallance is best known for his book, "Shaping America's Products", 1956, which remains a seminal study of the relationship of craftsmanship to industry.
Location of Other Archival Materials Note:
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Applied Arts Department. Approximately 100 items, consisting of models, prototypes, and production pieces of flatware, cutlery, and other items.
Provenance:
These materials were donated to Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, in 1991 by David M. and Gregory J. Wallance, sons of the designer.
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research use onsite by appointment. Permission of staff required to photograph materials.
This collection covers the period that Ratia was with Marimekko, 1951-1979.It includes scrapbook, press releases, correspondence, brochures, photographs, magazine articles, swatches, and trade catalogs. It contains extensive information about the company's affiliation with D/R and its operations in Finland. It includes a copy of "Phenomenon Marimekko," the catalog from a comprehensive exhibition that was held at the Museum of Applied Arts in Helsinki in 1986. The collection contains legal correspondence and contracts pertaining to D/R's representation of Marimekko in the United States, as well as numerous swatches, sample books, brochures for stockholders, and trade catalogs. Files pertaining to Marimekko's work in Finland is mostly in Finnish and consists of brochures, posters, articles, and sample books, as well as a copy of the publication, "Design in Finland 1983."Additional information on Marimekko's association with D/R can be found in the Cooper-Hewitt Design Archive's Design Research, Inc. Collection.
Arrangement note:
Unprocessed. This collection consists of six record groups: 1) Company history and background information; 2) Marimekko/Design Research, Inc. Correspondence; 3) Marimekko Finland; 4) Scrapbooks and press clippings; 5) Swatches and samples; and 6) Photographs.
Biographical/Historical note:
Finnish fabric manufacturer and retail chain. The company's chief designer was Armi Ratia (1912-1979), who was known for her use of vibrant colors and large patterns. She first joined her husband's design firm, Printex, in 1949. In 1951, the company was renamed Marimekko, which means "a little dress for Mary" in Finnish. During the 1960s and '70s, the firm manufactured cotton, jersey, and wool fabrications, along with paper, laminated plastics, and table coverings. Ratia was known for designing free, easy fashions in bold painterly designs taking much of her inspiration from nature and handicraft.
Ben Thompson, the founder of the retail establishment Design Reseaach, Inc. (D/R), discovered Ratia's designs at the Finnish Pavilion of the Brussels World Fair in 1957, and persuaded her to come to the United States. D/R became the exclusive representative of Marimekko products in the U.S. Today, through franchises worldwide, Marimekko stores sell simple clothing for women and children, as well as household accessories and furniture.
Location of Other Archival Materials Note:
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Textiles Department. 28 printed textiles designed by or for Marimekko.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Wallcoverings Department. One samplebook.
Marimekko Homepage. Additional information on the history of the company and its activities today can be found on Marimekko's homepage: http://www.marimekko.fi/.
Provenance:
The materials in this collection were donated to Cooper-Hewitt in 1975 by Benjamin and Jane Thompson.
This collection documents Horwitt's major projects from the 1930s to the 1960s.Project files include drawings, sketches, blueprints, correspondence, patents, legal correspondence, clippings, financial reports, and advertisements for Horwitt's projects. Samples of logos and letterheads he designed are included as well. The most thorough documentation pertains to the Braquette, the Cyclometer, the Museum Watch, and the Beta Chair. Drawings, sketches, blueprints, and plans are boxed separately, mostly flat. Interviews with individuals who worked with and knew Horwitt are on audio cassettes, "Recollections of Nathan Horwitt." Two short videos, "The Legend behind the Museum Watch" and "Movado Worldwide Museum" are stored on 3/4 in. video cassettes.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in six record groups; 1) Project files; 2) Drawings, sketches, and blueprints; 3) Film and video; 4) Photographs and Transparencies; 5) Sound Recordings; and 6) Reference Material.
Biographical/Historical note:
Industrial designer. Born Romania, 1889. Horwitt studied at City University of New York, New York University, and the Art Students' League, New York. In the 1920s, Horwitt formed his own, short-lived company, Design Engineers, Inc. He served as an advertising copywriter for the pharmaceutical company, E.R. Squibb, after serving in World War II.
Horwitt is best known for his design of a numberless black-face watch that has become known as the "Museum Watch" and was produced by the Movado Watch Company. He also designed the 1930 Beta chair and the Braquette, a frameless picture frame. His innovative designs for timepieces incorporated the classic elements of modern design while retaining some of the traditional elements of telling time, such as the circular face.
Location of Other Archival Materials Note:
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Applied Arts Department. Models and prototypes of approximately 25 objects, including models of the Museum Clock, the Cyclox clock, the Braquette, and the Beta Chair.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Drawings and Prints Department. Three drawings of Horwitt's designs for perfume bottles.
Movado Web Page. Information on Horwitt's work for the Movado Watch Company can be found on the company's web site, http://www.movado.ch/nhorwit.html.
Provenance:
Hank Horwitt, the designer's son, gave Cooper-Hewitt all his relevant design materials from his home studio in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1991.
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research use onsite by appointment. Permission of staff required to photograph materials.
York, Sarah Mountbatten-Windsor, Duchess of, 1959- Search this
Extent:
11 Boxes (13 albums)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Drafts (documents)
Awards
Designs
Press releases
Drawings
Templates
Clippings
Articles
Speeches
Slides (photographs)
Date:
[196-]-1994
Summary:
The Parish-Hadley Collection documents the history of the New York City design firm from 1962-1994.Particular emphasis is on Sister Parish (Mrs. Henry Parish II) and Albert Hadley. Magazine clippings from various publications make up the majority of the collection as well as gossip column excerpts about Parish-Hadley or infamous clients. The slides date mostly from the 1980s-1990s and depict some but not all Parish-Hadley projects.
