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List of illustrations

  • Head
  • Fireplace Screen
  • Coffee or Tea Set
  • Folding Screen
  • Agnus Dei Vase
  • Compote
  • Covered Compote
  • Covered Box
  • Dish with a Portrait of Ben Hecht
  • Pair of Candleholders
  • Figure of a Pig
  • Candelabrum, "Modernist" Pattern
  • Pair of Candlesticks, "Modernist" Pattern
  • Armchair
  • Pair of Candelabra
  • Carneval Wall Hanging
  • Brooch
  • Rug, "La Salle Wilton" Pattern
  • Plate, "Franconia" Pattern
  • Dining Table
  • Stemware, "Courtney" Pattern
  • Vanity Case
  • Desk
  • Covered Bowl with Spoon
  • Bowl
  • Side Chair
  • Vases
  • Punch Bowl
  • Candlepiece and "Dee Handle" Candlestick
  • Cigarette Box
  • Table Lamp
  • Floor Lamp
  • Design Drawing
  • Tea-and-Coffee Service
  • Still Life with a Violin (Nature morte au violon)
  • Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2)
  • The Rude Descending a Staircase (Rush Hour at the Subway)
  • Cubic coffee service
  • Side Chair for the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo
  • Tea Set, "Square Modern" Pattern
  • Glassware, "Ruba Rombic" Pattern
  • Vase, "Rombic" Pattern
  • Lamp
  • Bridge Table
  • Coverlet, "Electric" Pattern (also called "Precision")
  • Vanity Set
  • Evening Coat
  • Plate, "Shadowardt" Pattern
  • Mantle Clock, "Sutton" Model
  • Pitcher
  • Cake Plate, "Modernistic" Pattern
  • Footed Plate, "Modernistic" Pattern
  • Rug
  • Sugar Bowl and Creamer
  • Covered Box
  • Cocktail Shaker and Cups
  • Bonbon Dish
  • Dish or Article of Analogous Nature, patent drawing
  • Glassware, "Modernistic" Pattern
  • Console Bowl or Similar Article, patent drawing
  • Wallpaper
  • Cigarette Box
  • Bakelite Corporation Silver Anniversary Medal
  • Tray, "Art Moderne" Pattern
  • Vanity Set
  • Bracelets
  • Length of Fabric, "Faja" (Saddlebag) Pattern
  • Side Chair
  • Leaping Fish Lapel Pin
  • Lifetime Ware Pitcher
  • Box
  • Shelf Clock, Model No. K905
  • Mirror
  • Standing Floor Lamp
  • T-57-A Table
  • Electric Clock, Model No. 4090
  • Teapot
  • Teapot
  • Flatware
  • Plate
  • Table
  • Tray
  • Stratford Bowl
  • Bowl
  • Smartline Kitchen Table
  • Side Chair
  • Cocktail Set
  • Refreshment Set
  • Ashtray
  • Ashtray and Cigarette Box
  • Tablecloth, "Petit Déjeuner" Pattern (also called "Matisse" and "Breakfast")
  • Coffee Set
  • Canapé Plate
  • Cabinet Radio, Model No. 16X
  • Portable Phonograph, RCA Victor Special, Model M
  • Commemorative Medal for NBC's Tenth Anniversary Celebration
  • Microphone and Stand, Model No. 77-B1
  • Voodoo
  • Length of Fabric, "American Scene" Pattern
  • Clip Brooch
  • Plate for the S.S. Leviathan
  • Normandie Pitcher
  • Flatware for the 20th Century Limited
  • Service Plate for the 20th Century Limited
  • Hupmobile Hood Ornament
  • Medal Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of General Motors
  • Flatware, "Flagship" Pattern
  • Skyscraper
  • Length of Fabric, "Manhattan" Pattern (also called "Canyons of Steel")
  • Fabric Swatch, "Welwyn Garden City" Pattern
  • Textile, Americana Print: Manhattan
  • Manhattan Cocktail Ensemble
  • Manhattan Bowl with Stand
  • Design for an Iron Door
  • Skyscraper Desk
  • Cover for Sky Scraper Furniture brochure
  • Flower Pot
  • Vase, "Today" Pattern
  • Coffeepot and Sugar Bowl
  • Cocktail Shaker
  • Scale
  • Armchair, "The Kem Weber Group"
  • Vase
  • Pair of Compotes, "Modernist" Pattern
  • Pair of Bookends, "Gothic" Pattern
  • Table Architecture, Pristine Line
  • Cambridge Glass Company advertisement for Table Architecture
  • Length of Fabric, "Abstract" Pattern
  • Vase
  • Diament Dinette Set
  • Coffeepot, "Metropolis" Pattern
  • Desk and Bookcase with Side Chair and Blotter
  • Coffee Set
  • Flower Bowl
  • Salt and Pepper Shakers
  • Cigarette Box, "Modernist" Pattern
  • Table
  • Still Life Léonce Rosenberg or Still Life Modern Effort
  • Machine Ornament. Abstraction
  • Pair of Bookends
  • Brooch
  • Ashtray
  • Beaker
  • Place Setting
