Press Cupboard c. 1936

Anne Ger created this watercolor rendering of a ‘Press Cupboard’ at an unknown date. We can understand this piece through the lens of the Index of American Design, a New Deal project that employed artists to document American material culture during the 1930s and 40s. The Index served a dual purpose. It provided work for artists during the Great Depression while also attempting to define a distinct American aesthetic rooted in folk art and craft traditions. This particular rendering exemplifies the Index's focus on documenting vernacular furniture, highlighting the craftsmanship and decorative motifs of everyday objects. The choice of the press cupboard, a common household item, speaks to the Index's democratic impulse to celebrate the artistic value of ordinary things. By studying such images, along with archival documents, we can better understand the cultural and economic context of both the object depicted and the artistic project that produced its image.