Emma Redington (Lee) Thayer (ca. 1874-ca. 1973) was the co-founder of Decorative Designers, a New York City based firm that produced binding designs, dust jackets, book illustrations, and advertising material. She specialized in conventionalized decorations and designed most of the bindings, did some lettering, and was successful at dust jacket illustrations. She also published over sixty mystery novels as well as children's books. The collection consists of material related to the work of Lee Thayer and the Decorative Designers (DD) including correspondence, taped interviews, articles and newsclippings related to the life and career of Thayer, dust jackets and novels by Thayer, and photocopied bookplate designs, binding designs, and dust jackets by DD.

Decorative Designers (DD) was founded by Henry W. Thayer and Emma Redington Lee, 1895; the New York City based firm produced binding designs, dust jackets, book illustrations, and advertising material; employed a number of talented people including Jay Chambers (1902-16) and used innovative operation methods such as dividing labor according to individual talents and presenting publishers with design models printed on cloth; moved to Chatham, New Jersey (1921); after World War I, they shifted production to dust jackets and advertisements; the company was dissolved in 1932.During the heyday of decorated publishers' bindings no other American designer produced as many book covers as The Decorative Designers. Founded by Henry W. Thayer, a Brooklyn architect, and Emma Redington Lee, a young mural artist, in 1895, the firm turned out binding designs, dust jackets, book illustrations and advertising material until 1932 when the company and the marriage of Thayer and Miss Lee dissolved. Other graphic designers as talented and prolific as the Thayers worked for the company at various times, the most important being Jay Chambers, who was with The Decorative Designers from 1902 through 1916. The firm produced thousands of book covers at a rapid rate. The number of artists in the organization partly accounted for this. Another factor in the success of the “DD's” was its efficient and innovative method of operation. Labor was divided according to individual talents: Henry Thayer did lettering and handled business affairs, Lee Thayer (as his wife became known) specialized in conventionalized decorations, Jay Chambers excelled at figure design, and so on. The separation of design and sales functions increased output, as did the unique practice of presenting publishers with design models printed on cloth in order to give a clear idea of the appearance of the completed book. Until 1921, when the Thayers moved the business to Chatham, New Jersey, The Decorative Designers operated in New York City very near the publishing houses that constituted their market.

25 boxes (12.5 linear ft.)

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