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Front view of the Eames Aluminum Group 685 Ottoman, with black Naugahyde upholstery and a steel base.

685 Ottoman

Front view of the Eames Child Chair in Birch, with red aniline dye and a heart cut out on the chair back.

Child’s Chair

Side view of an Eames Aluminum Group charcoal nylon-coated aluminum armrest in a trapezoid shape with rounded corners.

Cast Armrest 1

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Occasional Table Prototype

Postcard for the Evans Products Co. which manufactured the Eameses’ designs until 1948 when they switched to Herman Miller.

“Compliments of Evans Products Co.” Postcard

Postcard of the Nut Tree patio featuring a covered fire pit and patrons sitting on chairs from the Eames Aluminum Group.

Nut Tree Plaza Postcard

Postcard featuring four Eames chairs—a DCM, a fiberglass PSC, a fiberglass rocking chair, and an upholstered wire DKR-2.

“Chairs by Charles Eames” Postcard

Postcard of the CIty Palace in Jaipur, India, sent by Ray Eames to her sister- and brother-in-law in 1970.

City Palace Jaipur Postcard

Mathematica exhibition postcard from the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago features an installation about probability.

Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois Postcard

Front view of an early Eames DSR chair. The fiberglass shell is a light muted yellow and the base is made of steel.

DSR Fiberglass Side Shell Chair

Postcard with an additional view of The Nut Tree dining room filled with Eames chairs, and Alexander Girard draped textiles,

Western Dining at the Nut Tree (Variant 2) Postcard

Side view of a colorful toy boat made of wood, paper, and metal with the word “Alarm” in red at the boat’s bow.

“Alarm” Toy Boat

Fashion drawing by Ray Eames features a blue and red patterned dress with a green bolero jacket.

Fashion Drawing: Blue and Red Dress with Green Bolero Jacket

Front view of a colorful 25” x 30” abstract painting by Ray Eames.

Untitled, 1938

Herman Miller postcard featuring 4 Eames chairs, DAX-1, PSC-1 side chair, LCM molded plywood chair, and a fiberglass DSR.

“Chairs Designed by Charles Eames” Postcard

Postcard of the Giant Egg installation from the Eames Mathematica exhibition which hatches 150 eggs as baby chicks daily.

“Giant Egg” Postcard

Herman Miller postcard promoting four Eames chair designs.

“Sole Concessionaires” Postcard

Interior view of the Nut Tree restaurant dining room featuring many patrons sitting on Eames molded fiberglass armchairs.

Western Dining at the Nut Tree (Variant 3) Postcard

Cover for the 1949 Exhibition for Modern Living at the Detroit Institute of Arts, a showcase of modern design.

An Exhibition for Modern Living Catalog

Top down view of a black and orange bird kite made from paper, ink, string and bamboo.

Black Bird Kite

Angled front view of the EA219 Tilt-Swivel Reclining Lounge Chair with casters, black leather upholstery, and a steel base.

EA422 Tilt-Swivel Reclining Lounge Chair (with Casters)

Herman Miller postcard for the Eames S-73 Sofa with Alexander Girard upholstery, set among paper kites and Eames LTR tables.

“The Sofa by Charles Eames” Postcard

Side view of a painted Swiss wood and brass top in green that Ray and Charles Eames collected.

Swiss Top

Front angled view of an Eames Family Seating Fiberglass Shell Prototype for a four-seat sofa designed by the Eameses.

Family Seating Fiberglass Shell Prototype

Black fiberglass and Naugahyde prototype for the shell of the Eames Secretarial Chair, designed by Ray and Charles Eames.

PSCA-36 Secretarial Adjustable Side Shell Prototype

Front view of a tan Handmade Fiberglass Study for an Eames Side Shell from 1951.

Handmade Fiberglass Study for Side Shell

Side view of the first table Charles and Ray Eames designed together, it has a molded plywood top and tubular aluminum base.

Molded Plywood Table with Tubular Aluminum Base

Postcard from the retailer “Bett’s” featuring an Eames LCM chair, a mid-century table, and several decorative accessories.

“This is Bett’s” Postcard

Lunch box painted by Charles Eames for his daughter Lucia. A blue background is decorated with a border of hearts and stars.

Lucia’s Lunch Box

Front view of an abstract oil painting with many colorful shapes in various sizes by Ray Eames.

Untitled, 1935–1936

Front view of a yellow Eames Fiberglass Side Shell.

Fiberglass Side Shell

ES106 Eames Chaise

“Christmas Greetings from the Chomeaux” Christmas Card

Front view of an Eames Fiberglass Side Shell color test sample in navy blue.

