Guide to the California Graduate School Of Design and the California Institute of Technology Industrial Design Section Papers, 1928-1964

Richard J. Frechen and Caltech Archives Staff
Edited by Penelope Neder-Muro, 2017
California Institute of Technology Archives and Special Collections
©1977, updated 2017
1200 East California Blvd.
MC B215-74
Pasadena, California 91125
archives@caltech.edu


Language of Material: English
Contributing Institution: California Institute of Technology Archives and Special Collections
Title: California Graduate School of Design and the California Institute of Technology Industrial Design Section Papers
creator: California Graduate School of Design
Identifier/Call Number: 10008-MS
Physical Description: 3.13 linear feet (8 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1928-1964

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research. Researchers must apply in writing for access.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright may not have been assigned to the California Institute of Technology Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Caltech Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the California Institute of Technology Archives as the owner of the physical items and, unless explicitly stated otherwise, is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], California Graduate School of Design and the Industrial Design Section Papers, 10008-MS, Caltech Archives, California Institute of Technology.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Papers donated by Herbert Hahn.

Historical Note

This collection contains documents pertaining to the formation and operation of the California Graduate School of Design (CGSD), which subsequently was reorganized to become the Industrial Design section of the California Institute of Technology (CIT-ID). The CGSD represented a unique attempt to establish an American "Bauhaus."
The CGSD was situated at the northeast corner of the intersection of Colorado Street and Orange Grove Avenue in Pasadena, the current site of the Norton Simon Museum. This 12-acre parcel was then known as Carmelita Garden, a "memory garden" begun in 1880 in which 90 varieties of trees were planted. During the 1920s and early 1930s, the Pasadena Art Institute was situated at Carmelita Garden, but this venture proved financially unsound when its mortgage went into arrears. As the Garden was a preeminent historic site in Pasadena, a group of citizens resolved to preserve this natural monument. They decided that a school would prove suitable (due to its tax free status), and that an art school would be most fitting. In 1936 these organizers engaged Royal Bailey Farnum, the Educational Director of the Rhode Island School of Design, to determine what type of school would be most suitable. The Farnum Report's recommendations proved too broad for Cicero Hunt Lewis, who urged specializing in one aspect suggested by Farnum--industrial design. Lewis was appointed as Organizing Director, and in the spring of 1937 he went east on an investigative trip to establish a definite basis for starting the school. Lewis's report was accepted as the basis for the school's organization.
The school was incorporated in July 1937 as the California School of Design. Later to prevent confusion with an unincorporated school of the same name, it was called the California Graduate School of Design. The CGSD was a privately endowed, nonprofit-making institution which operated from October 1937 to June 1941. Its Board of Directors were nearly all Caltech Associates or members of the Caltech Board of Trustees. This affiliation was further strengthened by having some Caltech faculty members teach at the CGSD. The cause of the school's demise was never explicitly clear, but it appeared to be a victim of hard financial times. The student body never grew to a size considered sufficient to keep the school viable, and Walter Baermann, CGSD's Director from 1938-1941, did not want to increase the quantity of students at the expense of quality. Baermann, an industrial designer from Germany, made an exhaustive cross country trek in the summer of 1939 in an attempt to drum up financial support for the school. All the while he corresponded with his assistant who related to Baermann the Board's desire to ease entrance standards and increase the size of the student body.
The CGSD per se closed its doors in 1941, but was reorganized into the Industrial Design Section at Caltech. When the CIT-ID initiated its efforts in September 1941, it came under the direction of industrial designer, Antonin Heythum, for four years. Following Heythum, J. Paul Youtz became the final Director until Caltech closed out the section in June 1949. Youtz had instructed at the CGSD while he was a Research Fellow at Caltech, and later he became the Institute Patent Officer. Some of the section's work was devoted to the war effort, such as investigating alternative uses for clay and ceramics. Although the eventual demise of the section again appeared to have its roots in financial difficulties, the letters of two disillusioned students who left the Industrial Design Section shed light on some other interesting problems. They criticized some course instruction as being everything from ineffectual or excellent but unnecessarily specialized to spasmodic and contradictory. They also cited an "insidious undertone of individual rivalry," pettiness, and a lack of cooperation and esprit de corps. In any case, the section folded at a time when there was a general building and operating fund drive.
The collection is interesting on a number of levels. First and foremost, there is much commentary on the concepts of teaching and the uses of industrial design. The correspondence also focuses on the role of the industrial designer vis-a-vis mass production techniques. It explains that the industrial designer should be educated in engineering, sociology, economics and, of course, art. The industrial designer needs training in all these disciplines, and the curriculum at both the CGSD and the CIT-ID reflected this. The two schools offered instruction in design techniques and trends, workshop practice, materials and manufacturing processes, art history, business economics, and social and buying psychology.
Youtz continued to correspond with some students from the CGSD and CIT-ID into the early 1960s. Many of them obtained positions in major firms, such as Corning Glass, Eastman Kodak, and the automobile manufacturers in Detroit, while others joined established design companies in the east and still others used their education to create their own companies. Nonetheless, although there was an unquestioned need for the industrial designer, it turned out that the United States in the 1940s was not the place to establish a school to train such a specialist.
Written by Richard J. Frechen, June 1977

Scope and Contents

The California Graduate School of Design (1937-41) and the California Institute of Technology Industrial Design Section (1941-49) papers contain student files, correspondence, and documents regarding the formation and operation of the two schools.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Administration
California Institute of Technology
Design
Manuscript Collection
Pasadena -- California

 

California School of Design (CGSD)

box 1, folder 1

Carmelita Civic Grandstand Association, Inc 1935

Scope and Contents

Articles of Incorporation, 1935 December 5. Bylaws, minutes 1935 December 10.
box 1, folder 2

Articles of Incorporation 1937 July 19

box 1, folder 3

Bylaws, ammended bylaws 1937 September 24, 1939 February 9

box 1, folder 4

Executive Committee meeting minutes 1937 September 24 - 1941 July 22, 1951 June 19

box 1, folder 5

Correspondence 1922, 1928, 1937

box 1, folder 6

Memorandum in Support of Opinion that CGSD had the Power to Enter into Agreement with city of Pasadena and others 1941

box 1, folder 7

Quitclaim Deed 1953 July 1

box 1, folder 8

Quitclaim Deed correspondence 1951 June 11-21

box 2, folder 1

CGSD: Committees - Buildings and Grounds, Scholarship 1934-1940, 1938-1940

box 2, folder 2

CGSD: Committees - Educational, Faculty and Curriculum 1937-1940

box 2, folder 3

CGSD: Workshop Equipment, Inventory, and Practice 1937-1940

box 2, folder 4

CGSD: Industrial Information 1937-1938

box 2, folder 5

Audit - Pasadena Art Institute, History CGSD - correspondence A-L 1929-1930, 1937-1938

box 2, folder 6

History CGSD correspondence: M-R 1936-1938

box 2, folder 7

History CGSD correspondence: O-St 1937-1938

box 2, folder 8

History CGSD correspondence: St-U 1937-1938

box 2, folder 9

History CGSD correspondence: Walter Baermann 1939-1944

box 2, folder 10

History CGSD correspondence: Gilbert Brighouse, Remsen Bird 1937-1942, 1939-1941

box 3, folder 1

History CGSD correspondence: Scott Brown 1937-1941

box 3, folder 2

History CGSD correspondence: Donald S. Clark, Royal Bailey Farnum 1937-1941, 1936-1938

box 3, folder 3

History CGSD correspondence: Philip S. Fogg, Hahn and Hahn 1937-1947, 1937-1938

box 3, folder 4

History CGSD correspondence: Ka-Ri 1938-1942

box 3, folder 5

History CGSD correspondence: Albert B. Ruddock 1936-1939

box 3, folder 6

History CGSD correspondence: Albert B. Ruddock 1940-1941

box 3, folder 7

History CGSD correspondence: Sa-We 1937-1941

box 3, folder 8

History CGSD correspondence: Wa-Wo 1937-1939

box 3, folder 9

History CGSD correspondence: Archibald B. Young, J. Donald Young 1937-1938, 1937-1941

box 3, folder 10

History CGSD correspondence: J. Paul Youtz, Philip N. Youtz 1928-1941, 1937-1940

box 3, folder 11

History CGSD correspondence: Karl With 1939-1941

box 3, folder 12

History CGSD correspondence: Jake Zeitlin 1937-1938

box 3, folder 13

History CGSD correspondence: Miscellaneous 1937-1938

box 4, folder 1

CGSD: Exhibition for California State Department of Social Welfare 1937-1938

box 4, folder 2

CGSD: Westridge Job 1939

box 4, folder 3

CGSD: Patricia H. Yeomans thesis part I 1941

box 4, folder 4

CGSD: Patricia H. Yeomans thesis part II 1941

 

