The Index of American Design, which lasted from 1935-1942, is the least well-known today of the various art programs of the New Deal.  It was the brainchild of Ruth Reeves, an artist and designer, and Romana Javitz, director of the New York Public Library Picture Collection.  They realized that no comprehensive compendium of American folk art images existed to inspire modern artists and designers, who in the early 1930s were obsessed with the question of what was uniquely American about American art.  Reeves and Javitz proposed that out-of-work commercial and graphic artists be employed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to create highly accurate watercolor renderings of folk art objects which would eventually be published and serve as a reference for artists, designers, industry, museums and libraries.  Holger Cahill, director of the WPA's Federal Art Project and himself a collector of folk art, enthusiastically endorsed this idea, and 34 states plus the District of Columbia would eventually participate in the Index.

 

Nearly a thousand artists produced some 23,000 images, mostly watercolors, of objects that ranged from saddles to china dolls, from figureheads to quilt squares.  18,000 of these renderings now reside in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and a sampling is visible on their website:  http://www.nga.gov/collection/iad/tour_index/index.shtm

 

Some of my favorites appear below:

Henry Murphy, Carousel Horse, c 1939

 

Suzanne Chapman, 1714 Crewel Valance, 1936/1937

Chapman, who worked for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and had trained with their egyptologists in producing scrupulously accurate drawings of archeological artifacts, came to the Index in 1936 to teach this meticulous technique to other Index artists. 

 

Mae C. Clarke, Old Maid's Ramble Quilt Square, 1938

 

Elizabeth Moutal, Mortars and Pestles, 1937

 

Lucille Chabot, Rooster Weathervane, 1935/42

 

Charlotte Angus, Pennsylvania German Hooked Rug, c 1940

Pennsylvania German art formed an important subset of the Index of American Design.

 

Michael Riccitelli, Carousel Reindeer, c 1939