<a href="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/?attachment_id=5897" rel="attachment wp-att-5897"><img src="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/scooter-500x464.jpg" alt="American Streamlined Design at Philbrook Museum: Scooter" title="American Streamlined Design at Philbrook Museum: Scooter" width="500" height="464" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-5897" /></a>

"Streamlining is the jazz of the drawing board." - Edgar Kaufmann Jr. 

<em>American Streamlined Design: The World of Tomorrow</em>. Design era centered on the '30s and '40s characterized by curved forms and clean silhouettes. Suggested speed and glamour and held the promise of progress, economic recovery and the hope of the future as the Great Depression gripped the world. While it came into popular culture via aviation and steam trains, soon Streamlined Design could be seen everywhere from the office to the playrooms of suburban America. 

The exhibit presents nearly 200 objects, from furniture and appliances to graphic design and photo murals, arranged into six themes: Streamlining the Commercial World; Streamlining Manual Labor; Streamlining the Kitchen and Bath; Streamlining Home Decor; Streamlining Recreation; Streamlining Now. American Streamlined Design presents the work of such leaders in consumer and industrial design as Raymond Loewy, Norman Bel Geddes, Henry Dreyfuss, and Walter Dorwin Teague, as well as less well-known talents, including Egmont Arens and Robert Heller.

the spheres of American life in the 1930s-50s: the office and workroom, the living room, kitchen, and bath, recreation and transportation. A final section, Streamlining Now, looks at how streamlining still affects design today.

I've always been a big fan of Streamlined design. There's something very romantic and timeless about the pieces of that area, but maybe a little bit vulnerable, too. Though the world seemed breathless under the weight of the Great Depression, and though tensions continued to mount in Europe, technology continued to evolve at break-neck speed, and its impact on consumer culture grew. I think Americans at that time were grasping for the reassurance and confidence that those technological advancements afforded. Any reminder that the future could hold brighter days was welcome, even if it manifested in the design for an aerodynamic toaster, or a table lamp that looked more like a rocket launcher than like a piece of living room furniture. 

What most struck me as I made my way through the exhibit were the conversations happening amongst the other museum patrons. "Mother had one just like this," one man said, pointing to an electric mixer reminiscent of a missile, and another woman said roughly the same thing as she read the plaque on an engine-like electric slow roaster. I couldn't help but smile as several patrons, who I assumed were of the baby boomer generation, relived with each other their childhood memories sparked by revisiting these objects from their pasts. 

Most everyone visiting on opening day seemed engaged in conversation. To me, that's the most exciting aspect of this exhibit - that it's accessible by way of memory and personal experience and, as a result, oral histories issue forth in a way they may not have happened without the triggers represented by the objects on display.  

So, go see. And if you can, bring a parent or a grandparent along. Not only will their laughs of recognition help you to establish a more meaningful connection with what's presented in the exhibit, but you might just make some cherished memories of your own in the process. 

<em><a href="http://www.philbrook.org/">Photo courtesy of Philbrook Museum of Art: Skippy-Racer Scooter by Harold L. Van Doren and John Gordon Rideout, designed c. 1933</a></em>