Modern by Design: Chicago Streamlines America

FAIN: GI-261054-19

Chicago History Museum (Chicago, IL 60614-6038)
Olivia Mahoney (Project Director: January 2018 to October 2019)
Charles Bethea (Project Director: October 2019 to November 2021)

Implementation of a temporary exhibition examining the role of Chicago in popularizing mid-twentieth-century modern design and the impact of this design on American culture.

From Oct 2018-Jan 2020, the Chicago History Museum will present a major temporary exhibition titled Modern by Design: Chicago Streamlines America, exploring a significant but overlooked story about Chicago’s dominant role in shaping the look and feel of modern America in the first half of the 20th century. The exhibition will reveal that innovations made by Chicago designers and companies revolutionized manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of commercial products, and these products appealed to the growing ranks of the American working and middle classes. Innovative designs coupled with the might of Chicago’s manufacturing and distribution infrastructure led to mass production of affordable products featuring a new streamlined aesthetic that furnished American homes from city centers to remote rural hamlets. Education programs will help youth build critical thinking and design skills and knowledge of history. Public talks and tours will connect the exhibition’s themes to today.

Associated Products

Modern by Design: Chicago Streamlines America (Article)
Title: Modern by Design: Chicago Streamlines America
Author: Olivia Mahoney
Abstract: As a companion to the exhibition Modern by Design: Chicago Streamlines America, curator Olivia Mahoney wrote an essay for Chicago History Magazine (Winter 2019). The article provides a broad overview of Chicago streamlined design with stories about the Zephyr, Howell tubular steel furniture, Montgomery Ward’s and Sears, Sunbeam, and the McCormick-Deering Farmall tractor. The article highlighted several leading designers (e.g., Wolfgang Hoffman, Anne Swainson, John Morgan, George Scharfenberg) and featured more than thirty illustrations of artifacts shown in the exhibition.
Year: 2019
Access Model: Subscription
Format: Magazine
Periodical Title: Chicago History Magazine
Publisher: Chicago History Museum

Art Deco Chicago: Designing Modern America (Book)
Title: Art Deco Chicago: Designing Modern America
Author: Robert Bruegmann
Author: Jonathan Mekinda
Author: Teri J. Edelstein
Author: Lisa D. Schrenk
Author: Neil Harris
Editor: Robert Bruegmann
Abstract: An expansive take on American Art Deco that explores Chicago's pivotal role in developing the architecture, graphic design, and product design that came to define middle-class style in the 20th century
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://https://www.worldcat.org/title/art-deco-chicago-designing-modern-america/oclc/1078943211&referer=brief_results
Access Model: open access
Publisher: Chicago Art Deco Society in collaboration with the Chicago History Museum
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: 9780300229936
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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