ABSTRACT
Dorothy Tuckerman Draper was a mid-twentieth-century American interior decorator and designer who reached national notoriety by the end of her career, despite not having received any formal training in interior design. The majority of Draper's professional portfolio in the 1920s and 1930s consisted of private residences, restaurants, apartment buildings (particularly lobbies and other public spaces), and hotels. In 1940 she was presented her first opportunity to design a retail space, the Coty Beauty Salon located in Rockefeller Center in New York City. While the vast majority demonstrated the popularity of streamline Modernism, Draper utilized bold historic references from the Baroque period. This chapter argues that, at a time when Modernism was a dominant influence, Draper's employment of historicism in the design of retail spaces was both romantic and strategic. Draper's exposure to historical design began in her childhood. Draper used her Neo-Baroque scrollwork to great effect throughout the late 1930s and 1940s and it eventually became her trademark style.
