Parsons Table research files
1923-2006
- Collection Overview
- Organization and Arrangement
- Administrative Information
- Related Materials
- Keywords for Searching Related Subjects
- Collection Inventory
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Guide to the Parsons Table research files
Collection Overview
- Repository
- Kellen Design Archives
- Creator
- Parsons the New School for Design. Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Design Archives.
- Title
- Parsons Table research files, 1923-2006, (Bulk, 1960-1975)
- Extent
- 0.4 linear ft: 1 box
- Summary
- The Parsons Table research files consist primarily of work conducted and assembled by the director and staff of the Kellen Design Archives in 2002 to support a Parsons' Design and Management Department project in which students would construct and market a version of the Parsons Table. Archives staff prepared a questionnaire for alumni to gather information about the origins of the table and its design. Several responses include sketches of the table. While furnishing no conclusive evidence, these files will be useful to researchers investigating the history of the table, its relationship to the school, and the stories that have been told about it. The Parsons Table was reportedly designed at the Paris Ateliers, the precursor to Parsons Paris, sometime in the 1920s or 1930s. A modernist design, the chair is characterized by its straight, clean lines and square legs, in which the legs are the same width as the tabletop. French designer Jean-Michel Frank (1895–1941) is often identified as the creator of the table. Frank served as a critic in the Paris Ateliers, and one hypothesis suggests that he had students follow the simple table design as part of a classroom project in furniture construction.
Organization and Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by subject.
Administrative Information
Publication Information
Kellen Design Archives March 9, 2012
66 5th Ave./lobby level/
New York, NY, 10011
212.229.5942
archivist@newschool.edu
Use Restrictions
To publish images of material from this collection, permission must be obtained in writing from the Kellen Design Archives. Please contact: archivist@newschool.edu.
Related Materials
The Stanley Barrows oral history in the Kellen Design Archives includes a discussion about the origins of the Parsons Table. Course catalogs for the Paris Ateliers provide details about the goals and instructors in the program in which the table probably originated.
Keywords for Searching Related Subjects
Corporate Name(s)
- New York School of Fine and Applied Art.
- Paris Ateliers.
- Parsons School of Design.
Genre(s)
- Clippings files.
Subject(s)
- Design -- History -- 20th century.
- Furniture design -- France -- 20th century.
- Tables.
Collection Inventory
| Title | Box | |||
| General research and correspondence | 1 | |||
| Clippings | 1 | |||
| Correspondence with David Levy | 1 | |||
| Questionnaire and responses | 1 | |||
| Reference files on designers associated with Parsons Table | ||||
| Baughman, Milo | 1 | |||
| Breuer, Marcel | 1 | |||
| Frank, Jean-Michel | 1 | |||
| Neutra, Joseph | 1 | |||
| Rietveld, Gerrit | 1 | |||