Shaping the American Interior: Structures, Contexts and Practices

This book maps out the development of the larger professional structures of interior design in the US from 1870 to 1960. Featuring new writings from some of the leading researchers in the field, chapters will explore early educational programs and professional organizations, the relationship of interior design to the contemporaneous professionalization of architectural practice, the opportunities offered by department stores, antiques firms, materials manufacturers, and shelter magazines, and the organization and management of large commercial interior design firms. Moving away from biography, this book will critically investigate how interior designers collectively responded to and defined the market for their ideas and services, balancing their roles as artists with the pressures to professionalize and rationalize their work.