Descriptive Summary
Biographical/Historical Note
Administrative Information
Related Material
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: L. Garth Huxtable papers,
Date (inclusive): 1913-2012
Number: 2013.M.2
Creator/Collector:
Huxtable, L. Garth
Physical Description:
109.5 linear feet
(75 boxes, 24 flatfile folders, 6 rolls)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The papers of the industrial designer L. Garth Huxtable (1911-1989), spans his career from the 1930s to the 1970s. This collection
contains Huxtable's design work including drawings, models and tools that comprise his decades-long contribution to American
product design.
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Language: Collection material is in
English.
Biographical/Historical Note
The industrial designer L. Garth Huxtable (1911-1989) was born in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He graduated from the Massachusetts
School of Art in 1933 with a degree in design. After working in several advertising art studios in New York City at the beginning
of his career, Huxtable was hired in 1934 as a design assistant in the office of Norman Bel Geddes. Following his work at
Norman Bel Geddes & Company, Huxtable went on to work for the offices of several other notable designers including Egmont
Arens, Albert Kahn, Benjamin Webster and Henry Dreyfuss. Between 1941 and 1952 Huxtable worked for two large institutional
planning offices, first as assistant architectural design supervisor for Sperry Gyroscope, planning their new plant in Nassau,
NY, and then as research designer at the United Nations headquarters.
Huxtable married Ada Louise Landman in 1942. In 1946 he was accepted into the Society of Industrial Designers, a new and prestigious
professional association based in New York. By 1948 he established his independent office, L. Garth Huxtable Industrial Design,
quickly earning contracts with the Millers Falls Company and Restaurant Associates. Ada Louise Huxtable, who worked as the
architecture critic for the
New York Times, also collaborated with her husband on projects, including the Four Seasons Restaurant service and the Stamp Village model
town.
Throughout his career Huxtable worked on a wide variety of project types. However, his most extensive work was with designing
tools, cookware, and tableware. For Huxtable, a well-designed product should be simple and direct in concept, with form, function,
and construction being soundly integrated. This approach to design was recognized at the Triennale di Milano, where Huxtable
twice won the silver award, and subsequently by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which acquired 18 items from the Four
Seasons Restaurant service. Patents were awarded for several Huxtable designs, including the Millers Falls Plane-R-File and
the United States Army Quartermasters Corps ski harness release. Huxtable closed his office in 1980.
Administrative Information
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers. Access is restricted to Box 60 which contains deteriorated black-and-white negatives.
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
L. Garth Huxtable papers, 1913-2012, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2013.M.2
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2013m2
Acquisition Information
Gift of Ada Louise Huxtable and L. Garth Huxtable. Acquired in 2013.
Processing History
Laura Schroffel processed and cataloged the collection under the supervision of Ann Harrison in 2014.
Related Material
The Getty Research Library also holds the Ada Louise Huxtable papers 1859-2013, Special Collection accession no. 2013.M.9.
Scope and Content of Collection
The L. Garth Huxtable papers document the career of the industrial designer beginning in the 1930s, when American awareness
of industrial design as a profession increasingly captured public attention. Series I represents Huxtable's extensive contribution
to industrial design during this period of flourishing creativity. His design process is well articulated in this series,
progressing from product analysis and sketches to drawings and plans and finally to models and product samples. While Series
I includes early school work and projects from prominent design offices where Huxtable was an assistant, the bulk of the documentation
dates from after Huxtable established his own firm in 1948. This series contains Huxtable's notable long-term project work
with the Millers Falls Tool company from 1948 and his Four Seasons Restaurant service designs from 1958.
Huxtable's resource materials found in Series II contain drafting tools including rulers, French curves, stencils, templates,
calipers, and technical guides. This series also contains typography guides that were integral to the design and arrangement
of printed text. Color sample books and subject files, which Huxtable compiled on various themes, are also included in this
series.
Series III comprises Huxtable's general professional papers including work records, writings, and portfolio materials, as
well as publicity clippings, and negatives that he used for promotional one-sheets. Personal papers include diaries, a sketchbook,
his paintings and photographs. General personal and business correspondence is also found in this series.
The collection contains sketches, drawings, blueprints, renderings, black and white photographs and negatives, color slides
and photographs, proofs, models and sample products. Documentation contains materials as large as 22" x 28"; large drawings
are up to 36" x 48" and rolled drawings are larger than 36" x 48". Proofs are trial sheets of printed text and images. Renderings
are hand-drawings for use in presentations to represent the full conception of a project and typically containing color, shadowing,
and textures. Models are three-dimensional scaled representations used as working studies. Sample products are either actual
products as they were sold in the marketplace, or final working samples intended for further mass production.
Arrangement
Organized in three series:
Series I. Project files, 1928-2012;
Series II. Resource materials, 1913-1976, undated;
Series III. Miscellaneous professional and personal papers, 1917-2002.
Indexing Terms
Subjects - Corporate Bodies
Four Seasons (Restaurant)
Millers Falls Company
Norman Bel Geddes & Company
Subjects - Topics
Industrial design
Genres and Forms of Material
Black-and-white negatives--20th century
Black-and-white photographs
Blueprints (reprographic copies)
Color photographs
Color slides--20th century
Design drawings
Drawing instruments
Drawings (visual works)
Gelatin silver prints--20th century
Models (representations)
Paintings
Technical drawings
Contributors
Huxtable, Ada Louise
Huxtable, L. Garth