  • Cocktail Shaker
  • Lens Bowls
  • Improvement in Semaphore-Lenses, patent drawing
  • Clock, Model No. 4093
  • Wall Light
  • Fork
  • Salt and Pepper Shakers
  • Place Setting, "Simplicity" Pattern
  • Coffee Set
  • Table
  • Tableware, "Knickerbocker" Pattern
  • Bowl
  • Herb Chopper
  • Planter or Desk Accessory
  • Centerpiece
  • Candlesphere
  • Candelabra and Bowl, "Classique Moderne" Line
  • Sugar Bowl and Creamer
  • Bowl
  • Side Table
  • Belt Buckle
  • Greek Dance
  • Bowl
  • Ewer
  • Length of Fabric
  • Tea or Chocolate Set, "Lamelle" Pattern
  • Diplomat Coffee Service
  • Teapot
  • Table
  • Stemware, "Embassy" Pattern
  • Vases
  • Water Pitcher
  • Mariner's Bowl
  • Vindrosen (Wind Rose)
  • Tray
  • Compote, "Saint Tropez" Pattern
  • Goblet, "Malmaison" Pattern
  • Fire Screen
  • Pair of "Libbiloo" Bookends
  • Wine cooler
  • Coffee Table
  • Regency Asparagus Platter
  • Side Chair
  • Champagne Coolers
  • Calyx-Krater with Eos and Tithonos
  • His Royal Highness Coffee Service
  • Pair of Salts
  • Trencher Salt
  • Side Chair
  • Ice Cream Fork, "The Commonwealth" Pattern
  • Plate, "Salamina" Pattern
  • Ute Tribe, from the "American Indian" series
  • Length of Fabric, "San Lucas" Pattern
  • 1939 New York World's Fair Spoons in Presentation Box
  • Side Table
  • Fuseaux Cabinet
  • Chest of Drawers
  • Wall Hanging "Figures with Still Life" (also called "Still Life" and "Wall Hanging")
  • Teapot
  • Cigarette Casket
  • Cigarette Box
  • Cocktail Service
  • Knife
  • Drawing of a Knife
  • Vase
  • Vanity and Ottoman
  • Clock, Model No. 4084 B
  • Salt and Pepper Shakers
  • Ford Exhibition Building
  • Electric Clock, Model No. 4083 A
  • Handbag Watch
  • Conservatory Table
  • Tea or Coffee Service
  • Pair of Armchairs
  • Vase, "Silvermode" Line
  • Serving Fork and Spoon, "Century" Pattern
  • 1939 New York World's Fair Spoon
  • 1940 New York World's Fair Souvenir Spoon
  • Floor Lamp
  • Coffeemaker
  • Tea Table
  • Pitcher
  • Plate
  • Watering Can
  • Vanity Set, "Rond" Pattern
  • Coffee Service, "Modernist" Pattern
  • Cocktail Shaker and Cups, "Modern American" Pattern
  • Centerpiece Bowl
  • Bowls
  • Candelabra with "Waxel" Candles
  • Pair of "Crescent" Candlesticks
  • Du-All Combination Salt and Pepper Shaker
  • Length of Fabric
  • Dinette Set
  • Side Chair, "Contemporary Group" Line
  • Wear-Ever Kettle
  • Place Setting, "Modern Classic" Pattern
  • Pitcher, "Chatham" Pattern
  • Armchair, "American Modern" Line
  • Thermos Carafe, Model No. 539
  • Bantam Special Camera
  • Covered Vegetable Dish
  • Telephone, Model No. 302
  • Radio Nurse and Guardian Ear Short Wave Transmitter
  • Alice and the Queen of Hearts
  • Big Ben Alarm Clock
  • Coronet Coffee Urn No. 17088
  • Tableware, "Our America" Pattern
  • Leg Splint
  • Jumping, Running Twist High Jump
  • Dish, "Northern Lights" Pattern, "Spirit of Today" Line
  • Speed Lounge Chair
  • The Zephyr Electric Clock
  • Scoring Stencil Punch
  • Promotional photograph
  • National Package Sealer, Model No. 208
  • Aristocrat Stapling Machine
  • Olive Dish
  • Medal, Society of Medalists 12th Issue
  • Spool Vase
  • Pipe
  • Air Compressor
  • Petipoint Iron, Model No. W410
  • Teapot and Cups
  • Vacuum Cleaner
  • Airflow Table Fan
  • Jiffy Ware Pitchers and Cup
  • Kettle, Model No. 4133M
  • Streamliner Meat Slicer, Model No. 410
  • LC-52-A Lounge Chair
  • Parker 51 Fountain Pen
  • Soda King Syphon Bottles
  • Airline Armchair
  • Tea Set, "Streamline" Pattern with a "Tricorne" Pattern Plate
  • Tableware, "Stratoware" Pattern
  • Torso-Navel
  • Ashtray
  • Brooch
  • Portrait of Dora Maar
  • Initial Pin, JR
  • Coffeepot with Lid, "Fiesta" Pattern
  • Celery Plate, "American Modern" Pattern
  • Occasional Table
  • Length of Fabric, "Pamela" Pattern
  • Unknown
  • Bowl
  • Pair of Cuffs
  • Length of Fabric, "Rhythm" Pattern
  • Living Room Case
  • Side Chair
  • Armchair, Model No. 1105
  • Length of Fabric, "Polygons" Pattern
