The Last Decade of Eames Furniture
In their final years of furniture design, the Eameses reimagined earlier works using new materials and technology to meet the evolving needs of modern workplaces.
The Eames Collection
Carved Spreader 1
IBM: Lakeside Postcard
“Sole Concessionaires” Postcard
“The Sofa by Charles Eames” Postcard
Cast Spreader 2
Large Leg Splint Sculpture
Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois Postcard
Study for Plyformed Wood Company Logo
Fashion Drawing: Evening Dress in Black and Gray
“Compliments of Evans Products Co.” Postcard
3700 Tandem Seating
Art in Progress: Fifteenth Anniversary Exhibition Catalog
“Love Charles” Postcard
692 Dining Table
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Clippings
“Alarm” Toy Boat
St. Mary’s Church in Arkansas
“It’s Child’s Play” Postcard
DTW-50 Table
“This is Bett’s” Postcard
Cast Armrest 2
“Danseurs et Charmeurs de Serpents, Djemaa el-Fna, Marrakech” Postcard
Splint Label for Evans Products Company
DTM-10
PSCA-36 Secretarial Adjustable Side Shell Prototype
Fashion Drawing: Party Dress
Photograph of Charles Eames with Steinberg Diploma
“Mathematica—The World of Numbers—and Beyond” Postcard
Photograph of Charles from High School
Spring Backstage (
671 Ottoman
Handmade Fiberglass Study for Side Shell
To Hofmann, Love from Buddha
Untitled, 1934–1935
Child’s Chair
Lounge Chair Spider Pattern Display Board
684 Lounge Chair
Fiberglass Side Shell
Seattle World’s Fair Postcard
Etching of Notre-Dame de Paris, Paris, France
ABC Graphic for Herman Miller
680 Dining Chair — Prototype Upholstery 2
ECS Flyer
White Horse Mask
Red and Green Top
House of Cards Mock-up Process (Box 1)
EC175 Office Seating Prototype
ES108 Eames Sofa (2000)
EA218 Upholstery Prototype
Fiberglass Side Shell
Paper Study for Side Shell
Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady of Monterrey, Mexico
Yearbook Cartoon for Yeatman High School
Photograph of Steinberg Drawing Projected onto Hedda Sterne with Glass
670 Lounge Chair
Molded Plywood Sculpture
Portrait of Ray
EC127 Upholstered Chair
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
-
-
Toys & Play
The Eameses’ eclectic collection of toys goes beyond fun and games, it also offers a window into the couple’s singular approach to design.
-
Steinberg Meets the Eameses
In the summer of 1950, the artist Saul Steinberg spent a day at play within the Office of Charles and Ray Eames resulting in an iconic collaboration.
-
Tables
Eames chairs have always stolen the spotlight, but an adjacent thirty-year legacy of table designs demonstrates the designers’ same thoughtful approach to problem-solving.
-
Ray’s Hand
From scraps and scribbles to maquettes and models, the Eames Collection contains countless examples that illustrate Ray Eames’s unique working methods and iconic collaborations.
-
Eames Aluminum Group
The Eames Aluminum Group originated as outdoor furniture for a specific architectural commission, but has subsequently become one of the most recognizable and successful Eames designs.
-
Postcards
From promotional tools created by the Eameses, to communication devices from a bygone era, postcards offer a unique window into Ray and Charles’s world.
-
Shell Chairs
The Eameses’ quest to create a comfortable and affordable shell chair from a single material led to two iconic designs—and limitless permutations.
-
Experiments in Plywood
As World War II raged overseas, Ray and Charles turned their practice toward the war effort, and in the process learned lessons that set the stage for a life in design.
-
Before They Were the Eameses
By the time Ray Kaiser met Charles Eames in 1940 each had led remarkable lives marked by restless curiosity and creative pursuits.
