See more objects with the tag friendship, friends.

Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

1930

  • Work on this object began.

1940

  • Work on this object ended.

2021

2025

  • You found it!

Reproduction, Mary Hutchinson, E. McKnight Kauffer and Marion Dorn

This is a Reproduction. It was subject: E. McKnight Kauffer and Marion Dorn Kauffer. It is dated ca. 1935. Its medium is photograph. It is a part of the department.


When Kauffer and Dorn temporarily split in 1936, their tight-knit community helped sustain them. The time apart reaffirmed their love. Romantic and emotional intimacy, within and outside marital ties, was common among their friends. Mary Hutchinson became a close confidant, as did Aldous and Maria Huxley, the three of whom maintained a love affair in the 1920s. Among Kauffer and Dorn’s set, sexual fluidity was part of modern life.

It is credited Courtesy of Simon Rendall.

Its dimensions are

H x W: 7.6 × 12.7 cm (3 × 5 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer.

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

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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/2318805184/ |title=Reproduction, Mary Hutchinson, E. McKnight Kauffer and Marion Dorn |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=6 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>