ABSTRACT
The history of interior design practice in the United States is still in its infancy, a neglected stepchild amongst related disciplines like architecture and industrial design. Scholarship in the area has long been dominated by biographies of iconic figures like Elsie de Wolfe and Candace Wheeler. 1 Books and essays trace the trajectories of their careers, their writings, and their relationships with clients. At the same time that these luminaries were forging their identities as individuals, however, the larger profession of interior design began to emerge. Rooted in the expansion of mass production and consumption in the last years of the nineteenth century, new and diverse organizational, educational, and professional structures came to define the field of interiors in the first half of the twentieth century. Based on a successful session at the 2014 Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, this volume maps out the development and definition of the field of interiors in the United States in the period from 1870 until 1960. Its interdisciplinary approach encompasses a broad range of people, contexts, and practices, revealing the design of the interior as a collaborative modern enterprise comprising art, design, manufacture, commerce, and identity construction. Rooted in the expansion of mass production and consumption in the last years of the nineteenth century, and beginning in the early twentieth century, new and diverse organizational, educational, and professional structures came to define the field and provide formal and informal contexts for design work.
