Brief description
A design archive created by and relating to the Australian designer Fred Ward, from 1947 to 1988.Notes
A printed guide to the full archive is available at the museum.Significance
Frederick C. Ward is a major figure in the history of Australian design. He was born in Melbourne in1899 and originally trained as an artist. In the late 1920s he began manufacturing his own furniture designs. In the early 1930s, Ward was asked by Myer Emporium Ltd to open a modern furniture department within its Melbourne store. In 1949 he was appointed Design Consultant to the Australian National University, Canberra. His brief was to design the furniture for the early buildings of the new university. In 1955 he established the Design Unit of the ANU, a remarkable enterprise by international standards, which eventually became responsible not only for furnishing new buildings, but also detailed campus planning. Ward's furniture design is characterised by his pioneering use of unstained Australian timbers. This archive contains correspondence, photographs, plans, drawings and notes by Ward relating to his various projects as well as articles, press clippings and reports. The archive is complemented by a number of pieces of Ward furniture in the Powerhouse collection.Data time period: 1947 to 1988
Spatial Coverage And Location
text: Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Subjects
Armchairs |
Coffee tables |
Design archives |
Design drawings |
Dining chairs |
Documents |
Fred Ward |
Furniture design |
Photographs |
Tables |
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Identifiers
- Local : 1988
- URI : www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/collection=Fred_Ward_Archive
