ABSTRACT
The (mostly) recent work undertaken to date on early twentieth-century female interior decorators – Eleanor McMillen, Nancy Lancaster, Sister Parish, Elsie de Wolfe, Dorothy Draper, Nancy McClelland, Syrie Maugham, Rose Cumming and others – has emphasized their exceptional biographies. 1 Indeed, the very size and glossy nature of many of the publications highlight the individual, celebrity nature of the decorators in question. It was through their determination, strength of character and often flamboyant personalities, these publications suggest, that they transformed what had hitherto been seen as an unpaid amateur feminine activity – the decoration of the home – into a modern career for women.
