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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

1934

  • Work on this object began.

2021

2025

  • You found it!

Drawing, Study for a Mechanical Man

This is a Drawing. It was designed by E. McKnight Kauffer and made for (as the client) Shell-Mex and BP Ltd..

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from Merrill Berman as part of Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer.

It is dated 1934. Its medium is pen and ink and collage. It is a part of the department.


Kauffer understood the allure associated with the emerging field of civilian aviation. His friend Whitney Straight, a race car driver and pilot, partnered with Miles Aircraft to develop the sleek M.11 airplane. With a blurred propellor, the M.11 flies through Kauffer’s airbrushed clouds and signature space frame. A robotic “Shell Man” watches from the ground. Kauffer designed the playful mascot, which appeared regularly in Shell advertisements.

It is credited Collection of Merrill C. Berman.

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Its dimensions are

H x W: 30.5 × 22.9 cm (12 × 9 in.)

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

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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/2318805149/ |title=Drawing, Study for a Mechanical Man |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=6 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>