Documenting Modern Living

Featured documents from the IMA Archives about the Miller House and Garden in Columbus, Indiana. More… This project has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this web resource do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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Collection Connection: Dining Designs

Just in time for the weekend, we bring you a colorful Collection Connection from the Miller House and Garden collections of both the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the IMA Archives.

The Items: In the 1970s, Alexander Girard created custom monogrammed dining chair cushion patterns for each member of the Miller Family, as well as a simpler pattern for guests. Instead of having the cushions manufactured for the Millers, Xenia S. Miller (XSM) requested the patterns and color samples so that she and her friends could make the cushions themselves!

The Collection: When the Miller House and Garden was given to the IMA, the the property and many interior design elements became part of the museum collection, while the extensive archives documenting the design, construction, decoration, and maintenance of the home went to the IMA Archives. Though separated into two collections, the cushion patterns and the actual dining chairs and cushions can now be brought back together online!

Alexander Hayden Girard, Designer (American, 1907-1993), JIM cushion and XSM cushion, ca. 1974, cloth. Copyright Alexander Hayden Girard, Gift of Margaret, Catherine, Elizabeth and Will Miller, MH2010.53.4B and MH2010.53.1B.

Alexander Hayden Girard cushion patterns and material samples, ca. 1974, FF061, Miller House and Garden Collection (M003), IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art.

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Click HERE to zoom all the way in on this Herman Miller CHAIRS poster through the IMA’s Digital Archives Portal!

Herman Miller chairs poster, Box 33, Folder 382, Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. (MHG_Ic_B033_F382_030-031)

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Collection Connection, Quatrefoil DPLA Edition

The addition of IMA Archives collections to the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has opened up new opportunities to connect our special collections with those of other libraries, archives, and museums around the country. Today’s collection connection features Alexander Girard’s iconic “Quatrefoil” textile design for Herman Miller (1954). Girard created four versions of this design with varying color palettes for each of the three Miller girls’ and the boys’ bedrooms in the mid-century modern Miller House in Columbus, Indiana. Multiple samples of the textile are now preserved in the Miller House and Garden Collection (M003) in the IMA Archives, and now those samples are discoverable in DPLA alongside Girard’s original mock-ups of the design which are preserved in the collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

Images:

Detail of textile sample (5 ½ x 5 ½ in.) of Quatrefoil by Alexander H. Girard for Herman Miller, 1954, Box 91, Folder 51, Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Design for Printed Fabric-Quatrefoil, Series #625-630, 1954, Alexander Hayden Girard, American, 1907–1993 for Herman Miller Furniture Company, Gift of Alexander Girard, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum Collection.

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Explore the IMA Archives in DPLA

The IMA is proud to be one of more than 2,000 institutions around the country contributing collection records to the Digital Public Library of America. Items from the IMA’s permanent collection of artwork have been discoverable in DPLA since 2014, and now over 10,000 digitized items from the IMA Archives have also been added! The digital images and descriptions represent physical items from three important collections in the IMA Archives:

- The Miller House and Garden Collection is the largest, with over 9,400 items documenting the design, construction, interior decoration, and maintenance of the iconic mid-century modern property now managed by the IMA.

- The Percival Gallagher Papers include hundreds of photographs taken by landscape architect Percival Gallagher while visiting gardens, parks, and estates throughout Europe, along with photographs of landscapes in the United States that he designed for the Olmstead Brothers firm (the Oldfields estate on the grounds of the IMA is one of his most notable projects).

- The third group is the Marie Webster Study Collection, which includes original quilt patterns and templates by a notable Hoosier quilt designer. Material in this digital collection compliments the quilts on display now through January 8, 2017 in the exhibition, A Joy Forever: Marie Webster Quilts at the IMA.

Search and browse through these three IMA Archives collections in DPLA.

Images:

Alexander Girard textile design board for the Miller House, ca. 1955, Miller House and Garden Collection (M003), IMA Archives.

Percival Gallagher European tour journal, 1899, Percival Gallagher Papers (M006), IMA Archives.

“Bunny” quilt pattern by Marie Webster, April 15, 1916, Marie Webster Study Collection (M008), IMA Archives.

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The Tumblr Tradition Continues

In what has now become a tradition, our year-long intern from the IUPUI Public History graduate program is spending her last week with IMA Library & Archives focusing on Tumblr. Rebecca Denne, a dual Library Science/History student, has been mining both archives storage and the library stacks for share-worthy items–whether they be beautiful, interesting, or just straight weird. Falling into the last category is this sample of polar bear fur from the Miller House and Garden Collection (M003) in the IMA Archives.

To raise the weirdness level, be sure to ZOOM ALL THE WAY IN on this sample in the Digital Archives Portal.

