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World’s Fair kiosk is a secret showcase for wildflowers and whimsy inspired by Charles and Ray Eames
Henry Ford’s kiosk from the 1964 New York World’s Fair designed by Charles and Ray Eames was once part of the fair’s IBM Pavilion. The kiosk was one among several brightly hued “little theaters” — lighthearted counterpoints, pops of color — perched in a forest of technology, ideas and stylized steel trees. Underneath the kiosk canopies? Displays of computers, typewriters, calculators and pieces of the Eameses’ Mathematica exhibition, located next to mechanical puppet shows and the multiscreen Think film experience. Peer underneath the roof of The Henry Ford’s kiosk on display in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, and you will discover a painted panel of a bouquet of wildflowers: sea rocket, a sunflower, daisies, a morning glory, coneflowers, Queen Anne’s lace and milkweed. There might even be a sprig or two of goldenrod not yet in full bloom. The panel is a hidden footnote that deserves its own array of footnotes. In 1962, the Herman Miller furniture company (producers of Eames-designed furniture) wanted to redesign its stock certificate. The company rang up the Eames Office and spoke with Ray Eames herself. Her concept for the certificate’s background emblem soon found Herman Miller employees picking wildflowers from the fields in Zeeland, Michigan, where the company is headquartered.
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DID YOU KNOW? / Seven kiosks appeared in IBM’s outdoor exhibition area at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The Henry Ford’s Eames kiosk is the sole surviving example that was installed on the fairgrounds that year.
The flowers were packed on dry ice in a bucket and shipped to the Eameses in California, where Ray arranged them to be photographed by Charles. “We photographed them still in the bucket,” Ray Eames has been noted saying, accounting for the bird’s-eye view. The color photograph was printed in blackand-white and translated into a line engraving — the process used to print stock certificates and bank notes at the time. In 1964, the stock certificate image was revisited, hand-painted — engraving lines and all — in full color to be placed on the underside of the fair-bound kiosk.
cCreated by Charles and Ray Eames, the floral imagery on the underside of the World’s Fair kiosk (inset and at right) in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation first appeared on a Herman Miller stock certificate (above).
PHOTO COURTESY OF © 2018 EAMES OFFICE LLC EAMESOFFICE.COM
WATCH Watch the videos about installing the Eames New York World’s Fair kiosk in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation thehenryford.org/eames-kiosk/video and thehenryford.org/eames-kiosk-timelapse/videoc 56
JUNE-DECEMBER 2018
KIOSK INSET PHOTO FROM THE HENRY FORD ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION; KIOSK DETAIL PHOTO BY RUDY RUZICSKA