Biografie von Henry DREYFUSS (1904-1972)

Birth place: New York, NY

Addresses: New York, NY; South Pasadena, CA

Profession: Industrial designer

Studied: NY Soc. for Ethical Culture High School; then apprenticed to Norman Bel Geddes

Exhibited: Cooper Hewett Nat. Design Mus, NYC, (retrospective) 1997. Awards: Arch. Lg. Gold Medal, 1951; Order of Orange-Nassau from Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, 1952; Doctor of Science degree, Occidental College, 1953; Distinguished Contribution Award, American Soc. Indst. Designers, 1960; Design Award, Philadelphia Museum College of Art, 1962; Doctor of Fine Arts degree, Pratt Institute, N.Y., 1963; Design in Steel Award, American Iron and Steel Institute, 1964, 1965; Ambassador Award for Achievement, London, England, 1965.

Member: Indst. Des. Soc. of America; Benjamin Franklin Fellow, Royal Soc. Arts, London.

Work: Cooper Hewett Nat. Design Mus. Designed work for many major companies including Aerojet General Corp.; American Airlines; American Machine & Foundry Co.; American Telephone & Telegraph Co.; American Safety Razor Co.; Bankers Trust Co.; Bell Telephone Co.; Cities Service Co.; Crane Co.; Deere & Co.; Hyster Co.; Lockheed Aircraft Corp.; Mergenthaler Linotype Co.; Minneapolis Honeywell Regulator Co.; Omark Industries; Singer Mfg. Co.; Teletype Corp.; United California Bank; Warner & Swasey Co.

Comments: From 1929 to 1972, he was one of America's most important industrial designers for mass production. He was best known for his streamlined yet practical designs which included the General Electric Flat Top Refrigerator; Big Ben Alarm Clock; the Honeywell Round thermostat; Douglas Airplane; the first modern Western Union office; Mercury Train, 20th Century Ltd., and many other utilitarian objects. By the 1950s, he had brought anthropometrics into his designs. Positions: Bd. Trustees & Faculty Member, California Institute of Technology; Prof.-in-Res., UCLA; Bd. Directors, Ford Foundation, Educational Facilities Laboratories; Member, Arts & Architecture Committee of the Kennedy Library. Author: Designing for People,1955; The Measure of Man, 1960. Five pictorial histories of Dreyfuss work, privately printed, 1939, 1947, 1952, 1957, 1964.

Sources: WW66; Russell Flinchum, Henry Dreyfuss, Industrial Designer: The Man in the Brown Suit (exh. cat. Cooper Hewett Mus., 1997.