Collaboration with Sara Queen's D101 Design Thinking Class

Eli Brown, Todd Kosmerick, and Virginia Ferris gave a presentation to Queen's 160 students last week, focusing on founding dean Henry Kamphoefner and the rich legacy of modernism that he cultivated in his faculty and students during the early years of the College of Design (originally named the School of Design), 1948-1972. The talk featured excerpts of a video oral history interview with former dean of the College of Design, Marvin J. Malecha, conducted and archived by Special Collections, as well as excerpts of earlier interviews with faculty and alumni.

This week the students came to D. H. Hill Jr. Library to view materials from the collections that document those early years. Groups of students visited throughout the day to explore a selection of items from our collections, including the ever popular notebooks from the Marvin J. Malecha Papers , architectural drawings and papers from the collections of Henry Kamphoefner , Matthew Nowicki , George Matsumoto , Lewis Clarke , and T.C. Howard , posters and publications featuring the work of Alexander Isley and Meredith Davis , and early bulletins and student publications from the College of Design Publications Records . As part of their class assignment, students selected one item to document (in sketches, diagrams, or photographs) and to analyze in a reflection paper. We enjoyed watched the students' reactions to the materials, which sparked a lot of great discussions, and look forward to seeing more of their reflections.