  • Pair of Bedside Tables
  • Sondern House
  • Box
  • Bubble Cigar Lamp
  • Vase
  • Cocktail Table, Model No. 5005
  • Place Setting, "Contour" Pattern
  • Coffee Service, "Contour" Pattern
  • Advertising Plate for Contour
  • Contemporary Group Candelabrum
  • Drawing of a Candelabrum
  • Bracelet
  • Length of Fabric, "Contours" Pattern
  • Model No. 1760, "Mesa" Table
  • Brooch
  • Society of Medalists 32nd Issue
  • Ball Wall Clock, Model No. 4755
  • Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences, cover
  • Length of Fabric, "Incantation" Pattern
  • Revere Ware Saucepan and Lid
  • Prototype "DCW" (Dining Chair Wood)
  • Length of Fabric, "Happy Leaves" Pattern
  • The Dahlia
  • Desert Rose
  • Publicity photo
  • Bowl from the Movie Hand Wrought Silver
  • Bowl
  • DCM (Dining Chair Metal)
  • Chest of Drawers
  • Side Chair, 650 Line
  • Bowl
  • Length of Fabric, "Finnish Hop" Pattern
  • Rockfish Brooch
  • Swingline Toy Chest
  • Model No. 70 "Womb" Chair and Ottoman with "Puli" Pattern Upholstery
  • Divided Vegetable Dish
  • Boonton Molding Company advertisement for "Melmac" dinnerware
  • Bowl
  • Length of Fabric, "IBM Disks" Pattern
  • IBM 727 Magnetic tape unit
Free
Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
Contents
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.001
Free
Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
The years covered in A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery, 1920–1950 overlap with the formation of the Gallery’s American decorative arts collection through the substantial gift of Francis P. and Mabel Brady Garvan beginning in 1930. The strengths of the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection are the colonial and Federal periods, and for decades, these constituted the scope of the Gallery’s holdings in American decorative arts. When Charles F. Montgomery came to the …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.002
Free
Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
During the process of researching and writing this book, the authors incurred a number of intellectual debts as fellow scholars, archivists, collectors, and practitioners offered up important references and insights. My fellow authors deserve special thanks for committing their time and expertise to this project. Sandy Isenstadt, Associate Professor, Modern Architecture, University of Delaware, wrote an engaging introduction that locates these objects within a larger, theoretical space. At the …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.003
Free
Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
During the second quarter of the twentieth century, when modernism started to attract attention in the decorative arts and a new design profession emerged centered on industrial products, there was no shortage of talent, ambition, and innovation among the producers of these objects. What was scarce was a modern consumer. Following World War I, with the industrial infrastructure of Europe in ruins, American corporations had ramped up production as well as funneled profits into mergers that …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.1-8
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.004
Free
Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
Contributors
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.005
Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
Modernism arrived late to the United States. Although American industry and architecture inspired designs internationally, the aesthetic we now associate with modernism emerged in Europe in the first decades of the twentieth century. A single definition for modernism in the decorative arts does not exist beyond a general embrace of contemporaneity in terms of materials, appearance, or function. Individual schools or movements across Europe refined this definition in their own ways, resulting in …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.13-51
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.006

