Eames, Charles.

Variant names
Dates:
Birth 1907
Death 1978
Americans,

Biographical notes:

Biographical Notes

Charles Eames

1907, June 17 Born, St. Louis, Mo. 1925 1928 Attended Washington University,St. Louis, Mo. 1929 Married Catherine Dewey Woermann (divorced 1941) 1930 Opened architectural office with Charles M. Gray,St. Louis, Mo. 1934 Spent eight months traveling, working, and painting in Mexico 1935 Established architectural firm with Robert T. Walsh,St. Louis, Mo. 1938 1940 Received fellowship and later head of the Department of Industrial Design, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Mich. 1940 Won two first-prizes with Eero Saarinen in the Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition, Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y. 1941 Los Angeles, Calif. Los Angeles Married Ray Kaiser; moved to Los Angeles, Calif. Designed sets as member of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Art Department 1951 Received Industrial Designers Institute's first national award 1953 Created basic design course for beginning architecture, University of California, Berkeley, Calif. 1956 1978 Design consultant, International Business Machines Corp. 1957 Milan, Italy Milano Provincia di Milano Awarded Diploma di Gran Premio, Triennale di Milano,Milan, Italy Awarded American Institute of Architects' 100th Anniversary Gold Medal for Craftsmanship 1967 Architectural consultant, Immaculate Heart College,Los Angeles, Calif. 1969 Appointed to the Puerto Rico Advisory Council on Natural Resources 1969 1970 Consultant, United Nations Visitor Center project Member, Commission to Survey the Several Arts,Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. 1970 Ahmedabad, India Ahmadābād Ahmadābād Served with Ray Eames as Ford Foundation consultant reporting on the progress of the National Design Institute,Ahmedabad, India Appointed to six-year term on the National Council on the Arts Elected fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1970 1971 Delivered Charles Eliot Norton lectures, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 1971 Member, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Steering Committee on Technology and Education 1972 Appointed to Board of Visitors, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles, Calif. 1973 Appointed Special Advisor, Federal Design Improvement Program 1976 Appointed to the Library of Congress Advisory Committee on Science and Technology 1977 Washington, D.C. Washington, D. C. District of Columbia Delivered Frank Nelson Doubleday lectures, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Regents' Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, Calif. 1978 Delivered lecture, International Design Conference,Aspen, Colo. 1978, Aug. 21 Died, St. Louis, Mo.

Ray Eames

1912, Dec. 15 Born Bernice Alexandra Kaiser,Sacramento, Calif. 1933 Graduated, Bennett School, Millbrook, N.Y. 1933 1939 Provincetown, Mass. Provincetown New York, N.Y. New York City Chelsea New York Studied with Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Mass., and New York, N.Y. 1936 Founding member, American Abstract Artists 1937 Showed paintings in first American Abstract Artist show, Riverside Museum, New York, N.Y. 1940 Audited classes at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Assisted in preparation of drawings and models for Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen's entries in the Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition, Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y. 1941 Married Charles Eames; moved to Los Angeles, Calif. 1942 Began designing covers for Arts and Architecture magazine Worked on first molded plywood sculpture 1947 Entered two textile designs in printed fabrics competition, Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y. 1948 Began designing graphics and advertisements for the Herman Miller [company] 1970 Served with Charles Eames as Ford Foundation consultant reporting on the progress of the National Design Institute, Ahmedabad, India 1974 1976 Panelist, American Council for the Arts in Education 1977 Named "Woman of the Year," California Museum of Science and Industry Muses, Los Angeles, Calif. 1978 Delivered lecture, United States-Japan Conference on Cultural-Educational Exchange, Tokyo, Japan 1979 Awarded with Charles Eames Royal Gold Medal, Royal Institute of British Architects Exhibit consultant, Federal Reserve Bank, San Francisco, Calif. 1982 Began work on Eames Design: The Work of Charles and Ray Eames (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1989. 456 pp.) with John Neuhart and Marilyn Neuhart 1984 Delivered lecture, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, Calif. 1986 Received Vesta Award, Board of Directors of the Woman's Building, Los Angeles, Calif. 1988, Aug. 21 Died, Los Angeles, Calif.

Chronology of the Work of Charles and Ray Eames

1941 1943 Experimented with molded plywood technology and furniture designs Designed and produced molded plywood splints and litters for United States Navy 1943 Formed Molded Plywood Division, Evans Products Co. 1945 1946 Selected plywood chair and table designs for mass production 1946 Exhibited plywood furniture designs at the Barclay Hotel and Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y. Granted the Herman Miller [company] the right to market and distribute Eames plywood furniture designs Designed plywood folding screen 1948 Los Angeles, Calif. Los Angeles Designed first Herman Miller [company] showroom in Los Angeles, Calif. Entered aluminum and steel furniture designs in the International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design, Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y. 1949 Designed and built with Eero Saarinen two houses in Pacific Palisades, Calif., for Arts and Architecture Case Study House program 1950 Produced first film, Traveling Boy Designed Eames Storage Units Designed the first of five Good Design exhibits shown at the Merchandise Mart, Chicago, Ill., and Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y. 1950 1953 Designed fiberglass chairs produced by Zenith Plastics and marketed by the Herman Miller [company] 1951 Designed game, "The Toy" 1952 Produced film, Blacktop Designed "House of Cards" card game 1953 Produced film, A Communications Primer 1954 Designed "sofa compact" and stadium seating 1955 Produced films, House: After Five Years of Living and Textiles and Ornamental Arts of India 1956 Designed lounge chair and ottoman 1957 Produced films, Day of the Dead and Tocata for Toy Trains Designed the Solar Do-Nothing Machine for Aluminum Co. of America 1958 Washington, D.C. Washington, D. C. District of Columbia Produced film, The Expanding Airport, depicting the proposed use of "mobile lounges" at Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C. Wrote India Report, a study commissioned by the Indian government on preserving and promoting indigenous Indian design Designed Aluminum Group furniture collection 1959 Produced seven-screen film, Glimpses of the U.S.A., shown at the American National Exhibition,Moscow, USSR 1960 New York, NY New York City Chelsea New York Designed three lobbies for the Time-Life Building,New York, NY, 1944-1985 (Containers 227-238) Produced segments for the Columbia Broadcasting System's "Fabulous Fifties" television program; the Eames Office won an Emmy Award for graphics in this program 1961 Designed and mounted exhibit, Mathematica, for the International Business Machines Corp. at the California Museum of Science and Industry, Los Angeles, Calif., and Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Ill. Designed Eames Contract Storage units 1962 1964 Designed exhibits, film presentations, and graphics for the International Business Machines Corp. pavilion at the New York World's Fair 1965 Ahmedabad, India Ahmadābād Ahmadābād Designed and mounted the exhibit, Nehru: His Life and His India,National Design Institute, Ahmedabad, India Produced films, Westinghouse in Alphabetical Order and The Smithsonian Institution 1966 Armonk, N.Y. Armonk Began design work on a museum and exhibition center at International Business Machines Corp. headquarters in Armonk, N.Y. Washington, D.C. Washington, D. C. District of Columbia Began design work on proposed exhibits for the National Fisheries Center and Aquarium to be built in Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Washington, D. C. District of Columbia Designed glass pavilion for the Smithsonian Institution's carousel, Washington, D.C. 1968 Designed and mounted exhibit, Photography and the City: The Evolution of an Art and a Science,Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 1968 Washington, D.C. Washington, D. C. District of Columbia Designed and mounted a permanent exhibit in the International Business Machines Corp.'s Presentation Center, Washington, D.C. Designed chaise for Billy Wilder Produced film, Powers of Ten (revised and updated in 1977) 1969 Participated in What Is Design? exhibit, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Palais de Louvre, Paris, France Designed Soft-Pad Aluminum Group furniture collection for the Herman Miller [company] 1971 Designed and mounted the exhibit, A Computer Perspective,IBM Exhibit Center, New York, N.Y. 1972 Produced, SX-70, the first Eames film for Polaroid Corp.; Something About Photography followed in 1976 and Polavision in 1977 1972 1974 Designed and mounted a series of traveling astronomy and science exhibits, first shown at the IBM Exhibit Center, New York, N.Y. 1975 Mexico City, Mexico Mexico City Estado de México Colonia México Designed the exhibit, World of Franklin and Jefferson, for the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission; shown in three European and three American venues and in Mexico City, Mexico Produced film, Metropolitan Overview, depicting Eames Office plans for an information center at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y. 1977 Submitted proposal for an exhibition center to be located in the International Business Machines Corp.'s new building at 590 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 1978 Designed "Art Game," an interactive videodisc program Produced films, Cézanne: The Late Work, with Quotations from His Letters and Reminiscences and Degas in the Metropolitan

From the guide to the Charles Eames and Ray Eames Papers, 1885-1988, (bulk 1965-1988), (Manuscript Division Library of Congress)

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Subjects:

  • Chair design
  • Design
  • Design
  • Eames chairs
  • Eames furniture
  • Exhibitions
  • Furniture design
  • Motion pictures
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  • Architect
  • Designer

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