women and design

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On beige paper, a simple, brown illustration of a tree with a thick trunk and willowy leaves is annotated with instructions and measurements.
Lanette Scheeline’s California Modernism
Lanette Scheeline's lyrical interpretation of the California landscape translated into environmental wallpaper murals that enhanced the modern domestic interior.
Carin Goldberg (1953–2023)
Ellen Lupton reflects on the animated postmodern book and album covers by the graphic designer.
Image features an angelic figure facing frontally, in red-orange robe. Head indicated only through graphite sketch. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Anonymous was a Woman
Throughout March, Object of the Week celebrates Women’s History Month. Each Monday a new post will highlight women designers in the collection. This unfinished angelic figure was likely a design for stained glass. Louise Howland King Cox designed windows for Louis Comfort Tiffany in the 1890s. However, there are few extant records about her work...
Image features a wallpaper with a pattern of insect wings printed in black on a bright blue ground. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Winging It
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Here is a simple wallpaper pattern, a repeating design of insect wings, that I find amusing. You know, those pesky things you might find on your window sill or picnic table during the summer months, that you...
Image features: A white four-sided selvage textile loosely woven with striped pattern on the bottom half. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object
Hitomi I
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Sheila Hicks is one of the most important living artists today, who has chosen fiber as her primary medium. The museum is fortunate enough to have over sixty works spanning more than fifty years of her career,...
Image features bowl with straight sides and a low circular foot, the surface with textured horizontal striations. The exterior and interior glazed in tones of oxblood red, purple, brown, and light green. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Breaking the Mold
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection.  Louisa Etcheverry was born into a family of potters in California in 1911. Her uncle, Fred Meyer, was the founder of Meyer Pottery in Vernon, California, where her father worked and where Etcheverry herself started working in...
Image features brooch of inverted ovoid form composed of various media and costume jewelry fragments: colorful cast metal fringe-like surround, small red figure of Venus, plastic globes suggesting oranges, colored beads and glass pastes, central metal fleur-de-lys, plastic white pineapples, and glass leaves. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Fruit-topped Hats and Mixed Media Jewelry
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. The Venus brooch by Judy Onofrio radiates with a splash of color and a sense of humor. Reminiscent of fruit-topped headdresses seen in old movie musicals, the form is decorated with tiny found fragments–plastic beads suggesting oranges,...
Image features a cotton textile printed with hand-pulled stripes of red, pink, orange, yellow, teal, and light blue, with a plaid of straight and curving lines applied on top in emerald green and navy. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Plain Pulled Printed Plaid
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. From the 1950s through the 1970s, husband-and-wife designers D.D. and Leslie Tillett designed and printed custom fabric yardage in their studio on Manhattan’s Upper East Side under the name “House of T Fabrics.” Their fresh and original...
Image features the Horn Poppy wallpaper pattern designed by May Morris. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
May Morris: Designer and Activist
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Horn Poppy is a block-printed wallpaper designed by May Morris for Morris & Co. May designed wallpapers and textiles for the Morris & Co. firm and is the younger daughter of designer and craftsman William Morris. This...