California's
Designing Women, 1896–1986
The newness
of California, and the state’s periodic bursts of population growth, afforded
unprecedented opportunities for women to participate in the creation and
production of design, one of the principal engines of California’s dynamic
economy, now the sixth largest in the world. As California’s extraordinary role
in American design is receiving the recognition it has long deserved,
California’s Designing Women, 1896–1986 acknowledges the work of more than
fifty of the women who, as designers and entrepreneurs, helped make that
distinction possible.