Henry Meyers

Henry Meyers is recognized as a crucial chronicler and contributor to American industrial arts, capturing the transitional phase of domestic design during the Great Depression era. Active primarily around 1935, his work elevated functional artifacts, typically relegated to manufacturing catalogs, into objects worthy of institutional study and preservation.

Meyers’s definitive contribution remains his comprehensive visual index, 15 index of american designs. Compiled during a period marked by both economic hardship and soaring aspirations for technological utility, this collection served less as a traditional artistic portfolio and more as a rigorous, curated record of evolving national taste and manufacturing capability. The index documented the necessary shift away from ornate, pre-Depression opulence toward streamlined functionalism, emphasizing economic efficiency and material honesty.

The selected objects, now housed in the prestigious collections of the National Gallery of Art, demonstrate a clear commitment to geometric clarity. Pieces such as the Card Table and the Desk are notable for their stark utility, embracing the planar surfaces and minimal ornamentation characteristic of burgeoning Modernism. Meyers was particularly adept at addressing the aesthetic needs of mass production. His rendering of the Brass Candlestick, a simple, repeated form, illustrates his belief that utility should never preclude inherent elegance. While concerned with the democratization of everyday objects, Meyers ensured the resulting forms possess an almost singular, museum-quality execution, elevating these common items far beyond mere commercial goods.

Meyers’s legacy rests upon this foundational visual inventory, which ensured that these foundational designs entered the historical and scholarly record rather than vanishing into obsolescence. The original plates and associated documents provide essential insight into the standards and aspirations of American applied arts in the mid-1930s. Today, these studies are widely available, providing scholars and enthusiasts access to high-quality prints and downloadable artwork, solidifying Meyers’s status as a foundational figure in documenting American material culture.