Leyendecker and the Golden Age of American Illustration
Title Wall + Section Texts
Open in the fall of 2019 at Reynolda House, Leyendecker and the Golden Age of Illustration provided the opportunity to mix in 1920s playful sophistication with typography and patterns from the era — but with an updated feel.
A Selected Timeline of Gay Rights
Leyendecker and the Golden Age of American Illustration was ripe with stories of the openly-gay illustrator who inspired Norman Rockwell and millions of Americans in “The Saturday Evening Post.” To tell a fuller story of J.C. Leyendecker, the museum conspired with the Wake Forest University LGBTQ Center to produce a timeline of gay rights that ran concurrent with the illustrator’s own life. Line drawings of Leyendecker, his partner Charles Beach, Walt Whitman, and other significant moments and setbacks for equal rights told the story in a fresh way but with nods to the era in the custom floral pattern and typography.
Strike a Pose!
J.C. Leyendecker drew and painted the idealized and stylized man. The selfie wall, inspired by a pattern Leyendecker drew for Arrow Collars in the early 1910s, provided a moment for visitors be a model themselves and share their selfies on social media. Four different collar props were also inspired by the advertisements in the exhibition and in the Arrow Collar archives.