Abstract

This article uses rarely reviewed archival documentation to investigate the ‘American Home 1953’, an exhibition launched in Helsinki early in the cold war to celebrate the modern American domestic sphere. The author argues that the ‘American Home 1953’ does not conform to orthodox instances of American cultural transfer where a US donor institution might select US content for export and display in a host nation to impose certain American values or advance particular agendas. In this instance, the USA did not originate the idea for the ‘American Home 1953’. The exhibition comprised two independently organised subsections: Finland’s Finnish-American Society initiated the project to present Finnish viewers with the latest in American domestic appliances. In concert, Museum of Modern Art's Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., selected an artful display of American home wares, subtitled ‘American Design for Home and Decorative Use’ for the newly formed US Information Agency.

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