High Armchair c. 1940

Virgil Liberto made this watercolor painting of a ‘High Armchair’, with the original object being 4 feet high, 1’9” wide, and 1’7” deep. The Image of American Design Index, or IAD, collected images of American material culture from the 1930s to the 1940s. This was a project of the WPA, the Works Progress Administration, which was one of President Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ programs during the Great Depression. Artists were employed to create a visual record of the decorative arts in America. These images reflect the desire to define an authentic American culture at a time of economic hardship and social change. The chair represents the values of functionality, craftsmanship, and the handmade which were associated with rural, pre-industrial life. It's important to note that the selection and interpretation of objects for the IAD was not neutral; it reflected specific ideas about what constituted American identity. Further research using the original IAD records could reveal more about these cultural and institutional biases.