The Work of Charles and Ray Eames
Collection digitized? No.
Some selected images can be viewed in the
Prints & Photographs Online Catalog and
in the online exhibit, "The Work
of Charles and Ray Eames: A Legacy of Invention." See Access section
below.
Introduction | Access | Ordering
Reproductions | Permissions
and Credits | Related
Resources | Bibliography
Introduction
The body of material known as The
Work of Charles and Ray Eames documents,
through more than one million items
in a variety of media, the major
impact that Charles and Ray Eames
had on American design, particularly
in the realms of graphic, textile,
furniture, architectural, and exhibit
design. The material dates primarily
from about 1940 to 1978. The Prints
and
Photographs
Division holds the largest portion
of the material--more than 750,000
items, about one-third of which has
been organized and cataloged. The
Library's Manuscript Division holds
related textual material, and the
Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and
Recorded Sound Division holds the
Eameses' film materials (see the Related
Resources section for further
information about their holdings).
Exhibition
areas in an aquarium building
... Washington, D.C. Perspective
rendering of central pool.
Between 1966 and 1971.
LC-USZ62-114111 |
The Prints and Photographs Division's
portion of the collection is both
an archive of design ideas and a
record of the Eameses' work. Charles
and Ray Eames photographed their
own designs extensively, and also
used photography to study natural
forms and everyday objects. The collection
documents exhibitions, publications,
and films for organizations such
as IBM,
Herman
Miller, the U.S. government, Boeing,
and Polaroid. It also reflects the
Eameses'
interest
in
making
scientific and mathematical concepts
and history more accessible to a
general audience. The photographs
include many images depicting
the
Eameses,
their family, friends, and colleagues,
including Billy Wilder and Eero Saarinen.
Access
Cataloged Material
The cataloged portion of the Prints
and Photographs Division holdings
include:
- Contact sheets and contact prints
(30,000), representing 220,000
film negatives (192,000 b&w;
28,000 color)
- Architectural drawings: 1,000
(ADE Units related to Washington,
DC area)
- Furniture select prints: 2,500
(LOT 13073)
- Drawings, prints, Christmas cards,
and other items selected for use
in exhibitions: more than 400
Prints and Photographs Division
staff members have grouped the photographic
negatives and contact prints and
the organized portion of the architectural
drawings by subject or project. Catalog
records for these groups can be retrieved
through the Prints & Photographs
Online Catalog. A finding aid available
in the Prints & Photographs Reading
Room generally gives more detailed
information about the contents of
the groups.
Staff have also created catalog
records and some digital images for
a selection of individual
items, generally in response to requests
for reproduction.
Catalog records for both groups
and items include the phrase, "Work
of Charles and Ray Eames." The
most efficient means for searching
all of the cataloged material is
to:
- go to the Prints & Photographs
Online Catalog and select
to search
- search within the "All
Catalog Records" category,
and
- include the words work charles
ray eames in the search.
As very little of the collection
is digitized, researchers will generally
need to make a visit to the Prints
and Photographs Reading Room to view
the material. Selections may be viewed
in the online exhibit, "The
Work of Charles and Ray Eames: A
Legacy of Invention."
Uncataloged Material
The portion of the collection that
has yet to be cataloged consists
of:
- color 35 mm slides (approximately
300,000)
- architectural drawings (approximately
9,000)
- other graphic items used to
model project ideas, especially
exhibitions (estimated 150,000
items).
Materials that have not yet been
cataloged may be requested by following
the instructions in Prints & Photographs
Division's Access
to Unprocessed Materials information.
Ordering Reproductions
Researchers can order photographic
copies of items in the collection
through the Library
of Congress Photoduplication Service.
Orders must include the reproduction
number of the desired image or, if
no reproduction number exists, the
full call number for the image.
Permissions
and Credits
The heirs of Charles and Ray Eames
hold the intellectual property rights
to much of the material in the Eames
collection. The deed of gift for
the collection states that "the
materials constituting this and subsequent
gifts shall be available for public
access for purposes of study, scholarship,
and non-commercial use. Persons granted
access shall have the right to procure
single-copy reproductions for non-commercial
scholarship purposes." Permission
to publish materials from the collection
must be obtained from the Eames Office.
