An Experiment in Living

Lucy Mulroney • Yale University

April 5th @ 6 P.M.
Zoom Conference: https://wesleyan.zoom.us/j/98396636283

Mary and Russel Wright started out as painters, transitioned to stage design, and in the 1930s decided to turn their Manhattan apartment into an “experiment in living.” They began designing and manufacturing the accoutrements of their modern life: a spun aluminum “butler bucket” for carrying cocktails, stove-to-table crocks for the buffet, a dining table that doubled as a presentation easel, elegant lamps, simple linens. The Wrights treated the domestic interior as theater. “Smart,” “informal,” “democratic,” “individual” was the vocabulary of their play. They performed the roles of husband-designer and hostess-wife, while living a deeply more complex personal and professional relationship. 1951 saw the culmination of their design work with the publication of their Guide to Easier Living, a how-to on achieving the White, heteronormative, suburban dream. It was dedicated to their West Indian maid Dorcas Hollingsworth. And this is where my rumination begins. Let us pause and shift our attention from the objects designed by the Wrights to the textures of daily life, the unrecorded labors of the home, and the gaps in the historical record.

Ephemera
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