Eames, Ray. Charles Eames and Ray Eames papers. 1885-1988

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)