Cooper Hewitt - Underground Modernist

Archives aid in mounting new exhibit of artist E. McKnight Kauffer

Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer
Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum
 

The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum’s new exhibition, Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer is the largest retrospective of Kauffer’s work to ever be displayed. Outside of design circles, Kauffer may not have the most recognizable name, but his iconic London Underground and American Airlines posters are some of the most recognizable advertisements of the twentieth century.  Beyond poster art, Kauffer also designed book jackets for well-known publications, political pamphlets, costumes, set designs, and also collaborated with his wife, well known textile designer, Marion Dorn.

 

To bring this retrospective to life, Cooper Hewitt curators, Caitlin Condell and Emily Orr reached out to museums, collectors and archives in the US and Europe to pull together Kauffer’s works and provide context for his life and designs. Condell and Orr also edited an exhibition book, E. McKnight Kauffer the Artist in Advertising, the first to address the full range of Kauffer’s career. 

One of the most helpful resources was found within the museum’s own archives in the E. McKnight Kauffer collection, processed by Winthrop Group archivist, Suzana Chilaka.

 

Tickets to the exhibition are free, although prior booking is required.

If you’re unable to visit in person, all exhibition items can be seen here.

Source: Cooper Hewitt exhibition website

 

Photograph, E. McKnight Kauffer, ca. 1920; Photograph by Maud B. Davis; Gelatin silver print; 20.3 × 15.2 cm (8 × 6 in.); Simon Rendall Collection; Photo: Hugh Gilber, Cooper Hewitt Exhibition Website

Richard Hobbs Retires

All of us at Winthrop Group send Richard warmest good wishes for a happy, healthy, and satisfying retirement!

For 13 years Winthrop Group’s  Lead Archivist and Historian, Richard Hobbs, has represented our firm in the Pacific Northwest and dedicated his professional training, knowledge, and expertise to the benefit of our firm’s clients. Noteworthy among numerous elements associated with Richard’s Winthrop years is the fact that upon joining Winthrop in 2008, without hesitation, he immediately took on full responsibility for the archives and the history related services for two widely regarded and long-time clients: Laird Norton Company in Seattle, WA and Pendleton Woolen Mills in Portland, OR.  Both of these clients were then, and still are, among the early clients of the Archives & Information Services Division Winthrop Group. 

Richard has continued during the following years to be the Archivist for these two much-valued clients and at the same time added to the diversity of clients that have engaged Winthrop for information and archival services.  Among them are Broughton Land Company; Casey Family Programs; Darigold; the City of Shoreline, Washington; Deschutes Brewery; Northwest Kidney Center; Samis Foundation; Seattle Rep; and the Washington State Jewish Historical Society. 

A majority of Richard’s work with Winthrop clients has focused on establishment, basic implementation, and/or use of archives by a variety of businesses and non-profit organizations.  Like his Winthrop archivist colleagues, he has been instrumental too in establishing protocols that ensure preservation of clients’ essential documentation, images, selected artifacts, etc.  Many of these resources now can be used in various formats and for purposes that include communications and outreach, advertising, brand-related purposes, design inspiration, as well as celebration of employee accomplishments as well as historical events.

Winthrop is pleased to note also that as a professional archivist Richard has maintained his memberships in the Society of American Archivists, Northwest Archivists, and Seattle Area Archivists, and that he holds a certificate in Archives and Records Administration.  Under the Winthrop Group banner Richard also has been an active historian. He authored two published books (Our Brother’s Keeper: The Life of Sam Israel and The Broughtons of Dayton: Family and Business in the Northwest Heartland); wrote more than 30 articles for our clients’ internal company newsletters; and edited the book Charles J. Broughton: Letters to Family, 1873-1919.  Going forward, Richard intends to continue using his education (PhD and MA in History), and experience as a historian and author.

All of us at Winthrop Group send Richard warmest good wishes for a happy, healthy, and satisfying retirement and we look forward to reading his next book!  

Fast Company 25th Anniversary

Little known connection to Winthrop

As it celebrates its 25th anniversary, Fast Company magazine continues to cast bright light on what too often are non-traditional business topics, just as its founders, Alan Webber and Bill Taylor, did in 1995.  Many know that some of Fast Company’s roots grew in the soil of Webber’s experience in Cambridge, Massachusetts at Harvard Business Review where he eventually became Editorial Director.  What very few do know is that Fast Company also has a Winthrop Group connection. 

This part of the story traces to 1981, when Webber, then the former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation in the Carter Administration, met and later worked and wrote at HBR with Winthrop co-founder Dave Dyer.  When the latter left HBR and took his writing and automotive industry expertise to a fulltime position at Winthrop in 1987, Webber started working his way up to position of HBR’s Editorial Director.  Soon he and a young colleague, Bill Taylor, began thinking about starting a new magazine, one that would cover the fast-changing business landscape in a reader-friendly package with attitude, one they described it as “cross between HBR and Rolling Stone.”  Weber and Taylor left HBR, raised some seed capital, and looked for a place to work where they could develop a prototype issue and prepare for a formal launch. Winthrop offered some of its Main Office and History Services Division space at 1100 Massachusetts Avenue just off Harvard Square and soon Webber and Taylor’s first Fast Company was circulating.  

Fast Company got off to a fast start and found its voice in the dot-com era of the late 1990s. By then, it had moved to its own quarters in nearby Watertown. Publisher Mort Zuckerman, whose properties included what then was The Atlantic Monthly (now The Atlantic) and The New Republic, acquired controlling interest in Fast Company and in 2000 brokered a sale to a unit of Bertelsmann, the European publishing powerhouse.  Webber and Taylor stayed on for a short time as the magazine entered a new era of its history.

As it observes the 25th anniversary of the November 1995 issue, Fast Company occupies a distinctive place in today's business media. Winthrop Group sends warm congratulations to the publisher, editorial staff, and employees of the magazine on its birthday … but don't forget where it all began. 

                                                                              

                                                                                                25th Anniversary cover, Nov 2020