Selling Good Design: Promoting the Early Modern Interior By Marilyn Friedman

What could be more fun than roaming through a life-size version of your potential living room, bedroom, or kitchen? During the late 1920s, Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, Jordan Marsh, Marshall Field, Mandel’s and other department stores throughout the United States teamed with european and American modernist designers to create exhibitions that featured in-store replicas of modern home interiors. The elaborate settings presented modern furnishings and decorative objects to the public in a completely new and enticing way. 

Selling Good Design: Promoting the Early Modern Interior is an illustrated lecture that describes how modern design, especially art deco, was introduced to the press and the public through the patronage of prestigious and trend-setting department stores.

Marilyn Friedman is an art historian. She is a graduate of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City.