Jane Bannerman art and design work
Online Access
Available digital items: https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/collections/KA0122.
Summary
Jane Campbell Bannerman studied graphic design and illustration at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (now Parsons School of Design), graduating in 1930. She worked for several firms as a graphic and interior designer, and later opened her own interior design business. The collection mainly consists of student work, commercial design work, and travel watercolors, as well as clippings, photographs, and printed items.
Dates
- circa 1927 - circa 1990
Creator
- Bannerman, Jane Campbell (Creator, Person)
Extent
1.0 Cubic Feet (1 box, 1 oversize box, 4 oversize folders)
Language of Materials
English
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection primarily consists of art and design work in the form of textile design drawings and watercolors. In addition to original visual works, it includes a small number of clippings, photographs, and printed materials. Work from Bannerman's professional career is not comprehensively documented.
Student work created during Bannerman's education at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art comprises a significant portion of the collection, particularly travel watercolors depicting places visited while on a trip through Italy, many of which are dated and identified by location. Other examples of student work are projects from an advertising design class, brochure designs for the Paris Ateliers, watercolors depicting historic costume, and a series of pencil drawings depicting animals, possibly executed as an exercise in the concept of Dynamic Symmetry, a principle promoted by the New York School of Fine and Applied Art.
Early work in the collection may be signed Jane Campbell or with the initials JHC. Work created after her marriage is typically signed Jane Bannerman or Jane Campbell Bannerman.
The bulk of materials in the collection is undated. Estimated inclusive dates have been assigned at the series-level using information supplied in an oral history interview.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research use. Please contact archivist@newschool.edu for appointment.
Use Restrictions
To publish images of material from this collection, permission must be obtained in writing from the New School Archives. Please contact: archivist@newschool.edu.
Biographical Note
Jane Campbell Bannerman grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She attended the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (now Parsons The New School for Design), where she studied in the Graphic Advertising and Illustration Department (later named Communication Design). Bannerman began her education at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art's campus on West 80th Street, then spent the 1929 academic year studying at the school's Paris Ateliers before returning to New York for her third and final year. While in Europe, Bannerman studied illustration with Van Day Truex and was a classmate of interior design illustrator and "room portraitist" Elizabeth Hoopes. The two artists, who became lifelong friends, later found employment with the interior design firm McMillen, Inc., well known for hiring Parsons alumni.
Following graduation, Bannerman worked in a series of design-related positions. She was employed by the textile design studio Contempora and worked for The Delineator, a women's magazine. It was through one of these positions that Bannerman established a friendship with designer Cipe Pineles, who went on to become a noted art director. In 1932, Bannerman won an award from the Art Alliance of America, an organization promoting excellence in product design and advertising, for her textile designs. She worked for McMillen for approximately three years before leaving the professional sphere to raise a family. After her daughter was older, Bannerman started her own interior decorating business, building a strong clientele through word of mouth. She later returned to McMillen, but left after a year to pursue travel and artistic interests.
Organization and Arrangement
Organized in 4 series: 1. General 2. Artwork 3. McMillen 4. Student work
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated to the New School Archives by Jane Campbell Bannerman, 2010.
- Drawings (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Europe -- Description and travel (Places) (Subject) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Figurative art, American (Subject) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Graphic arts -- Study and teaching -- New York (State) -- New York (Subject) (Places) Subject Source: Local sources
- McMillen Inc
- New York School of Fine and Applied Art
- Paris Ateliers
- Photographs (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Pineles, Cipe, 1908-1991
- Student projects (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Textile design (Subject) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Watercolors (paintings) (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Title
- Guide to the Jane Bannerman art and design work
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- New School Archives and Special Collections Staff
- Date
- October 11, 2012
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin