WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a gallery arranged like a Gilded Age showroom, you can browse the same items as wealthy customers from a century ago. The DAR Museum’s new exhibit, Illuminating Design: The Decoration and Technology of E. F. Caldwell and Co., 1895-1959, is the first to focus on this influential design firm.

You have probably seen Caldwell’s fixtures without realizing it; most big cities in the United States have at least one building fitted with Caldwell lighting. The DAR’s headquarters building is one of them, as is the White House, National Archives, and Radio City Music Hall. There is a reason Caldwell’s work is so widespread: as Tiffany Studios did with glass, Caldwell combined fine workmanship with a sophisticated design sensibility in their New York City location to become the most sought-after producers of lighting fixtures.

The exhibition’s curator, Patrick Sheary, said, “The firm used modern and traditional technologies to create their items mostly in historic styles. They won many awards for their ability to use modern production methods like photo etching while maintaining a high quality standard. One contemporary critic characterized this ability as ‘setting the egg on end.’” Sheary, the DAR Museum’s Curator of Furnishings and Historic Interiors, has studied E.F. Caldwell and Company’s work for years, consulting the firm’s original design and order books and hunting down correspondence from prominent architects of the time including Stanford White and John Russell Pope.

Many of the pieces really are gilded, and they reflect the extravagant decorative tastes of the time. Light glints off gold, colorful enamel, and glass prisms, immersing the viewer in the same sumptuous surroundings of the era’s wealthy elite. Among the items on display are a chess set, bowls, clocks, light fixtures, and even a flashlight, with the electric switches of these “modern” appliances cleverly hidden in their decoration.

The exhibit also shows the human side of Caldwell. Nearly a thousand employees worked at the company at its height in the 1920s. Men and women from diverse backgrounds were employed as skilled architects, drafters, engineers, machinists, electricians, and salesmen. The employee roster included a young Lou Gehrig, before his career as a baseball player.

Visit the DAR Museum March 6 through December 31, 2020, to see this extraordinary exhibit. The museum is free and open to the public Monday through Saturday except holidays. Check the website for details: www.dar.org/museum

About the DAR Museum
The DAR Museum tells the story of the American home from the 1600s through the early 1900s through objects, exhibits, and programming. The DAR Museum, accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, supports the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution’s goals of historic preservation and education through collecting, preserving, and interpreting American decorative arts and material culture. Learn more at www.dar.org/museum

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