Fiberglass Side Shell

Side view of the Eames EC328 Secretarial Chair with orange fabric upholstery and a black metal base.

EC328 Secretarial Chair (Fabric)

Front view of a black Eames Fiberglass Shell designed in 1952.

Fiberglass Side Shell

Front view of a sculpture designed by Ray Eames cut from a mahogany splint and stained brown.

Small Leg Splint Sculpture

Side view of the Eames Minimum Chair. The design is slender and made of two oval pieces of sheet metal and a metal rod base.

Minimum Chair Prototype

Front view of an Eames Fiberglass Side Shell color test sample in a dark red shade.

Fiberglass Side Shell

Saul Steinberg drawing of a woman projected onto his wife Hedda Sterne’s face taken by photographer Inge Morath.

Photograph of Steinberg Drawing Projected onto Hedda Sterne with Hands in Lap

Top down view of a colorful butterfly kite with tassels made from paper, ink, string, and bamboo.

Butterfly Kite

Front view of a colorful shadow puppet from India made from wood, paper and paint that was collected by the Eameses.

Ravana Shadow Puppet

Charles Eames with his daughter Lucia when she was a young child, posing outside with several trees in the background.

Photograph of Young Lucia and Charles

Paper doll and clothes for a young girl created by Ray with ink, watercolor and graphite on paper when she was in highschool.

Paper Doll Set: Young Girl with Nine Outfits

Catalog cover from MoMA’s 15th anniversary exhibition Art in Progress: Design for Use in 1944.

Art in Progress: Fifteenth Anniversary Exhibition Catalog

Front view of an Eames Fiberglass Side Shell green color-test sample.

Fiberglass Side Shell

Ink drawing by Ray Eames for a sculpture using the contours of the leg splint pattern.

Study for Leg Splint Sculpture

Top down view of the Chutes and Ladders board game, with a grid of squares in blue and tan and a red border.

Chutes & Ladders/Red Riding Hood Game

Front view of a brown paper template with fabrication notations for a molded plywood sculpture by Ray and Charles Eames.

Paper Template for Plywood Sculpture

American Abstract Artists Exhibition Catalog from 1938. This issue featured an abstract painting by Ray Eames.

American Abstract Artists Exhibition Catalog, 1938

Front view of an Eames MKX-1 upholstered wire chair in tan leather with a metal base.

MKX-1 Upholstered Wire Chair

Top down side view of an Eames Aluminum Group side rail. The aluminum finish is uneven and peeling in some areas.

Cast Side Rail 1

American Abstract Artists catalog which provides a list of the exhibitions organized by the group since their establishment.

American Abstract Artists Exhibition Catalog, 1939

Top down view of a teal colored serving tray with a pattern of gold marine plants and animals that Ray Eames created.

“Sea Things” Tray

Front angled view of the Eames EA323 Ottoman upholstered in orange hopsak textile and a metal base.

EA 323 Ottoman

Front view of the Eames stackable DSS SIde Shell chair made of fiberglass with a metal base.

DSS Stacking Side Chair

A paper doll and her fashionable wardrobe of four outfits rendered by Ray in ink, watercolor, and graphite on paper.

Paper Doll Set: A Woman with Four Dresses

Front view of a molded plywood elephant with many curved areas that was designed by Ray and Charles Eames.

Molded Plywood Elephant

Side view of an Eames Leather Upholstered Wire Chair Prototype with an aluminum base and steel column.

Upholstered Wire Chair Prototype

About the Eames Collection

The Eames Collection contains more than 40,000 objects spanning the expansive creative practice of Ray and Charles Eames. Drawn largely from the Eames Office at 901 Washington Boulevard in Venice, California, the holdings⁠—which the Eames family asked the Institute to safeguard⁠—include one-of-a-kind design prototype parts and pieces, early examples of their iconic furniture, extensive photographs, correspondence, tools, ephemera, and personal artifacts collected over decades of experimentation, travel, and collaboration. Together, these materials provide the world’s most intimate view into the Eameses’ work, which shaped, and continue to shape, modern design across furniture, architecture, exhibition design, film, and visual communications.

The Collection exists today because Lucia Eames as the owner and Llisa Demetrios as registrar spent decades caring for and archiving the materials that remained outside institutional archives. Believing Ray and Charles’s iterative process to be as important as their finished work, incredible care has been put into accounting for virtually every piece of material at the closure of the Eames Office in Venice, California. Today, the Eames Institute stewards the Collection through ongoing cataloging, preservation, research, and public engagement, ensuring that this remarkable archive is accessible to current and future generations at the Eames Archives, Eames Ranch, and the Institute’s forthcoming museum, as well as through loans to peer institutions.

All Exhibitions