John Cotton Dana and the politics of exhibiting industrial art in the US, 1909-1929

Abstract

Between 1909 and 1929, John Cotton Dana directed New Jersey's Newark Museum and pioneered the museum exhibition of mass-produced goods, initiating a trend among American art museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Through his work, Dana hoped to reform the museum community, society and industry. He saw his museum's activities as a progressive response to the problems of increased industrialization, an expanding consumer culture and the country's search for a national aesthetic based on the machine. This paper examines Dana's influence by investigating his correspondence, publications and exhibitions, including the first display in America of modern industrial design, the 1912 exhibit of the work of the Deutscher Werkbund. © 2000 The Design History Society. All rights reserved.