Donald Deskey collection, 1927-1989
Object Details
- Author
- Deskey, Donald 1894-1989
- Subject
- Deskey, Donald 1894-1989
- Donald Deskey Associates, Inc
- Deskey Associates, Inc
- Radio City Music Hall (New York, N.Y.)
- Procter & Gamble Company
- Johnson & Johnson, Inc
- Widdicomb Furniture Company
- Charak Furniture Company
- Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company
- Deskey-Vollmer, Inc
- Cooper-Hewitt Design Archive
- Centre de recherche en eĢconomie et statistique (Paris, France)
- New York World's Fair (1939-1940 : New York, N.Y.)
- Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Drawings and Prints Department. Approximately 3,000 drawings for furniture and textile designs.
- Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Applied Arts Department. Two tables, handles, and a glass bottle and box designed by Deskey.
- Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Textiles Department. One textile designed by Deskey.
- Other sources of archival information on Deskey include, the Procter & Gamble Archive, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Deskey Associates, New York City.
- Industrial, interior, and packaging designer. Born Blue Earth, Minnesota, November 23, 1894. By 1943, he had established Donald Deskey Associates in New York. Along with Dreyfuss, Bel Geddes, and Loewy, Deskey was one of the great industrial design pioneers in the 1930s.
- He is best known for his designs for the furnishings and interiors of Radio City Music Hall in 1932, and for his work for companies such as: Widdicomb Furniture Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan; W & J Sloane, New York; and Estey Manufacturing Company, Owosso, Michigan. Deskey is also known for his familiar packaging designs for Procter & Gamble products, such as Crest toothpaste, Prell shampoo, and Tide detergent.
- Donald Deskey Associates also was responsible for lamppost #10, the streetlight still in use today in New York City. Materials from this archival collection were featured in Cooper-Hewitt's 1994 exhibition and accompanying book, "Packaging the New: Design and the American Consumer, 1925- 1975."
- File folder list.
- chmarchive
- Summary
- Project files contain magazine and newspaper clippings, reviews, correspondence, renderings, floor plans, perspective drawings, site plans, sketches, preliminary drawings, patents, stationery, labels, and technical reports. There is an extensive collection of photographs and slides of many of Deskey's packaging designs, interiors, furnishings, and exhibition installations.
- The files of Donald Deskey Associates include organizational charts, client files, proposals, and financial records. Some of Deskey's personal correspondence, speeches, articles, and family photographs are included. Materials cover the period from 1927-1975.
- 1927
- 1927-1989
- 20th century
- Call number
- 1975-11-77
- Restrictions & Rights
- Unrestricted research use onsite by appointment. Permission of staff required to photograph materials.
- Type
- Mixed archival materials
- Drawings
- Correspondence
- Renderings
- Patents
- Photographs
- Slides
- Latern slides
- Letters
- Clippings
- Reviews
- Stationery
- Labels
- Technical reports
- Organizational charts
- Client lists
- Proposals
- Financial records
- Physical description
- 75 cu. ft
- Place
- United States
- New York (State)
- New York
- Smithsonian Libraries
- Topic
- Industrial design
- Packaging--Design
- Art deco
- Furniture design
- Interior decoration
- Plastics--Design
- Buildings, Prefabricated
- Street lighting
- Prell
- Tide
- Cheer
- Record ID
- siris_sil_537698
- Metadata Usage (text)
- CC0