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The Miller House and Garden Collection (M003) may be processed, and it may already be available in a digital version online, but for staff of the IMA Library & Archives, it is the collection that keeps on giving!

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Happy Birthday J. Irwin Miller!

Born on this day in 1909, J. Irwin Miller is the industrialist and patron of architecture that we have to thank for the beautiful Miller House and Garden in Columbus, Indiana. The iconic mid-century modern property is now owned and preserved by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. An extensive archival collection of  correspondence, photographs, architectural and landscape drawings, and material samples is available for research in the IMA Archives. Digitized material from the archives collection is available through the IMA’s Digital Archives Portal.

J. Irwin Miller in the Miller House Living Room, December 1977, Box 3, Folder 19, Miller House and Garden Collection (M003), IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art.

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A Pit for Conversation A Vitra Anecdote

Our favorite item in the Miller House and Garden Collection from the IMA Archives was recently featured in Vitra’s online magazine as part of their anecdote series. Follow the link to read more about the Miller House’s unique conversation pit, and Alexander Girard’s design vision, complete with stunning Balthazar Korab images from the Library of Congress!

Alexander Girard’s textile design board for the Miller House, c. 1956, flat file 45, Miller House and Garden Collection (M003), IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art. 

Detail shots of the conversation pit, summer pit pillow textile samples, and winter pit pillow textile samples.

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Follow the IMA Library & Archives on Tumblr to keep up with new Miller House and Garden Collection posts!

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By the Numbers: Digital Modernism

We are very excited to share this amazing infographic which appeared in The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preservation Magazine Winter 2016 issue. This visual compiles facts and numbers about both the Miller House and Garden and the IMA Archive’s digital Miller House and Garden Collection. Katharine Keane wrote:

With its open layout, stone and glass walls, and grid pattern of skylights, the Miller House and Garden in Columbus, Indiana, represents the Modernist aesthetic of the 1950s. Now, this collaborative work by architect Eero Saarinen, interior designer Alexander Girard, and landscape architect Dan Kiley has taken a leap into the digital era. Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) recently completed a comprehensive digitization of the house’s extensive documents. Here are some of the facts and figures about the Millers, their home, and the IMA’s free online archive. See the results at: imamuseum.org/DocumentingModernLiving

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Crèche the halls at Miller House

A mid-century mod lover's Christmas dream

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Printed fabrics from Persia and India

One of many textile books in the Stout Reference Library, this 19th century French work includes printed fabric samples from Persia and India.

Oberkampf, Christoph Philipp, Toiles imprimeés de la Perse et de l'Inde da̓près les documents recueillis par Oberkampf, Paris: Ernst Henri, [19-?].

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Mid-Century Modern

The Stout Reference Library collection includes many works on mid-century modern architecture and design, many of which feature the Miller House and Gardens in Columbus, IN–a property that the Indianapolis Museum of Art has stewarded since 2008.

The Books:

Webb, Michael, Modernism reborn: mid-century American houses, New York: Universe Pub., 2001.

Vandenberg, Maritz, Farnsworth House: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, London, New York, NY: Phaidon Press, 2003.

Bradbury, Dominic, The iconic house: architectural masterworks since 1900,   London: Thames & Hudson, 2009.

Nakamura, Toshio, ed., Glass House, New York, NY: Monacelli Press, 2007.

Anderson, Maxwell L., Bradley C. Brooks, Indianapolis Museum of Art,           Miller House & Garden, New York: Editions Assouline , c2011.

Jacobsen Arne, Carsten Thau, Kjeld Vindum, Arne Jacobsen, Copenhagen: Arkitektens forlag/Danish Architectural Press, 2001.

Antonelli, Paola, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Sitting on the edge : modernist design from the collection of Michael & Gabrielle Boyd, San Francisco, Calif.: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; New York: Rizzoli, 1998. Falino, Jeannine J., Jennifer Scanlan, Glenn Adamson, Crafting modernism : midcentury American art and design, New York: Abrams: in association with MAD/Museum of Arts and Design, 2011.

Dardi, Domitilla, Eero Saarinen, Eero Saarinen, Milano: 24 ore cultura, 2011.

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Pari Ehsan Visits Miller House

Instagram sensation Pari Ehsan produced the first-ever fashion editorial permitted at Eero Saarinen–designed Miller House and Garden in Columbus, Indiana

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The Best of Documenting Modern Living: Alexander Girard needlepoint design Original post: June 26, 2014

While the Miller House was completed in 1957, Alexander Girard continued to work on projects for the Millers well into the 1970s. In 1974, Mrs. Miller tasked Girard with designing cushions for their Tulip dining chairs. She requested that Girard’s designs for the cushions work with her large collection of dinnerware and he delivered the colorful results seen above.