California Institute of Technology Industrial Design Section (CIT-ID)

box 4, folder 5

CGSD and CIT-ID: William Winterbottom thesis 1942

box 4, folder 6

CGSD and CIT-ID: William Winterbottom supplementary material to thesis 1942

box 4, folder 7

CIT-ID: Plans and Blueprints - Industrial Design Section 1942

box 4, folder 8

CIT-ID: Sponsors 1941-1946

box 4, folder 9

CIT-ID: Testimonials, Quotations 1944-1945

box 4, folder 10

CIT-ID: Reports 1942-1947

box 4, folder 11

CIT-ID: Miscellaneous courses and requirements (undergraduate, graduate, and engineer) 1947

box 5, folder 1

CIT-ID correspondence: Henry Dreyfuss 1942-1949

box 5, folder 2

CIT-ID correspondence: Antonin Heythum 1941-1943

box 5, folder 3

CIT-ID correspondence: Harold M. Huston 1946-1948

Scope and Contents

re: ID-151 "Cost Analysis"
box 5, folder 4

CIT-ID: Miscellaneous Instructors (former ID students) 1947-1948

box 5, folder 5

Merchandising Analysis undated

box 5, folder 6

Inquiries staff and student positions 1940s

box 5, folder 7

CIT-ID correspondence: R-S 1941-1945

box 5, folder 8

CIT-ID correspondence: T-V 1941-1947

box 5, folder 9

CIT-ID correspondence: W-Z 1940-1950

box 5, folder 10

CIT-ID correspondence: Miscellaneous 1941-1947

box 5, folder 11

CIT-ID: Publicity non CIT 1940s

box 5, folder 12

CIT-ID: Publicity CIT 1940s

box 6, folder 1

CIT-ID: Placement - letters regarding ID 1943-1948

box 6, folder 2

CIT-ID: Placement activities 1947-1949

box 6, folder 3

CIT-ID: Library and Publications 1941-1946

box 6, folder 4

CIT-ID: Society of Industrial Designers 1945-1948

Scope and Contents

correspondence and reports
box 6, folder 5

CIT-ID: Society of Industrial Designers photographs undated

General

Photographs are curled in folder
box 6, folder 6

CIT-ID: Industrial Design Post-War planning 1940s

box 6, folder 7

CIT-ID: Miscellaneous 1940s

Scope and Contents

Includes roster, correspondence, ID section description, meeting minutes, etc.
 

Student Files

box 6, folder 8

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student Files Al-Be 1937-1958

box 6, folder 9

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student Files Bl-Br 1938-1961

box 6, folder 10

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student Files Br-Ca 1937-1957

box 6, folder 11

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student Files Ch-Cr 1937-1962

box 7, folder 1

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files De-Fo 1940-1957

box 7, folder 2

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Fo-Gr 1939-1961

box 7, folder 3

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Ha-Jo 1938-1963

box 7, folder 4

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Jo-Ke 1938-1963

box 7, folder 5

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Ke-Ly 1937-1957

box 7, folder 6

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Ma-Me 1938-1957

box 7, folder 7

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Mi-Pa 1938-1959

box 7, folder 8

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Pa-Po 1946-1957

box 7, folder 9

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Re-Sc 1937-1964

box 8, folder 1

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Ro 1943

box 8, folder 2

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Sh-Su 1938-1960

box 8, folder 3

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Th-Wa 1937-1957

box 8, folder 4

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Wa-We 1940-1960

box 8, folder 5

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Wh-Wi 1943-1957

box 8, folder 6

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Wi-Wu 1938-1957

box 8, folder 7

CGSD/CIT-ID: Student files Ya-Zo 1943-1959

box 8, folder 8

General Correspondence re: graduate students in Industrial Design 1940-1950