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© Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research | James Haefner

Kingswood School Cranbrook Reception Room Rug No. 31

Designer (American born Finland, 1879 - 1968)
Workshop (American, 1928-1942)
1931

The Kingswood School Cranbrook Reception Room Rug (No. 31) was woven on the largest of the Cranbrook looms, which had a width of twelve feet. It originally had one foot of fringe on each end, worn off with daily use in a school over the years. The pattern of this rug is sympathetic to the design of the Kingswood School Cranbrook lobby and mimics patterns in the ceiling fixtures. The colors reflected the rose of the Kingswood School Cranbrook dining hall and the grays of the Kingswood School Cranbrook auditorium.

Established in 1928 and rooted in the English Arts and Crafts movement, the Cranbrook Arts and Crafts Studios produced handmade objects—furniture, silver, ironwork, prints, book bindings, and textiles—for a growing campus. Founded by philanthropists and newspaper publishers Ellen Scripps Booth and George Gough Booth, between 1922 and 1942, Cranbrook developed into an intentional community of schools, museums, and a graduate art academy..

Kevin Adkisson
Curator
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research
April 2024


DimensionsLength: 312 in (792.5 cm)
Width: 144 in (365.8 cm)
ProvenanceKingswood School Cranbrook (1931–1973)
Cranbrook Educational Community (1973–present)
Credit LineCranbrook Center for Collections and Research
Cultural Properties Collection, Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School - Kingswood Campus
Medium | MaterialsWool pile, wool weft, linen warp
GenreObject TypeRugs (textiles)
Alternate Title(s)
  • Kingswood School Cranbrook Reception Hall Rug
  • Kingswood School Cranbrook Rose Lobby Rug
  • Kingswood School Cranbrook Auditorium Lobby Rug
Select Exhibition History"Room for a Lady: Loja Saarinen at Cranbrook." Dir. Kevin Adkisson. Elkhorn Media and Entertainment/Cranbrok Center for Collections and Research, 2022. 46 min.

In 2000 it was exhibited at the Cranbrook Art Museum's exhibition, "The Art Deco Rug: Studio Loja Saarinen and the Cranbrook Tradition".
Select Bibliography and Archival Citation(s)"Curtains & Rugs." Kingswood School Cranbrook Inventory of Equipment and Supplies. November 1938. Series IV: Cranbrook Institutions. Cranbrook Foundation Records, 1981-05. Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, Bloomfield Hills, MI.
Cranbrook Affiliation
  • Saarinen Family
  • Cranbrook Foundation Staff
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research
KS 1931.15