Abstract

      American designers like Viktor Schreckengost worked for the military to develop and apply new materials and technologies for wartime use. Immediately after the war, these innovations found their way from the battlefield into the home and led many to see the end of WWII as the beginning of an enhanced tomorrow, in which things worked better, looked better, cost less, and were readily available. Focusing on Shreckengost’s work for the military before and after the war, this lecture will not only explore how design and technology influenced the home and domestic products, but also how they changed our perceptions of the living environment as well.

Biography: Brandy Culp

      Brandy S. Culp is currently the Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow in the Department of American Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. She has also worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art researching the exhibition, Art and the Empire City, New York, 1825-1861. Ms. Culp received her Master of Arts degree in the decorative arts from the Bard Graduate Center, where she focused on American art. She has a great interest in material culture and design, and she has worked diligently to research and interpret the Art Institute’s early twentieth-century collection.