In conjunction with Made in America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne, join Cooper Hewitt for an illustrated talk on the critical role photography has played at MillerKnoll across the histories of both Herman Miller and Knoll. Whether documenting manufacturing processes or creating images for advertising, photographs of MillerKnoll’s furniture and textiles have shaped our understanding of American design for over seven decades. Amy Auscherman, MillerKnoll’s Director of Archives and Brand Heritage, will share how the company continues to adapt to rapid changes in labor, materials, and technology, with an eye toward the future.  

Following the lecture, Auscherman will be joined by Christopher Payne for a conversation about Payne’s recent work photographing the manufacture of MillerKnoll’s iconic Eames Lounge Chair, and what documenting this company means to him within the larger context of his project to capture the history, present, and future of manufacturing in the United States. The conversation will be moderated by the curator of Made in America, Susan Brown. 

SPEAKERS 

Amy Auscherman is Director of Archives and Brand Heritage at MillerKnoll, where she oversees one of the most extensive design archives in the United States. In 2025, she led the opening of a facility uniting the historic archives of Herman Miller and Knoll. Under her direction, the archive shapes how new products are developed, which past designs return to production, and grounds how MillerKnoll understands its own history. She co-edited Herman Miller: A Way of Living (Phaidon, 2019) and contributed to Isamu Noguchi: “I Am Not a Designer” (Rizzoli Electa, 2026) and Lella and Massimo Vignelli: A Language of Clarity (Electa, 2026). She holds an M.L.S. and B.A. from Indiana University Bloomington. 

Christopher Payne studied architecture at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania and worked as an architect for twelve years before committing full-time to photography. He is fascinated by design, assembly, and the built form. Over the past decade, through personal projects and editorial commissions, he has been on a photographic journey to learn more about what’s made here: the traditional industries that “built this country” as well as the newest and most technologically advanced processes. These images can be found in his latest book, Made iIn America. Payne’s work frequently appears in The New York Times Magazine and Popular Science, and in other major publications including Interview, National Geographic, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Time, and Wired, among many others. 

Susan Brown is Associate Curator and Acting Head of Textiles at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, where she oversees a collection of more than 26,000 textiles produced over 2,300 years. She has curated or co-curated numerous exhibitions for Cooper Hewitt, including Extreme Textiles: Designing for High Performance (2005), Fashioning Felt (2009), Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay (2011), Scraps: Fashion, Textiles and Creative Reuse (2016), Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color (2018), Contemporary Muslim Fashions (2020), Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Prints that Made the Fashion Brand (2021), A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes (2023), Made In America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne (2025), and Design Across Time: Exploring the Smithsonian’s Design Collection (2026). In addition to catalogues for those exhibitions, she has contributed to numerous other publications, including Alexander Girard: A Designer’s Universe and Ruth Adler Schnee: Modern Designs for Living. She has taught in the Masters’ Program in the History of Design and Curatorial Studies offered jointly by the museum and Parsons/The New School for Design, and lectures regularly for the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. 

AccessibiliTy & What to Expect 

  • Format: The program will begin with a brief welcome, then the speakers will engage in a moderated conversation. It will end with an optional Q&A with the audience. The audience will remain seated for the program. 
  • About the space: This program will take place in Cooper Hewitt’s Lecture Room on the ground floor of the museum. The audience seating area has seats with backs. It is fully wheelchair accessible. There is an accessible restroom on the ground floor. Read more about accessibility at Cooper Hewitt. 
  • Accommodations: The program will have live CART captioning. We welcome questions and accommodation requests that support your participation. Email us at CHEducation@si.edu or let us know when you register. Please make your request as far in advance as possible—preferably at least ten days before the program date. 

SUPPORT  

Made in America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne received support from Smithsonian’s Our Shared Future: 250, a Smithsonian-wide initiative commemorating the nation’s 250th anniversary. Signature support for Smithsonian’s Our Shared Future: 250 has been provided by Lilly Endowment Inc. Additional generous contributions have been made by Target and New Balance.