Acknowledgments

Gordon, John Stuart

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Acknowledgments

John Stuart Gordon

Description: A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery,...

A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery, 1920–1950

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 …

Author

John Stuart Gordon

PublisherYale University Art Gallery

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00002.003

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-15201

Acknowledgments

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 Yale University Art Gallery, Keely Orgeman, the former Marcia Brady Tucker Senior Fellow in the Department of American Paintings and Sculpture; Emily M. Orr, the Marcia Brady Tucker Senior Fellow in the Department of American Decorative Arts; and Diane C. Wright, the former Marcia Brady Tucker Senior Fellow in the Department of American Decorative Arts, tackled their individual entries with passion and offered invaluable advice in organizing the overall structure of the catalogue, as did Yale students Pan Wendt, PH.D. candidate in the History of Art, and Justin Woo, B.A. 2010. Particular thanks are due to Emily Orr, whose research into the designer biographies yielded enough information to fill a second volume.

This project received considerable support from numerous departments across the Gallery. Jock Reynolds, the Henry J. Heinz II Director; Susan B. Matheson, former Chief Curator and the Molly and Walter Bareiss Curator of Ancient Art; and Pamela Franks, Deputy Director for Collections and Education, offered unflagging support for this catalogue since its inception. Patricia E. Kane, Friends of American Arts Curator of American Decorative Arts, gave sage advice at every stage of the project and carefully read over the manuscript. Katherine Chabla and Nancy Yates, museum assistants in the Department of American Decorative Arts, provided invaluable support, helped track down sources, books, and permissions, as well as offered humor at crucial stages. Benjamin Colman, the former Marcia Brady Tucker Curatorial Intern, contributed valued insights and assistance. Interns and bursary students Kevin Adkisson, Shayari De Silva, Michele Ferrucci, Rebecca McGinn, Johna Paolino, and Alexander Wiske helped gather and collate the research, and Lauren Ritz and Lauren Romanello helped obtain permissions.

The cataloguing, conservation, movement, and photography of the objects involved the talents of many colleagues, particularly Carol E. Snow, Objects Conservator; Cynthia Schwarz and Victoria Schussler, Conservation Interns; Anne Goslin, Associate Registrar; John ffrench, Director of Visual Resources; Chris Mir, Museum Technician; Janet Sullivan, Digital Media Coordinator; Kathleen Mylen-Coulombe, Rights and Reproductions Coordinator; David Whaples, Visual Resources Coordinator; Jason DeBlock, Assistant Manager of Collections; and Patrick Brown, Christina Czap, Megan Czekaj, Anthony Florio, Eric Litke, David Norris, William O’Grady, Vicky Onofrio, Thomas Philips, Nancy Valley, and Alicia Van Campen of our Collections and Exhibitions departments. Photographers Anthony DeCamillo, Richard Goodbody, Richard House, and David Stansbury created beautiful images for the majority of objects in this catalogue. Randy Wilkinson, of Fallon & Wilkinson, Baltic, Connecticut, helped execute the wood analysis. Louisa Cunningham, Kevin Rapuano, Charlene Senical, Jill Westgard, Brian McGovern, and Alice Barrett in our Business, Development, and Registrar offices helped raise funds and kept us on track. Suzanne Boorsch, the Robert L. Solley Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs; Elisabeth Hodermarsky, the Sutphin Family Senior Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs; Joshua Chuang, Assistant Curator of Photographs; Helen A. Cooper, the Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture; Robin Jaffee Frank, the Alice and Allan Kaplan Senior Associate Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture; William E. Metcalf, the Ben Lee Damsky Curator of Coins and Medals; Jennifer Gross, the Seymour H. Knox, Jr., Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art; and Cathleen Chaffee, the Horace W. Goldsmith Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, allowed objects from their collections to be illustrated. Tiffany Sprague, Director of Publications and Editorial Services, and Bryne Rasmussen-Smith, Administrative Assistant, were tireless in their attention to the manuscript and in their willingness to discuss the finer points of style.

At Yale University Press, our partner in the copublication of this catalogue, I would like to thank publisher Patricia Fidler, senior production editor Kate Zanzucchi, and production manager Mary Mayer, as well as freelance copy editor Linda Truilo, proofreader June Cuffner, and indexer Cathy Dorsey. Particular thanks to Daphne Geismar, designer of this publication, who imbued the design with the modernist spirit.

