IMAGES OF EARLY AMERICA
The Office of Charles & Ray Eames
The Office of Charles & Ray Eames: IMAGES OF EARLY AMERICA. Venice, CA: The Office of Charles and Ray Eames for the Herman Miller Furniture Company, 1976. First [only] edition. Square quarto. Photo illustrated wrappers. 48 pp. Color plates. Wrappers lightly shelfworn, but a nearly fine copy.
9 x 9 softcover book produced by the Eames Office as a Bicentennial keepsake for staff and customers of the Herman Miller Furniture Company. Photography throughout by Charles Eames, Bill Tondreau and Alex Funke.
From EAMES DESIGN by John and Marilyn Neuhart and Ray Eames (pgs 431-33): "The exhibition "Images of Early America was produced and designed for Herman Miller, Inc., as part of its celebration of the United States bicentennial. A companion book by the same title was published after the exhibition. The small exhibition of photographs was installed in the lobby of the Herman Miller showroom in Los Angeles in 1976. The book, a collection of many of the photographs in the exhibition, was published by Herman Miller and distributed as a bicentennial gift to staff and customers."
"The photographs were shot while the Eames Office was at work on "The World of Franklin and Jefferson" exhibition and the "Look of America" film at various locations along the eastern seaboard of the United States (in states that were part of the original thirteen colonies). The images -- exterior and interior views of existing structures dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries -- include government buildings, homes and mansions, churches, college buildings, and farms. The images range from panoramic views to close-up architectural details."
"The photographs were taken by Charles and staff members Bill Tondreau and Alex Funke. One image is printed per page and is accompanied by a caption identifying the subject and location. The limited edition, forty-seven-page book was printed in full color by Graphic Press in Los Angeles, California."
An exceptional snapshot of the collaborative partnership between the Eames Office and the Herman Miller Furniture Company.
Charles (1907 – 1978) and Ray Eames (1912 – 1988) created more than a look with their bent plywood chairs or molded fiberglass seating. They had ideas about making a better world, one in which things were designed to fulfill the practical needs of ordinary people and bring greater simplicity and pleasure to our lives.
The Eameses adventurously pursued new ideas and forms with a sense of serious fun. Yet, it was rigorous discipline that allowed them to achieve perfection of form and mastery over materials. As Charles noted about the molded plywood chair, “Yes, it was a flash of inspiration,” he said, “a kind of 30-year flash.” Combining imagination and thought, art and science, Charles and Ray Eames created some of the most influential expressions of 20th century design – furniture that remains stylish, fresh and functional today.
And they didn't stop with furniture. The Eameses also created a highly innovative “case study” house in response to a magazine contest. They made films, including a seven-screen installation at the 1959 Moscow World's Fair, presented in a dome designed by Buckminster Fuller. They designed showrooms, invented toys and generally made the world a more interesting place to be. As the most important exponents of organic design, Charles and Ray Eames demonstrated how good design can improve quality of life and human understanding and knowledge. [hm_2019]