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Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs
Art & Architecture Collection

Interior Design: A Research Guide

The Art and Architecture Collection of The New York Public Library maintains one of the most significant collections of interior design literature in the United States. Acquisitions from the original Astor, Tilden and Lenox collections and other early bequests include influential architectural source books, an antiquarian-based collection of portfolio and plate-books, and early design periodicals. The current interior design collection policy is extensive, with emphasis on theory and history rather than professional or applied aspects. In spite of this, many practicing interior designers, architects and students use this collection, as do scholars, theatrical set designers, and antique dealers. The Division also collects in other areas closely linked with the study of interior design, such as architecture, decorative arts, and furniture history.

Using the Catalogs

General instructions for locating materials are given in Research Guide, "How do I Find a Book?" The following information is specific to the topic at hand.

Both the retrospective Dictionary Catalog and CATNYP, the online catalog, use the term interior decoration rather than "interior design." Interior decoration is then subdivided by geography, period, general themes, and format. For example, in CATNYP:

• Interior decoration--England--History--18th century
• Interior decoration--France--Nancy
• Interior decoration--Human factors
• Interior decoration--United States--Periodicals

The Dictionary Catalog is generally not as narrow in its subjects, and uses the adjectival form of the country:

• Interior decoration, French or
• Interior decoration--French

Although it uses:

• Interior decoration, U.S. (not "American")

Some related and unique subject headings found in CATNYP include:

• Church decoration and ornament
• House furnishings
• Interior decoration in art
• Lighting, Architectural and decorative
• Upholstery
• Women interior decorators

In addition to those above, subject headings for CATNYP, including cross references, can be found by consulting the Library of Congress Subject Headings available on the open shelves in Room 313, or, of course, the staff at the reference desk. Works can also be searched by stylistic periods, e.g., Art Deco, or by the name of a specific designer or architect by performing subject and author searches.

All works listed in this bibliography that have call numbers beginning with *R or are appended by (Open) or (Front) are found in Room 313, either on the open reference shelves (thus, "open"), or behind the front reference desk ("front"). All others are paged by the staff.

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Boger, Louise Ade, Dictionary of Antiques and the Decorative Arts (New York: Scribner, 1967) MAVC 1967 (Front)

Byers, Mel, The Design Encyclopedia (London: Lawrence King, 1994) MNC 94-13106 (Front)

Dizik, A. Allen, Concise Encyclopedia of Interior Design (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1988, 2nd ed) *R-Art 89-777 (Front)

Heisinger, Kathryn B., and Marcus, George H., Landmarks of Twentieth-Century Design: an Illustrated Handbook (New York: Abbeville Press, 1993) MLD 93-14587 (Front)

Julier, Guy, The Thames and Hudson Encyclopedia of 20th Century Design and Designers (London: Thames and Hudson, 1993) MNC 94-11348 (Front)

Lewis, Philippa, Dictionary of Ornament (London: Macmillan, 1986) *R-Art 87-6604 (Front)

Niesewand, Nonie, The Encyclopedia of Interior Design and Decoration (London: Macdonald Orbis, 1988) MLO 90-785 (Open)

Pegler, Martin M., Dictionary of Interior Design (New York: Fairchild, 1983) MLO 94-14419 (Front)

Pile, John F., Dictionary of 20th-Century Design (New York: Facts on File, 1990) MNF 91-3301 (Front)

Directories

Conran Directory of Design, edited by Stephen Bayley (New York: Villard Books, 1985) MNF 85-4329 (Front)

Contemporary Designers, Edited by Colin Naylor (Chicago: St. James Press, 1990, 2nd ed.) MNF+ 91-4858 (Front)

Design Firm Directory (Environmental and Interior Design Edition) (Evanston, Ill: Wefler & Assoc., 1987- latest edition) *R-Art Front

Who's Who in Interior Design (Laguna Beach, Calif: Barons, 1988- latest edition) *R-Art 89-1566 (Front)

Theory

Abercrobie, Stanley, A Philosophy of Interior Design. (New York: Harper & Row, 1990) 3-MLO 91-8635

Brown, Erica, Interior Views (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980) MLO 81-1850

Camesasca, Ettore, History of the House (New York: Putnam, 1971) MRG+ 71-322

Casson, Hugh, Inscape, the Design of Interiors (London: Architectural Press, 1968) MRN

Eastlake, Charles Locke, Hints on Household Taste.... (Boston: J.R. Osgood, 1876) 3-MLO

Kaufmann, Edgar, What is Modern Interior Design? (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1953) *ZM MAR p.v. 1191 No. 6

Mumford, Lewis, Technics and Civilization (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1938) TB

Pevsner, Nikolaus, Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (New York: Museum of Modern Art, c1949, 2nd ed.) MAL

Pile, John F, Interior Design (New York: Abrams 1988) MLO+ 88-2249 (Open)

Rogers, Meyric Reynold, American Interior Design (New York: W.W. Norton, 1947) MLO

Rybczynski, Witold, Home: A Short History of an Idea (New York, Viking Penguin, 1986) 3-MQ 86-3617

Verlet, Pierre. Styles, meubles décors, du moyen age à nos jours (Paris: Larousse, 1972) MOF+ 73-486

Wharton, Edith and Ogden Cadman Jr., The Decoration of Houses (New York: Scribner, 1907) 3-MLO

History

Beard, Georffrey W. Craftsmen and Interior Decoration in England 1660-1820 (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1986) 3-MLO+ 84-2364

Blondel, Jacques-François. De la Distribution des maisons de plaisance et de la decoration des édifices en general (Paris, 1737-8) 3-MRGF

Bolton, Arthur Thomas, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam (1758-1794) (London: Country Life, 1922) MLH+