I am indebted to the collectors, curators, and scholars that offered advice and opened up their collections and files to our team of writers: Thomas Armour; John P. Axelrod; Lynne Z. Bassett, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut; Gail Bardhan, Reference and Research Librarian, Regan Brumagen, Outreach and Education Reference Librarian, John Bunkley, Reference and Interlibrary Loan Librarian, Beth Hylen, Reference Librarian, Rakow Research Library, Corning Museum of Glass, New York; James D. Beebe; Rose Beetem, Communications Assistant, Denver Art Museum; Graham C. Boettcher, the William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama; Louis Bofferding; Marisa Bourgoin, the Richard Manoogian Chief of Reference Services, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; W. Scott Braznell; Carol L. Cheney, President and Creative Director, Cheney and Company, New Haven, Connecticut; Edward S. Cooke, Jr., the Charles F. Montgomery Professor of American Decorative Arts, History of Art, Yale University; Julia Courtney, Curator, Springfield Art Museums, Massachusetts; Peter Drobny, senior designer, Steuben Glass LLC; Jennifer Farrell, the former Florence B. Selden Assistant Curator, Yale University Art Gallery; Randall Garrett; Elizabeth M. Gordon; Jared Goss, Associate Curator, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Eleanor H. Gustafson, Executive Editor, the Magazine Antiques; Jean Jacobs; Eve M. Kahn, the New York Times; Mary Leonard, Librarian, Meyer Library, Dallas Museum of Art; Christopher Long, Professor of History and Theory, University of Texas, Austin; Karen Lucic, Professor of Art, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York; Cynthia MacKay, Museum Docent, Costumes and Textiles, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; Arlene May, Sears Holdings Historical Archives, Hoffman Estates, Illinois; Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, Professor of Metal, State University of New York at New Paltz; Gail Natzler; Josefina Oddsberg; Daniel Ostroff; Amy Porter, Curatorial Administrator, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; Carol Robbins, the Ellen and Harry S. Parker III Curator of the Arts of the Americas and the Pacific, Dallas Museum of Art; Barbara C. Rominski, Head, Research Library and Archives, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Susan P. Schoelwer, the Florence S. Marcy Croft Director of Collections Development, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Connecticut; Barry Shifman, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Decorative Arts from 1890 to the Present, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Dawn Stanford, IBM Corporate Archives, Somers, New York; Jewel Stern; John M. Sullivan, Jr., President, and Marley Freeman, American Silk Mills Corporation, New York; John C. Waddell; Leigh Wishner, Cora Ginsburg LLC, New York; Janet Zapata; and Justin Scott Zaremby. The authors are also thankful for the support of our families and loved ones.

We also owe a debt of gratitude to the authors of the Gallery’s previous catalogues that included examples of modern design, the research and writing of which provided useful information for a number of our entries: David L. Barquist, Karen Davies, Patricia E. Kane, Gerald W. R. Ward, and Kristina Wilson.

Objects are at the center of this book, and I am grateful to the donors of objects and acquisition funds: Rhoda L. Berkowitz, LL.B. 1963, and Roger M. Berkowitz; Graham C. Boettcher, B.A. 1995, PH.D. 2006; Patricia E. Kane, PH.D. 1987, and W. Scott Braznell, ARTA. 1967; Lois Chazen; Paula B. Freedman; Randall Garrett, B.A. 1972, M.A. 1975; Andrew Drabkin, B.A. 2001, and Brian Hughes, B.A. 2000; Silvia and Joe Kindig III; Robert J. King; Richard E. Kuehne; Sonya Madoff; José L. Miñán, B.A. 2006, J.D. 2009; Janine Skerry and Edgard I. Moreno, B.A. 1979; Damon Crain; Jane and Matthew Newman; James D. Oles, B.A. 1984, PH.D. 1995; J. Marshall Osborn; Thomas M. Osborn; Helen Porter Philbrick; George S. Reichenbach, B.E. 1951; Suzanne Hellmuth and Jock Reynolds; Jens Risom; Stewart G. Rosenblum, J.D. 1974, M.A. 1974, M.PHIL. 1976; Roy Rover; Nancy Stiner; the Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, Connecticut; William K. Wamelink; Ruth and David Waterbury, B.A. 1958; Justin Scott Zaremby, B.A. 2003, PH.D. 2007, J.D. 2010; Anne Zehner; and others who wish to remain anonymous. Above all, thanks are due to John P. Axelrod, B.A. 1968, whose gifts of textiles and acquisition funds were early catalysts for developing the Gallery’s holdings of modern American design, and to John C. Waddell, B.A. 1959, whose generosity and enthusiasm inspired this project and transformed the Gallery’s collection.

John Stuart Gordon
The Benjamin Attmore Hewitt Assistant Curator of American Decorative Arts
Yale University Art Gallery

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