Frank Brothers records, 1929-2005.

ArchivalResource

Frank Brothers. Frank Brothers records, 1929-2005.

Frank Brothers records, 1929-2005.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/645254500

The Frank Brothers records contain material from the Frank Brothers furniture company. With its retail store and related services and its furniture importing company, Frank Brothers is credited with defining and promoting mid-century modern furniture design on the West Coast. The company provided, marketed, and sold the furnishings for many of the innovative homes featured in Arts and Architecture magazine's Case Study House Program. It also introduced many of Charles and Ray Eames' revolutionary furniture pieces. Documentation of the Frank Brothers retail store comprises Series I and forms the bulk of the archive. It covers the entire range of operations of the retail aspect of the business. This documentation is primarily visual, including photographs, slides, trade catalogs, scrapbooks and various printed material, and Frank Brothers' committment to design in all its aspects is overwhelmingly evident, in the furnishing they sold, the ways in which they marketed them, and even in the store itself. The materials included here demonstrate the productive and close relationship Frank Brothers had with a number of designers, especially Charles and Ray Eames; document the creation of a West coast contemporary aesthetic by the store's interior design service and reveal the striking graphic design of Frank Brothers' print advertising and direct mail campaigns. Two smaller groups of material round out the archive. Series II contains documentation of Moreddi, the wholesale, import division of the family business, run by Ed Frank, which supplied furnishings for the Frank Brothers store and other retailers. Personal material relating to family members, especially Ed and Ron Frank, comprises Series III. Of particular interest is the documentation of Ed Frank's home, Case Study House #25, designed by Ed Killingsworth.

21.4 linear ft. (23 boxes, 7 flatfile folders)

Getty Research Institute