Art Bound- Margaret Armstrong and the Decorative Designers

Margaret Armstrong and the Decorative Designers The work of Margaret Armstrong (1867-1944) relied upon motifs gathered from nature (vines, plants, flowers) and rendered in boldly colored inks with contrasting book cloths. She experimented with gold stamping, sometimes using both a shiny and a matte treatment on the same cover. Her work contrast strongly with that of Sarah Wyman Whitman, seen in the previous case, in that she often uses block letters rather than the Art Nouveau-inspired type that Whitman preferred. Armstrong usually marked her covers, employing a overlapping MA. The Decorative Designers (firm, 1895-1932) employed a number of designers, including the founder Henry Thayer (1867-1940), Emma Redington Lee Thayer (1874-1973), Charles Buckles Falls (d. 1960) and Jay Chambers (d. 1929). Due to the number of artists, the work of the Decorative Designers (marked by an entwined DD) does not display a cohesive style. Sometimes it is more organic, like the work of Margaret Armstrong, but in other cases the book cover displays a more geometric face. In later years the designers even experimented with gradient colors, as you can see in the Poster Cover case. Due to their many styles, Decorative Designers’ work is displayed in several cases in this exhibition.
	Edith Wharton. Italian Backgrounds. New York, Scribners, 1905. Cover Design by: Margaret Armstrong (1867-1944)
Mary Elizabeth Carter. Millionaire Households and their Domestic Economy. New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1903. Cover Design by: Margaret Armstrong (1867-1944)
	Henry Van Dyke. Days Off and Other Digressions. New York: Scribners, 1907. Cover Design by: Margaret Armstrong Gift of: The John Livezey Fund
Margaret Armstrong monogram from the cover of: Henry Van Dyke. Days Off and Other Digressions. New York: Scribners, 1907.
	Henry Van Dyke. Out-of-Doors in the Holy Land. New York: Scribners, 1908. Cover design: Margaret Armstrong Gift of: The John Livezey Fund
Edith Wharton. In Morocco. New York: Scribners, 1920. Cover Design by: Margaret Armstrong Gift of: The John Livezey Fund
	Eliza Calvert Hall. Clover and Blue Grass. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1916. Illustrated by: H. R. Ballinger Cover Design by: Decorative Designers
Alfred Noyes. The Golden Hynde and Other Poems. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1908. Cover Design by: Decorative Designers Gift of: Charles Wharton Stork
	Decorative Designers monogram from the cover of: Alfred Noyes. The Golden Hynde and Other Poems. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1908.
Lafcadio Hearn. Shadowings. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1900. Cover Design by: Decorative Designers Gift of: Robert L. Raley
	Helen Reimensnyder Martin. The Betrothal of Elypholate and Other Tales of the Pennsylvania Dutch. New York: The Century Co., 1907. Illustrated by: Charlotte Harding and Alice Barber Stephens Cover Design by: Decorative Designers Gift of: The John Livezey Fund