Oral history interview with Niels Diffrient, 2010 July 28-August 31

Object Details

interviewee

Diffrient, Niels, 1928-2013

interviewer

McQuaid, Matilda, 1958-

Subject

Bassett, Chuck

Dreyfuss, Henry

Hernmarck, Helena

King, Bob

Knoll, Florence

Knoll, Hans

Loewy, Raymond

Magnusson, Carl G.

Rowland, David Lincoln

Saarinen, Eero

Saarinen, Eliel

Whelan, Elizabeth

Wolf, Henry

Cranbrook Academy of Art

Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America

Place of publication, production, or execution

Connecticut

Physical Description

55 Pages, Transcript; 4 Items, Sound recording: 4 sound files (2 hr., 58 min.), digital, wav

General Note

Originally recorded on 2 memory cards. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 58 min.

Summary

An interview of Niels Diffrient conducted 2010 July 28 and August 31, by Matilda McQuaid, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Diffrient's home and studio, in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Diffrient speaks of growing up in Detroit while spending his summers with his mother's family in Mississippi; the value of growing up on a farm; attending Cass Technical High School in Detroit; realizing that he did not want to work in a factory; learning about crafts at Cranbrook Academy; travelling to Italy on a Fulbright Grant; working with Italian versus American designers; designing office chairs; the state of education in America. Diffrient's wife, Helena Hernmarck, contributes to the discussion of craft, weaving, and textiles. Diffrient also recalls Hans and Florence Knoll, Eero Saarinen, Eliel Saarinen, Chuck Bassett, David Rowland, Henry Dreyfuss, Bob King, Carl Magnusson, Raymond Loewy, Henry Wolf, Elizabeth Whelan, and others.

Citation

Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Niels Diffrient, 2010 July 28-August 31. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Funding

Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.

Biography Note

Niels Diffrient (1928-2013) is an industrial designer in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Matilda McQuaid (1958-) is deputy curatorial director, Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York, New York.

Language Note

English .

Provenance

This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.

Location Note

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001

Record number

(DSI-AAA_CollID)15875

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)295428

AAA_collcode_diffri10

Type

Interviews

Sound recordings

Place

Italy -- description and travel

Michigan -- Detroit -- Description and travel

Mississippi -- Description and travel

Archives of American Art

Record ID

AAADCD_oh_295428

Metadata Usage (text)

Usage conditions apply