Page 39 - joa-1-22R

during the Great Depression. Some manufacturers included a small
piece of glassware in boxes of food or cleansers, enticing consumers to
purchase more pieces for their table service. Local movie theaters even
gave away pieces of glass with the purchase of a ticket. Entire sets could
be assembled in this manner.

Modern Living
As Americans recovered from the Depression, industries sold
consumers a vision of the future full of gleaming household appliances
like electric refrigerators and vacuum cleaners, mirrored radios, and
sleek automobiles. Industrialization and technological advances in
mass production made more goods accessible to a greater number of
Jazz Cocktail Tray, ca. 1930s, painted wood and metal, glass consumers, and labor-saving appliances also gave women more time
photo: Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art
to work outside the home or pursue leisure activities. New fashions,
interiors with polished, mirrored, and gilded surfaces projected produced by large clothing factories, provided the latest styles to more
glamour and prosperity, even during a time of great contradictions. people, allowing freedom of personal expression. Print and radio
From 1919 to 1930, Prohibition declared that “intoxicating liquors” advertisements touted “the new” to ensure that “the old” became
were illegal. Drinking alcohol went underground and behind closed obsolete and unfashionable. The United States seemed to be speeding
doors, becoming even more fashionable. into a bright future full of progress.
Clubs sprang up. Dance halls, cabarets, and vaudeville acts The influx of scientists, designers, artists, and writers from Europe
blossomed. Jazz and the blues, both of which had originated in the helped to spur economic recovery in the United States, yet many of
African American South, attracted diverse audiences. Jazz could be these innovators were fleeing persecution and intolerance in their
thunderous and quiet, dark and often hopeful. homelands. Unresolved racial and economic inequities in America,
Although there was some social mingling of Black and white including segregation in the South and redlining banking practices
Americans, it was still a period of great segregation and inequity. In throughout much of the country, were also becoming even more
many cities, Black bandleaders could play for white people but not exposed and stark. The country’s optimistic outlook was about to
stay in the same hotels as their audience. Drag shows allowed for non- be challenged again: a global war and internal conflicts were on
traditional articulations of gender within the confines of cabarets. the horizon.
Meanwhile, queer expression, breaches of segregation, and other
violations of convention were still widely rejected across America.

Economic Depression and Stimulus
Americans suffered great economic hardships following the
stock market crash of 1929, which halted industry and the growth of
wealth. The dust bowl of 1930-36 added to the misery, especially in
the Midwest. Destructive agricultural practices, compounded by
massive drought, destroyed the ecology of the American prairies, and
food was scarce.
Recovery began in 1933, facilitated by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s New Deal, which included a series of federal programs, Electrolux Vacuum Cleaner (Model 30), designed in 1937 by Lurelle Van
financial reforms, and regulations. Public works projects constructed Arsdale Guild (Am., 1898-1985
bridges, roads, and civic buildings. The government employed artists photo: Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art
to document American life and decorate public spaces. Cities and Combining the runners of a sleigh, the silhouette of a rocket, and the front of a
businesses staged world’s fairs to encourage consumers to purchase new train, the chrome plating and dynamic lines of the Electrolux Model 30 gave the
objects, putting designers and factory laborers back to work. impression that cleaning would be a breeze. From 1937 to 1954, nearly a million
To escape the realities of the world, many people turned to movies, vacuums were sold for $69.95 ($1,100.00 in today’s dollars). However,
radio programs, and musical recordings. By the 1930s, films had Electrolux offered a lucrative financing option: a $10.00 down payment could
buy the Model 30 for $6.00 per month, with an overall $4.00 interest charge.
sound, and comedies, westerns, and musicals were produced in great
numbers. Radio broadcasts included everything from religious sermons Streamline Moderne
to soap operas, to quiz shows. Big bands with bandleaders like Duke During the 1930s, advances in electricity, petroleum refining,
Ellington and Cab Calloway provided music for dances that went on chemistry, and building materials encouraged new forms of communi-
for hours. Paradoxically, the arts flourished during this time of crisis. cation and transportation. Engineers conceived sleeker, rounder, and
more aerodynamic trains, planes, and automobiles, allowing for greater
Depression Glass fuel efficiency. Designers also looked toward function and perform-
“Depression glass” is machine-made glassware produced from the ance, removing excess ornamentation in favor of the streamlined
late 1920s through about aesthetic of the machine age. Architects applied these principles to
1940. The moderately buildings, especially commercial structures like airport terminals, gas
priced, mold-made glass stations, motels, and movie theaters. Industrial designers added curved
was marketed to middle- forms and polished surfaces to furniture and household appliances.
class housewives in a This new version of the Art Deco style, called Streamline Moderne,
wide variety of patterns was promoted at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1933.
and colors, offering a bit
of brightness and hope Visit This Exhibition (links for each museum - just click the name)
for the dining table Art Deco: Designing for the People will be on display at the following
museums in 2022:
Pyramid (no. 610) Relish
Dish, 1926-32, made from Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN, Now through January 2, 2022
“Vaseline Glass” (Uranium Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS, February 12, 2022 through
Glass) and manufactured by May 30, 2022
the Indiana Glass Company, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, On View
Dunkirk, Indiana July 9, 2022 through January 8, 2023

January 2022 37