Cooper, Jeremy, Victorian and Edwardian Furniture and Interiors (London: Thames and Hudson, 1987) MOF+ 88-1649

Cornforth, John, English Interiors 1790-1848: the Quest for Comfort (London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1978) MLO+ 79-426

D'Amato, Gabriella, Storia dell'arredamento: dal 1750 a oggi (Rome: Laterza, c1992) 3-MLO+ 94-3002

De Fusco, Renato, Storia dell'arredamento (Torino: UTET, c1985) 3-MLO 86-3339

Destailleur, Hippolyte Alexandre Gabriel Walter. Recueil d'Estampes relatives à l'ornementation des appartements aux XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris: Rappilly, 1863-1871) MLO++

Fowler, John and John Cornforth. English Decoration in the 18th Century (London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1974) MLF 76-827

Gere, Charlotte, Nineteenth-Century Decoration: the Art of the Interior (New York: Abrams, 1989) 3-MLO 90-8306

Gore, Alan, English Interiors: an Illustrated History (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1991) 3-MLF 91-8719

Great Interiors, Edited by Ian Grant (New York: Dutton, 1967) MLO+

Hope, Thomas, Household Furniture and Interior Decoration Executed from Designs by Thomas Hope (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807) MLO++

Jourdain, Margaret, English Decoration and Furniture of the Early Renaissance (1500-1650) (London: B.T. Batsford, 1924) MLF+

Lucie-Smith, Edward, Furniture: A Concise History (London: Thames and Hudson, 1985) MOF 80-886

Mayhew, Edgar de Noailles and Minor Myers Jr., A Documentary History of American Interiors (New York: Scribner, c1980) MLO 81-1153

McCorquodale, Charles, The History of Interior Decoration (Oxford: Phaidon, 1988) MLO 90-8205

McKay, Alexander Gordon, Houses, Villas, and Palaces in the Roman World (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1975) 3-MQM 76-1763

Percier, Charles and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine. Recueil de décorations intérieures comprenant tout ce qui a rapport a l'ameublement… (Paris: A. Guerinet, 1812) MLO++

Praz, Mario, An Illustrated History of Furnishing from the Renaissance to the Twentieth Century (New York: G. Braziller, 1964) MLO+

Sparke, Penny, Design in Context (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1987) MNC 88-1473

Thornton, Peter, Authentic Decor: The Domestic Interior, 1620-1920 (New York: Viking, c1984) MLO 85-963

Whiffen, Marcus and Koeper, Frederick, American Architecture 1607-1976 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, c1981) 3-MQWO 82-657

Twentieth Century

Battersby, Martin, The Decorative Thirties (London: Herbert Press, 1988) MNC 89-596

Battersby, Martin, The Decorative Twenties (London: Herbert Press, 1988) MNC 89-595

Calloway, Stephen, Twentieth-Century Decoration: The Domestic Interior from 1900 to the Present Day (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988) MLO 89-11564

Fehrman, Cherie and Kenneth, Postwar Interior Design: 1945-1960 (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1987) MLO 86-5151

Glancy, Jonathan, The New Moderns (London: Mitchell Beazley, 1990) 3-MLO+ 91-4945

Horn, Richard, Fifties Style: Then and Now (New York: Beech Tree Books, 1985) MLF 88-4155

Lind, Carla, The Wright Style: The Interiors of Frank Lloyd Wright... (London: Thames and Hudson, 1922) 3-MQZ+ (Wright) 95-6321

Massey, Anne, Interior Design of the 20th Century (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1990) 3-MLO 91-2688

Tate, Allen, and Smith, Ray C. Interior Design in the 20th Century (New York: Harper & Row, 1986) MLO 86-963

Troy, Nancy, Modernism and the Decorative Arts in France: Art Nouveau to Le Corbusier (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991) 3-MLF 91-5453

Journals

The Division has in its collection a vast amount of interior design periodicals of research value, including many foreign and nineteenth-century titles. In the Dictionary Catalog, look under the subject heading Interior decoration--Per. & Soc. Publications; in CATNYP, the subject heading is Interior decoration--Periodicals. The Art & Architecture Division maintains a notebook of our periodical holdings and their call numbers at the Reference Desk in Room 313. General instructions for locating journals are given in the Research Guide, "How to Find Periodicals".

Some significant journals are listed here. Current issues are available in the Periodicals Division, Room 108.

Abitare no. 1- (1960- ) MLA+

Architectural Digest vol. 6- (1925- ) MQA+

L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui annee 4, 6- (avril 1935- ) 3-MQA+

L'Architettura anno 1- (magg/giugno 1955- ) 3-MQA+

Casabella no. 27- (March 1930- , incomplete) 3-MLA+

Design (London) vol. 1- (1949- ) 3-MNA

Domus anno 6- (1933- , incomplete) 3-MLA+

House Beautiful vol. 1- (1896- , incomplete) MAA+ (House beautiful)

Interior Design and Decoration vol. 3- (1934- ) 3-MLA

Interiors (1895- , prior names vary) MOFB+

Progressive Architecture (1946-1995) MQA

Indexes and Electronic Sources

The major indexes to periodical literature on interior design are listed below. They are available in book and electronic format, and are located in Room 313.

Art Index (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1929- ) MAC (Art index). Electronic format (1984- ). An important index to the major periodicals in the field. May be searched by subject, designer, and, in some cases, by author.

Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1973) MQB+ 73-2854. Electronic format (1984- ). The most comprehensive index of architectural literature, some of which date as far back as 1876. Search by designer, architect, and subject.

Design and Applied Arts Index (Burwash, England: Design Documentation, 1988- ) MAC+ 90-2802. Electronic format (1987- ). Covers architecture and design titles. Search by subject and name of architect or designer.

 

--prepared by Heidi Martin Winston, Art and Architecture Collection.
October, 1996