Arrangement note:
Materials are arranged in 13 albums
Organized by album title. The albums contain magazine and newspaper clippings, sketches, templates, speeches, and press releases, project slides. Arranged alphabetically by client, or in lieu of a client name, by project name (There is some overlap in the albums and the album labels are not accurate).
Biographical/Historical note:
Dorothy "Sister" Parish born Dorothy May Kinnicutt in Morristown, New Jersey. Sister is a nickname given to her by her three brothers. She graduated from the Foxcroft School for Girls, an elite Virginia boarding school. She began her career in 1933. It was the year of the "Crash" and financial necessity prompted her to set up shop, "Mrs. Henry Parish II Interiors", in Far Hills, New Jersey, where she began decorating houses for friends. She had no formal training but attributes her taste and instinct for quality to European travel, exposure to art, and, most of all to her upbringing. Alone, and then together with her partner, Albert Hadley, who joined the firm in 1962, she has decorated houses of every size and kind throughout the world. It is said that she represents the "undecorated" look; Vogue magazine calls her "the most famous of all living American women interior designers whose ideas have influenced life-styles all over America."
Sister Parish--grande dame of American decor--shaped the American domestic aesthetic of various Kennedys, Astors, Paleys, and Whitneys. Parish-Hadley was the upper-crust New York firm formed by Mrs. Parish and the Tennessee-born decorator Albert Hadley.
Mr. Hadley, a graduate of and former teacher at Parsons School of Design in both New York and Paris, established his own design firm before joining McMillen, Inc. He began his legendary association with Mrs. Henry Parish II in 1962, when they co-founded the distinguished design firm of Parish-Hadley Associates, which grew to encompass 25 associates and staff members.
Described by The New York Times as "the most illustrious American decorating team of the 20th century," Parish-Hadley's client register includes names of the Kennedys, Rockefellers, Astors, Gettys, Whitneys and Vanderbilts. Parish's cozy, yet dignified style, combined with Hadley's Modernism and attention to architectural space, has led to Parish-Hadley's constant surviving achievement.
The partnership lasted until the death of Sister Parish in 1994. After closing Parish-Hadley in late 1999, Hadley opened a new office and continues collaborating with clients toward his goal to "help them realize more than they thought possible within the framework of their own tastes." His impressive roster of distinguished clients includes former Vice President and Mrs. Albert Gore, Diane Sawyer and Mike Nichols, former Ambassador and Mrs. Henry Grunwald and Mrs. Vincent Astor.
Location of Other Archival Materials Note:
Parish-Hadley Associates, Inc. papers; Also located at The John F. Kennedy Library of the National Archives and Records Administration. Boston, Mass.
Provenance:
All materials donated by Mr. Albert Hadley in 1999. Unprocessed.
Restrictions:
Unprocessed; access is limited; Permission of Library Director required; Policy.
Project files containmagazine and newspaper clippings, reviews, correspondence, renderings, floor plans, perspective drawings, site plans, sketches, preliminary drawings, patents, stationery, labels, and technical reports. There is an extensive collection of photographs and slides of many of Deskey's packaging designs, interiors, furnishings, and exhibition installations. The files of Donald Deskey Associates include organizational charts, client files, proposals, and financial records. Some of Deskey's personal correspondence, speeches, articles, and family photographs are included. Materials cover the period from 1927-1975.
Arrangement note:
Arranged into six records groups: 1) architecture/interiors projects; 2)Donald Deskey Associates; 3) industrial design projects; 4) reference; 5) Donald Deskey's personal papers; and 6) photographs. A special collection of more than one thousand slides of Deskey's work are boxed separately.
Biographical/Historical note:
Industrial, interior, and packaging designer. Born Blue Earth, Minnesota, November 23, 1894. By 1943, he had established Donald Deskey Associates in New York. Along with Dreyfuss, Bel Geddes, and Loewy, Deskey was one of the great industrial design pioneers in the 1930s.
He is best known for his designs for the furnishings and interiors of Radio City Music Hall in 1932, and for his work for companies such as: Widdicomb Furniture Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan; W & J Sloane, New York; and Estey Manufacturing Company, Owosso, Michigan. Deskey is also known for his familiar packaging designs for Procter & Gamble products, such as Crest toothpaste, Prell shampoo, and Tide detergent.
Donald Deskey Associates also was responsible for lamppost #10, the streetlight still in use today in New York City. Materials from this archival collection were featured in Cooper-Hewitt's 1994 exhibition and accompanying book, "Packaging the New: Design and the American Consumer, 1925- 1975."
Location of Other Archival Materials Note:
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Drawings and Prints Department. Approximately 3,000 drawings for furniture and textile designs.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Applied Arts Department. Two tables, handles, and a glass bottle and box designed by Deskey.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Textiles Department. One textile designed by Deskey.
Other sources of archival information on Deskey include, the Procter & Gamble Archive, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Deskey Associates, New York City.
Provenance:
The Deskey collection was donated to the museum in three installments.
In 1975, Deskey deposited at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum,, hundreds of drawings, 3 four-drawer file cabinets of material, and several oversized packages comprising the bulk of his papers covering the period from 1927-1965. These items were officially donated to the museum in 1988.
In 1992, Deskey Associates of New York made an additional gift consisting of, approximately 1,000 35mm slides that documented projects from the 1960s through 1980s, and focused primarily on designs for packaging.
In 1994, Donald Deskey's nephew, Robert Deskey presented the Museum with, 120 postcards, letters, and family photographs.
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research use onsite by appointment. Permission of staff required to photograph materials.
