Guide to the Lester Beall Papers

Scope and Contents

Collection documents the professional artwork of graphic designer and commercial artist Lester Beall dating from 1937 to 1962. Most of the materials were created for major American companies including Abbott Laboratories, International Paper Company, Labatt's Brewing Company, Upjohn Pharmaceuticals, and Marshall Field & Company. Several clients were magazine publishers with Beall creating the cover art and printed advertisements for Scope Magazine (Upjohn Pharmaceuticals), Red Cross Magazine, Time Magazine, and What's New Magazine (Abbot Laboratories). In addition, Beall also created logo and packaging designs. Most of the artwork is attached to heavy matboard, is signed but undated, and documents the end product rather than the creative process. There is a small amount of artwork that was created by Beall for his personal holiday cards and invitations. Beall's art was a subject of two exhibitions for the Society of Illustrators and the Art Center School in Los Angeles, California.

There is no information relating to Beall's personal life such as his education or family. There is also no information pertaining to the running of his design business. Materials are arranged in two series. Series one contains the work Beall created for his clients. Series two includes personal art and exhibition materials.

Arrangement

Collection is arranged in two series.

Series 1, Client Work, 1937-1956, undated

Series 2, Personal Papers, 1939-1962, undated

Biographical / Historical

American designer Lester Beall (March 14, 1903-June 20, 1969) was educated at Lane Technical School in Chicago and received a bachelor's degree in art history from the University of Chicago. Upon discovering the work of the European avant-garde, Beall was inspired to bring American design of the 1930s and 1940s to a higher level of effective visual communication. Self-taught, Lester Beall was one of the first Americans to have his work shown in a German monthly graphics periodical, Gebrauchsgraphik, and was one of the first Americans to incorporate the New Typography, using techniques such as photomontage, collage and the use of cut-out flat colored paper in combination with photography and economical line drawing, reworking the element of European modernism into distinctive American style. He produced solutions to graphic design problems that were unique among his American contemporaries.

Beall moved from Chicago to New York in 1935 and did work that was influential to the field of editorial design. Between 1938 and 1940, he redesigned twenty magazines for McGraw Hill, in 1946 he designed two covers for Fortune and in 1944, he began designing Scope magazine for UpJohn Pharmaceuticals which he did until 1951. In 1952, Beall opened a design office on Dumbarton Farm, his home in rural Connecticut. In 1973, four years after his death, Lester Beall was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame.

Philip B. Meggs credits Beall with "almost single-handedly launching the modern movement in American design". In 1973, four years after his death, the Art Directors Club of New York belatedly elected him to its prestigious Hall of Fame. Bob Plisken, who worked for Beall in the early 1940s, said on that occasion, "In my opinion, Beall did more than anyone to make graphic design in American a distinct and respected profession".

Related Materials

Francis Mair Papers, NMAH.AC.0548

Thomajan Advertising Collection, NMAH.AC.0643

Albert W. Hampson Commercial Artwork Collection, NMAH.AC.0561

Procter & Gamble Company Product Packaging Collection, NMAH.AC.0836

William Metzig Papers, NMAH.AC.1269

Saul Nesbitt Papers, NMAH.AC.1275

Dan Friedman Papers, NMAH.AC.1277

Richard E. Filipowski Papers, AAA.filirich

Esther Fisher Benson Papers, AAA.bensesth

Frederick Hammersley Papers, AAA.hammfred

Antonin Heythum Papers, AAA.heytanto

George Kaneko Slides and Photographs Related to Herbert Bayer and the ARCO Art Collection, AAA.kanegeor

Abril Lamarque Papers, AAA.lamaabri

Alvin Lustig Papers, AAA.lustalvi

Robert Overby (1935-1993), AAA.overrobe

Helen J. Rennie Papers, AAA.rennhele

John Vassos Papers, AAA.vassjohn

National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution), Department of Design and Production, Exhibition Records, SIA.FA07-054

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Product Design and Decorative Arts Department, Exhibition Records, SIA.FA13-077

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Department of Design, Exhibition Records, SIA.FA99-015

Edward McKnight Kauffer Collection, SIL-CH.1997-134-1