Object Timeline

1958

  • Work on this object began.

2016

  • We acquired this object.

2017

2025

  • You found it!

Textile, Suburbia

This is a Textile. It was manufactured by Preludes Inc.. It is dated 1958 and we acquired it in 2016. Its medium is cotton and its technique is printed. It is a part of the Textiles department.

An estimated twenty million Americans – many of them veterans returning from World War II – moved to the suburbs during the 1950s. These planned communities promised an idealized version of “traditional” family life, with quiet streets of close-set houses and tidy lawns. These semi-private outdoor spaces led to a sort of public domesticity which is the hallmark of suburban living.
Just as the skyscraper became an element of 1930s design, the suburbs themselves became a subject of novelty printed textiles and wallcoverings. An anonymous design of about the same date (2005-32-1) shows a variety of different housing styles, traditional and modern, side by side on the same street. This design, titled Suburbia, shares features of Lanette Scheeline’s 1939 Egyptian Garden (1984-56-1), which likewise depicts outdoor domestic activities like gardening, lawn mowing, and barbequing.

This object was donated by American Textile History Museum. It is credited American Textile History Museum Collection.

  • Metagenomic Data Visualization
  • videos (2), data visualization.
  • Courtesy Banfield Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley and Stamen....
  • NATURE.010

Its dimensions are

H x W: 215.9 × 118.7 cm (7 ft. 1 in. × 46 3/4 in.)

Cite this object as

Textile, Suburbia; Manufactured by Preludes Inc.; cotton; H x W: 215.9 × 118.7 cm (7 ft. 1 in. × 46 3/4 in.); American Textile History Museum Collection; 2016-35-91

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/1108711727/ |title=Textile, Suburbia |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=11 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>