De la loi du contraste des couleurs, by French chemist Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889), is a compendium of color design principles and one of the first systematic studies of color perception. The manual is based on Chevreul’s observations and experiments when he was Director of Dyes at the Manufacture des Gobelins tapestry works in 1824. Soon after...

Art and Handicraft in the Women’s Building of the World’s Columbian Exposition, edited by Maud Howe Elliot (1854-1948), noted author and daughter of anti-slavery activist Julia Ward Howe, consists of 30 articles by women on work and issues related to women as celebrated in the Women’s Building at the Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893....

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), an Italian architect, designer, antiquarian and engraver, created Diversi maniere d’adornare I cammini: ed ogni altra parte degli edifizi  (Various ways of decorating chimneypieces and other parts of the house) in 1769. This work is considered to be one of the greatest contributions to interior design promoting the neoclassical style. His essay, presented...