The Social Program

Abstract

This chapter turns to the social program underlying the box furniture of Progressive Era designer and social activist Louise Brigham, focusing on the several channels through which Brigham publicized and advocated for box furniture apart from her 1909 book Box Furniture. In addition to writing magazine articles (especially for Ladies’ Home Journal) and giving talks, Brigham made a practice of furnishing her own New York apartments with box furniture and turning them into public showplaces for the aesthetic and social value of her project. Her holistic approach to the interior design of these apartments extended beyond her box furniture to items like linens that she herself designed and made, as well as wall treatments. Following a brief consideration of Brigham’s work with the New York-based Home Industries’ Association, the chapter surveys the industrial expositions at which Brigham showed entire rooms of box furniture, placing both these exhibits and the showcase apartments as variants of the “model homes” that were a common feature of Progressive Era social projects.