For the eight cushions that sat in chairs around the table, Girard utilized the Miller family monograms for his designs. Composed of sans serif letters that appear out of an otherwise unruly checkered pattern, the monograms are for the following Miller family members:

JIM - Joseph Irwin Miller

XSM - Xenia Simons Miller

MIM - Margaret Irwin Miller

CGM - Catherine Gibbs Miller

EGM - Elizabeth Anne Garr Miller

HTHM - Hugh Thomas Miller II

WIM - Will Irwin Miller

LAM - Linda A. Miller (Former wife of son, Hugh Th. Miller)

The dining room side chairs featured cushions with multicolored allover check, the pattern for which we shared a few months back and can be partially seen in the bottom photo by Balthazar Korab.

While Girard executed the design, Mrs. Miller and her bridge group carried out the needlepoint work. In order to complete this task, Girard created patterns by affixing individual squares of colored construction paper to a grid shaped to the chair bottoms. The first eight images are digital scans of these patterns. Girard sent a handwritten note with the patterns that read “Suggest you look at these, in position, by placing them in the chair.” Along with the patterns, he also sent the color palette and samples of yarn to be used for the project.

Want to learn more about the custom Alexander Girard rug pictured above in the Miller House Dining Room? Check out our previous posts featuring an Edward Fields rendering and yarn samples.

Needlepoint cushion chair patterns, painted color palette and yarn samples by Alexander Girard. FF061, Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. (MHG_IIIc_FF061_001-009, 015, 017)

Click HERE to zoom all the way in on these chair patterns through the IMA’s new Digital Archives Portal!

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The Best of Documenting Modern Living: Illustrated List Original post: July 16, 2014

As the Millers made plans for the move to their new home, J. Irwin Miller took stock of their possessions and created this illustrated list of furniture. The list reads like a Who’s Who of the mid-century modern design world: Eero Saarinen, Eames, and Herman Miller of course, plus Clifford Pascoe, Artek, and Paul McCobb for good measure.

Click HERE to zoom all the way in on this Herman Miller CHAIRS poster through the IMA’s new Digital Archives Portal!

J. Irwin Miller, Illustrated furniture inventory, ca. 1958, FF 78, Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. (MHG_IIIc_FF078_009)

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The Best of Documenting Modern Living: #Shellspotting Original post: April 17, 2014

Through their blog, WHY, and across social media sites, Herman Miller is celebrating 64 years of the Eames Shell Chair in images and stories, and encouraging fans of this mid-century design icon to share their Shell Chair love with #Shellspotting.

When this Herman Miller Chairs poster came up in our photography queue today, we here at the IMA Archives could not resist the opportunity to take part in the celebration in our own unique way: through archival material. This particular copy of the Herman Miller poster is part of a furnishings index created by designer/architect Alexander Girard to document purchases made for the Miller House in Columbus, IN. He added red arrow stickers to the poster to indicate which chairs he envisioned in the Miller home.

While this may be our first official #Shellspotting post, this is by no means the first time that the Eames for Herman Miller chairs have made their way onto our Tumblr. Explore the rest!

Visualizing the Shell Chair covered in Ostrich leather

Eames chair for Herman Miller photo and invoice, 1955

Eames DCM-L and LCM chairs in Mies Van Der Rohe’s Crown Hall, from Herman Miller catalog, ca. 1970

Leaves from the Herman Miller Collection trade catalog, 1955/56

And be sure to revisit this post which features another Alexander Girard for Herman Miller gem:

Alexander Girard for Herman Miller Environmental Enrichment poster, 1972

Click HERE to zoom all the way in on this Herman Miller CHAIRS poster through the IMA’s new Digital Archives Portal!

Herman Miller chairs poster, Box 33, Folder 382, Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. (MHG_Ic_B033_F382_030-031)

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The Best of Documenting Modern Living: Master Planting Plan by Dan Kiley

This blue line drawing is the Miller House & Garden master planting plan by Dan Kiley. The photo from the Indianapolis Museum of Art shows one of the garden’s most noted features: the Honey Locust allée (Allée is French for, “a walkway lined with trees or tall shurbs.”) on the west side of the house. You can see the allée illustrated as a line of dots and overlapping circles, indicating where trees were to be planted, on the left side of the drawing.

Click HERE to zoom all the way in on this blue line drawing through the IMA’s new Digital Archives Portal!

Revised blueline (29 5/8 x 30 3/8 in.) of Miller House Landscape Master Planting plan by the Office of Dan Kiley, 26 November 1957,  FF56, Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. (MHG_IIIb_FF056_005)

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Alexandra Lange is an architecture and design critic.