Collection Archives

Brooks Stevens

As one of the country's first industrial designers, Brooks Stevens – acutely aware of his own place in history – began documenting the activities of his design firm in 1935 . The Milwaukee Art Museum acquired the Brooks Stevens Archive in 1997, as a gift from the designer's family and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. The collection is composed primarily of audio visual materials.

George Mann Niedecken Archives

The collections of the George Mann Niedecken Archives consist primarily of the design drawings for interior furnishings, including furniture, rugs, window treatments, lighting, and murals, executed by George Mann Niedecken. The collections contain office records, documents, furniture catalogs, and ephemera of the Niedecken-Walbridge Company, as well as vintage photographs of Niedecken-designed interiors. The collection also includes drawings and paintings of various subjects completed by Niedecken while he was an art student and throughout his life.

The Landfall Press Archives

The Landfall Press Archive, acquired by the Milwaukee Art Museum in 1992, includes etchings, lithographs, and woodcuts by artists of national and international renown. Among those who have collaborated with the press on limited-edition prints, artist’s books, and multiples are Vito Acconci, Christo, Chuck Close, Lesley Dill, Jim Dine, Nancy Graves, Sol LeWitt, Claes Oldenburg, Kara Walker, and William T. Wiley. The collection consists of more than six hundred prints, as well as supplementary materials. Among the nearly five thousand pieces in the archive are more than 600 editioned prints as well as supplementary materials such as working, trial, progressive, and cancellation proofs; etching plates, woodblocks, and lithographic stones; mylar sheets, photographic negatives, and color separations.