Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Graphic designer E. McKnight Kauffer (American, 1890–1954) integrated avant-garde style into modern life, designing everything from posters and book covers to carpets, film titles, theatrical productions, and more. Go beneath the surface of the work with curators Caitlin Condell and Emily M. Orr to discover aspects of Kauffer’s life, design process, and creative struggles.
Caitlin Condell, associate curator and head of the Department of Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Emily M. Orr, assistant curator of modern and contemporary American design, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
E. McKnight Kauffer: The Artist in Advertising is made possible in part by Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund.
Graphic designer E. McKnight Kauffer (American, 1890–1954) integrated avant-garde style into modern life, designing everything from posters and book covers to carpets, film titles, theatrical productions, and more. Go beneath the surface of the work with curators Caitlin Condell and Emily M. Orr to discover aspects of Kauffer’s life, design process, and creative struggles.
Caitlin Condell, associate curator and head of the Department of Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Emily M. Orr, assistant curator of modern and contemporary American design, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
E. McKnight Kauffer: The Artist in Advertising is made possible in part by Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund.