See the Rights and Restrictions
statement for full information. It
is available online at: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/069_eame.html
Related Resources
In the Library of Congress
Library of Congress, Manuscript
Division
Telephone: 202-707-5387
URL: http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/
The Work of Ray and Charles
Eames, 1885-1988 (bulk 1965 -1988)
- About 150,000 items, mostly office
correspondence and business records.
A finding
aid is available online.
Library of Congress, Motion
Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded
Sound Division
Telephone: 202-707-8572
URL: http://www.loc.gov/rr/mopic/
As of September 2004, the
MBRS Division has access copies of
twenty-four 16mm films and a dozen
more titles on laser discs. The Eames
estate donated all existing original
production elements to the Library
in 2003; these will be held in remote
storage while a conservation plan
is devised for their archival preservation.
Viewing copies will be added as the
collection is processed and preserved
in the coming years.
Outside the Library of Congress
The
Library of Congress does not maintain
these sites. Users should direct
concerns about these links to their
respective site administrators or
webmasters.
The Eames Office
P.O. Box 268, Venice, CA 90294-0268
http://www.eamesoffice.com
Includes information about
the Eames Foundation and the Eames
House in the Pacific Palisades in
greater
Los Angeles; also the Eames Office
Gallery & Store; and Eames Office
Resources.
Herman Miller Inc.
855 E. Main Street
Zeeland, Michigan 49464
http://www.hermanmiller.com
Archive of photographs
of the Eameses and their products,
oral histories of the company, patents,
correspondence, drawings, publications,
and audio-visual materials.
Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield
Village Research Center
20900 Oakwood Boulevard, P.O. Box 1970
Dearborn Michigan 48121-1970
http://www.hfmgv.org/
Herman Miller, Inc., collection
of Eames furniture; some on loan
to museums.
Vitra Museum
Charles Eames Strasse 1,
D-79576 Weil-am-Rhein, GERMANY
http://www.design-museum.com
Has custody of furniture
and related materials from the Office
of Charles and Ray Eames. Charles
Eames' office is recreated in the
nearby Vitra factory along with Eames
objects.
A 1979 bibliography cites important
early articles and books:
Spaeth, David. Charles Eames
Bibliography. Monticello,
Illinois: Vance Bibliographies,
1979. Call number Z8253.8 .S67
[xerox copy in P&P Ref. Files]
Selected recent works:
Albrecht, Donald, et al. The
Work of Charles and Ray Eames:
A Legacy of Invention. New
York: Harry N. Abrams in association
with the Library of Congress and
the Vitra Design Museum, 1997.
Call number: NK1535.E25 W67 1997
[P&P]
Caplan, Ralph, John Neuhart, and
Marilyn Neuhart. Connections,
the Work of Charles and Ray Eames,
Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, University
of California, Los Angeles, December
7, 1976 - February 6, 1977.
[Los Angeles, California]: UCLA Art
Council, [1976]. Call number NK 1535.
E25 E2 [P&P]
De Pree, Hugh. Business as
Unusual: The People and Principles
at Herman Miller. Zeeland,
Michigan: Herman Miller, Inc.,
1986. Call number: HD9773.U7 H383
1986
Goldberger, Paul. "The Eames Team." New
Yorker, vol. 75, no. 12
(May 24, 1999):92-99. [xerox copy
in P&P Ref. Files]
Kirkham, Pat. Charles and
Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth
Century. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
MIT Press, 1995. Call number NK1412.E18
K57 1995.
Neuhart, John, Marilyn Neuhart
and Ray Eames. Eames Design:
The Work of the Office of Charles
and Ray Eames. New York: Harry
N. Abrams, 1989. Call number: NK1535.E25
N48 1989. [P&P copy is partially
annotated with reproduction numbers].
Prepared by: Marilyn Ibach, Reference
Specialist and C. Ford Peatross,
Curator of Architecture, Design and
Engineering Collections. Last
updated: June 2006.
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