Oral history interview with Niels Diffrient
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 memory cards. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 58 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Diffrient, Niels
label: Interviewer
content: McQuaid, Matilda, 1958-
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: Cranbrook Academy of Art
label: Names
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: Bassett, Chuck
label: Names
content: Dreyfuss, Henry, 1904-1972
label: Names
content: Hernmarck, Helena, 1941-
label: Names
content: King, Bob
label: Names
content: Knoll, Florence, 1917-2019
label: Names
content: Knoll, Hans
label: Names
content: Loewy, Raymond
label: Names
content: Magnusson, Carl G., 1940-
label: Names
content: Rowland, David Lincoln, 1924-2010
label: Names
content: Saarinen, Eero, 1910-1961
label: Names
content: Saarinen, Eliel, 1873-1950
label: Names
content: Whelan, Elizabeth
label: Names
content: Wolf, Henry, 1852-1916
place: label: Place
content: Italy -- description and travel
label: Place
content: Michigan -- Detroit -- Description and Travel
label: Place
content: Mississippi -- Description and Travel
topic: label: Occupation
content: Industrial designers -- New York (State) -- New York
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: Diffrient, Niels
label: Interviewer
content: McQuaid, Matilda, 1958-
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Niels Diffrient (1928-2013) is an industrial designer in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Matilda McQuaid (1958-) is deputy curatorial director, Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 55 Pages (Transcript)
label: Extent
content: 4 Items (Sound recording: 4 sound files (2 hr., 58 min.), digital, wav)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2010 July 28-August 31
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.diffri10
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Niels Diffrient conducted 2010 July 28 and August 31, by Matilda McQuaid, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Diffrient's home and studio, in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Diffrient speaks of growing up in Detroit while spending his summers with his mother's family in Mississippi; the value of growing up on a farm; attending Cass Technical High School in Detroit; realizing that he did not want to work in a factory; learning about crafts at Cranbrook Academy; travelling to Italy on a Fulbright Grant; working with Italian versus American designers; designing office chairs; the state of education in America. Diffrient's wife, Helena Hernmarck, contributes to the discussion of craft, weaving, and textiles. Diffrient also recalls Hans and Florence Knoll, Eero Saarinen, Eliel Saarinen, Chuck Bassett, David Rowland, Henry Dreyfuss, Bob King, Carl Magnusson, Raymond Loewy, Henry Wolf, Elizabeth Whelan, and others.