Esoteric Survey

UPDATE - Newsletter Happy New Year! More items are now available in the   shop . Sign up for the newsletter to get notified first when new inventory is listed.   Behind the Scenes at The Henry Ford I’ve been meaning to do a blog post beyond the one I did on   Mathematica   from my sort of recent trip to the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan. It's going to be a long one. While I work on that, here are some photos from their archive. My longtime friend Kristen Gallerneaux happens to be the Curator of Communication & Information Technology and she showed my around. In addition to some pretty wild things, like Thomas Edison’s last breath in a test tube, they have one of the best Herman Miller collections anywhere. This includes large collections from the estates of a number of designers, like Robert Propst. Above is a 1950s chair design by Propst that never went into production. The images below show some of the Herman Miller collection, with a Ray Komai chair thrown in...

Mathematica: A World of Numbers and Beyond at The Henry Ford Museum  in Dearborn Michigan. IBM was asked by the California Museum of Science and Industry to contribute a display to its new wing, which would open in 1961. IBM hired the Eames Office, who had already made a number of films for them.  Charles and Ray Eames were assisted by Gordon Ashby and John Neuhart; designers. Dr. John Redheffer; consultant. Parke Meek, Jeremy Lepard; film production. Displaymasters, Seale Design, and Remanco; construction.   UCLA’s Dr. Raymond Redheffer, was the math consultant who helped with the concepts. One of the best kept secrets in science is how unpompous scientists are at their science, and the amount of honest fun that for them is part of it. In doing an exhibition, as in Mathematica, one deliberately tries to let the fun out of the bag. The catch is that it can't be any old fun but it must be a very special brand. The excitement, or joke, must be a working part of th...

Eames display at the  Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan It was great to finally get to see the John Wills fiberglass shell in person. It's the sole surviving example of the first two Eames fiberglass shells ever made. This is pre-Zenith Plastics. The shell sits is on the original   trashcan  base used by boat builder Wills in his shop.  Learn more about this important prototype, here . Herman Miller production mold.  Eames screen and Nathan Lerner chair. More about the Lerner chair, here . Hey, what's that up there? The recently acquired Eames-designed World's Fair kiosk is proudly on display.  Mathematica will be installed close by. It's scheduled to be on permanent display beginning sometime in 2016.   I was able to take a peek at it behind the scenes and it's pretty great. I'd like to thank Kristen Gallerneaux, Curator of Communications and Information Technology and Marc G...