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| Carol Evans at the debut of Dave Chapman's stamp by the USPS. |
On Wednesday, June 29, 2011, the US Postal Service officially debuted their Pioneers of American Industrial Design stamp pane at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
The ceremony started off with the Presentation of Colors by the High School of Graphic Communication Art Navy Junior ROTC and the singing of the National Anthem. Bill Moggridge, Director of the Cooper-Hewitt and inventor of the laptop computer, 1979, welcomed the audience and Jessica Helfand, Design Subcommittee Chair of the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee said “It was a great day for design and designers.”
Of course, our favorite was the stamp featuring two sewing machines in streamlined elegance. They were designed by Dave Chapman (1909-1978) for the White Sewing Machine Company of Cleveland, in 1949. Chapman began his career at Montgomery Ward and Company, and in1935 founded Dave Chapman Industrial Design. He was a president of the Society of Industrial Designers, a recipient of the Design Award Medal given by the Industrial Designers Institute, and a fellow of the International Institute of Arts and Letters. His papers are at Syracuse University.
Most importantly, to us, Chapman is also the father of our friend and years-ago Associated American Artists’ colleague Carol Evans.
The stamp pane features twelve designers. There’s only one woman, Greta von Nessen, but it’s a wonderful group including Frederick Hurten Rhead who developed Fiesta Dinnerare, as well as Norman Bel Geddes, Henry Dreyfuss, Raymond Loewy, and Russel Wright.
These are forever stamps with short histories printed on the reverse, the peel off backs.
