Oral history interview with Ruth Adler Schnee
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 9 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 70 digital wav files. Duration is 11 hr., 9 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Schnee, Ruth Adler, 1923-
label: Interviewer
content: Schnee, Anita
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
topic: label: Occupation
content: Textile designers -- Michigan -- Detroit
label: Topic
content: Voyages and travels
label: Topic
content: Design -- Study and teaching
label: Topic
content: Art -- Economic aspects
label: Topic
content: Nazis -- Germany
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Decorative arts
label: Topic
content: Women textile designers
label: Topic
content: Textile crafts
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Schnee, Ruth Adler, 1923-
label: Interviewer
content: Schnee, Anita
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Ruth Adler Schnee (1923-2023) was a textile artist from Southfield, Michigan.
label: Biographical / Historical
content: The interviewer, Anita Schnee, is her daughter and is from Fayetteville, Arkansas.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 159 Pages (Transcript)
label: Extent
content: 70 Items (Sound recording: 70 sound files (11 hrs., 9 min.), digital, wav)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2002 November 24-30
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.schnee02
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript available online.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Ruth Adler Schnee conducted 2002 November 24-30, by Anita Schnee, at the artist's home in Southfield, Michigan, for the Archives of American Art as part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Schnee talks about her early childhood in Germany, living in Nazi Germany and her family's emigration to the U.S. in 1939; her family's beginnings in the U.S. and her education; working in the display department at Winkleman's Department store; her scholarship to Rhode Island School of Design; experiencing New York City at the close of WWII; attending Cranbrook Academy of Art; her friendship with Eliel and Loja Saarinen; meeting and marrying Edward Charles Schnee; their first silk screening studio in Detroit; early designs; a fire that destroyed the first Adler Schnee shop in 1955; the new Adler Schnee store on Livernois; buying trips to Norway, Sweden, and Finland; difficulties and strategies for selling fabric designs; teaching herself the silk-screening process; designing for the airline industry; her love of color; and the labor intensive process of making the perfect design.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Schnee also discusses her sources of inspiration and how they have changed over the years; good design as "problem solving"; participating in tradeshows and finding clients; the shop paper, "The Bugle;" the Detroit Artists Market; significant commissions including Braniff Airlines, Ford Rotunda Auditorium, the Feld-Weisberg Clinic, and the Jewish Home for the Aged; and a research trip to Williamsburg, Virginia, to learn early American design techniques. Schnee comments on her travels to Mexico, Germany, South America, Israel, and in the U.S. She concludes the sessions by reviewing the recording and providing additional information. Schnee recalls Paul Klee, Albert Kahn, Minoru Yamasaki, Maija Grotell, Richard Savage, Al Taubman, Louis Redstone, Hans Knoll, Victor Gruen, Edward Wormley, Edgar Kaufman, Susanne Dotson, Harley Melzian, Selma Fraiberg, Hedie and Helmut Goedeckemeyer, Roberto Lago, and others.