In 1915 the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) embarked upon a mission to energize the American textile industry. Curators sought to innovate a distinctly “American” design idiom drawing on a more universal “primitive” language. Ethnographic objects were included in study rooms; designers gained access to storage rooms; and museum artifacts were loaned to design houses and department stores. In order to attract designers and reluctant manufacturers, who quickly responded, collections were supplemented with specimens including fur garments from Siberia, Persian costumes, and Javanese textiles. This book positions the project at the AMNH in the broader narrative of early 20th-century design education in New York, which includes the roles of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Newark Museum.
Distributed for the Bard Graduate Center, New York
Exhibition Schedule:Bard Graduate Center
(09/27/13–02/19/14)
- ISBN10 0300199430
- ISBN13 9780300199437
- Publish Date 15 November 2013
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 1 April 2016
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Yale University Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 144
- Language English
- URL http://wiley.com/remtitle.cgi?isbn=9780300199437