Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly was active in the documentation of American material culture between 1935 and 1939. Kelly’s output is associated with the Index of American Design, a project focused on recording historical American decorative arts and traditional craft objects.

Seven designs documented by Kelly are represented in museum collections, providing detailed visual records of domestic objects and textile work from the era. These records include the renderings of a "Westward Ho" Compote, a historic Jacquard Coverlet, and a Toy Bank, alongside multiple examples cataloged as Textile Sample and Textile Samples.

The work is held in prominent institutional collections, specifically the National Gallery of Art. These careful documentations reflect high-quality standards for visual reference. Today, Kelly’s historical documentation is often digitized, making these resources available as downloadable artwork for scholars and the public. Reproductions, sometimes provided as free art prints, allow wide access to these important records of American design history.