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Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
The influence of Cubism—the revolutionary artistic style that originated in France—moved across the international art world during the first decades of the twentieth century. Almost two decades after its establishment, Cubist-inspired forms continued to appear in modern fashion, architecture, and the decorative arts. Despite its controversial origins, American manufacturers in the late 1920s readily appropriated Cubism as a marketable and chic treatment for a range of domestic goods. Their …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.53-80
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.007

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Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
“In this day of invention, of chemical magic, of breath-taking mechanical advance,” wrote curator and champion of industrial arts Richard F. Bach in 1932, “science and technology have added immeasurably to the resources of design.” Manufacturers and designers during this time emphasized the modernity of their creations through the selection of suitably modern materials—like plastics and chromium plate—or novel applications of time-honored materials. This spirit of experimentation with new alloys …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.83-112
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.008

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Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
American culture underwent a rapid transformation during the 1920s and 1930s, led in part by reform laws, the reassessment of social mores, the growth of urban areas, and advancements in transportation technologies. These developments helped create new patterns of living that self-consciously broke with the past and affirmed that Americans were living in a modern world. …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.115-143
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.009
Chapter subject tags:Modernism (Art)Art, American

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Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
Cities, with their soaring buildings, transportation networks, crowds of inhabitants, and seemingly endless activity, encapsulated modern life and served as a source of inspiration for many American designers and artists. By 1920 over half of the U.S. population inhabited urban areas. As the migration from the countryside continued during the 1920s, coupled with increased foreign immigration, the size and complexity of American cities grew—office towers proliferated, the majority of inhabitants …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.145-177
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.010

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Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
The machine has long been linked with modernity. During the 1920s and 1930s, artists and designers appropriated mechanistic forms to visually convey aspects of modern life. Geometric shapes became associated with mechanical precision and were applied to a range of objects, either to accentuate their functionality or simply to express an image of modernist rationality. …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.179-206
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.011

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Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
Modernist designers created objects that responded to the world around them. For some, their designs constituted a conscious break with the past. For the majority, though, their designs fit within an aesthetic continuum that updated traditional forms and decoration for contemporary audiences. Designers were not beholden to history; they freely used appropriation and abstraction to create contemporary objects. This historical modernism mediated between the past and the present, grounding …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.209-243
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.012

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Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
The average American first learned about modern design through print sources, but first experienced modern design at museums, department stores, or world’s fairs. Between 1920 and 1950, these public settings blended commerce with culture to educate Americans about aspects of modern design and inspired them to incorporate it into their lives. …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.245-277
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.013

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Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
As public interest in modern design developed in America over the second half of the 1920s, manufacturers began producing goods in the modern style. A number of these companies engaged well-known designers to create products, which attracted attention for both the brand and the designers themselves. With the onset of the Depression, manufacturers increased their reliance upon outside talent, fostering the growing field of industrial design. This section focuses on industrially produced objects …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.279-311
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.014

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Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
“Streamlining has taken the modern world by storm. We live in a maelstrom of streamlined trains, refrigerators, and furnaces; streamlined bathing beauties, soda crackers, and facial massages.” When Harold Van Doren made this comment in 1940, streamlining was the dominant style used by corporations to evoke the functionality and novelty of their products. The proliferation of rounded surfaces on a myriad of industrial and domestic objects diluted the scientific principles that informed …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.313-343
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.015
Chapter subject tags:Modernism (Art)Art, American

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Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
Organic design emerged in the late 1930s as a reaction to the calculated, impersonal curves of streamlining and the rigid geometry of industrial manufacture. The anthropomorphic shapes associated with organic design are formally related to Surrealism, while its integration of form with function is intellectually related to architectural theory. This aesthetic has been variously termed biomorphic, blob, and freeform—labels that accurately describe aspects of the whole but are in themselves …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.345-375
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.016

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Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
“It is my conviction,” Walter Dorwin Teague wrote in 1943, “that as soon as production can be resumed after victory the public will be offered new and greatly improved models in most if not all lines of consumer goods.” Teague’s assertion was one of many similar comments that offered an optimistic counterpoint to the austerity of wartime America. It also proved prophetic. After the war, a convergence of built-up personal capital, veterans establishing families and furnishing homes, and …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.377-403
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.017

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Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
Designer Biographies
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.018

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Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
Listed here is a selection of manufacturing companies included in the catalogue that have significantly changed their names or locations. The name of the manufacturer that appears in this catalogue most frequently is shown here as the heading, followed by all known variants of the company name, location of the corporate headquarters, and dates when the company used each particular name. This list omits corporations that have changed ownership but have not substantially altered their names. …
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.019

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Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
Index
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.020
Free
Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...
Photo Credits
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.021
A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery, 1920–1950
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