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Preservation by Design: Archives and Records Services at Herman Miller, Inc

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Preservation by Design: Archives and Records Services at Herman Miller, Inc Reprint: Business Archives Section Newsletter, 1998 Preservation by Design: Archives and Records Services at Herman Miller, Inc. By Robert W. Viol, Corporate Archivist, Herman Miller, Inc. Who is Herman Miller? Collections and Services departments. Space in the record Herman Miller Inc. is a leading Herman Miller’s corporate archival center has been designed to store multinational manufacturer of holdings have been described by requested documents and furniture, furniture systems and researchers as "awesome" - a accommodate lawyers from both furniture management services. testimonial to the corporate sides of the courtroom. Headquartered in Zeeland, officers, who have generously Michigan, Herman Miller has been provided monetary and moral Get Rid of that Backlog! It Costs a source of major innovation in the support, and to the dozens of men Us Money! residential and office and women, who have contributed Litigation research has environments. The company their effort, time and talent. The demonstrated the urgent need to emphasizes problem solving archives, now located in one of the eliminate the backlog of through design, participate company’s original buildings, uncataloged Herman Miller management, environmental documents the development of publications and non-Herman responsibility and employee stock Herman Miller product from its Miller materials containing third ownership. inception and creation to marketing party endorsements of our product. and distribution. Collections Every growing and viable archives Herman Miller, Inc. began in 1905 include publications, administrative will have a backlog of the as the Star Furniture Company, a records, photography, drawings unprocessed, however, when manufacturer of ornate and blueprints, oral histories, records or publications are reproductions of traditional-style audiovisuals, three dimensional requested as a result of a court home furniture. The company’s artifacts, fabric and textiles, and order we have to make an effort to name was changed to The graphics. locate those documents. The cost Herman Miller Company in 1923 of paying a lawyer, or even a when D.J DePree and Herman To Protect, Serve and Defend paralegal, to search through 300 Miller (DePree’s father-in-law and Currently, the archives and record boxes is greater than the cost of respected local businessman) services comes under the hiring a crew of processors and acquired majority control. administrative arm of Herman catalogers. Additional staff to Miller’s corporate legal department process and catalog has been Hard-pressed to stay in business - a good safe place to be. acquired through re-deployment of during the Depression, D. J. Marketing and public relations may existing record center staff and the DePree gambled on contemporary not always see the value in hiring of Herman Miller retirees, furniture designed by Gilbert supporting and maintaining local high school and college Rohde. The gamble paid off, and archives, but the lawyers know we students and temporary by 1945 the company phased out have what they need and -- we employees. its traditional line to concentrate on know where it is. Given the litigious "modern" furniture. nature of our society, procedures Planning a Face Lift have been established with Increases in staffing levels and the The association with Rohde began corporate legal and other need for additional and smarter Herman Miller’s practice of working departments to quickly and work spaces in the archives and with the world’s finest independent efficiently identify key people in the records center has provided the industrial designers that would company, who can supply records rationale for completion of interior ultimately include George Nelson, requested during the document renovations including new office Charles Eames, Isamu Noguchi, discovery process. A team, furniture. (You would think it would textilest Alexander Girard, and including members from both be easy for the archives to obtain inventor and researcher Robert archives and records services and the latest in office furniture since Propst. Today’s innovative designs corporate legal, and Herman Miller is the second are created by Bill Stumpf, Don representatives from local law largest office furniture producer in Chadwick, Jack Kelley, Tom firms contracted to represent our the country, however, convincing Newhouse, Geoff Hollington, interests, has been created to the accountants that new office Bruce Burdick, Richard Holbrook, respond to court-ordered record furniture in the archives provides Jean Beirise and others. requests and to coordinate economic benefits for the company documents received from other and our shareholders has been 1 Reprint: Business Archives Section Newsletter, 1998 tricky.) We have been asking for a 770 piece collection of product employees become part of the facelift for years but finally got their lines and furniture prototypes to Herman Miller community. All of attention by scheduling an open the thirteen museums making up these changes have had a house in the archives for Herman the Herman Miller Museum dramatic, yet positive, impact on Miller’s retirees, including past Consortium. Skillfully managed by the archives and record services CEOs and the sons of the the Henry Ford Museum in department. Although the archives company founder. Two weeks later Dearborn, Michigan, the continues to be viewed as an a team from facilities provided a consortium continues to receive important corporate asset cost analysis for the project. The Herman Miller product, both past providing a competitive advantage, redo has been tentatively and present. The Herman Miller we need to identify new ways to approved and should be archives coordinates these add value to the company and to completed by spring, just in time donations. Additionally, we provide become more proactive and less for the June 1998 meeting of consortium members with reactive. Communication with the Herman Miller’s retirees. supporting literature about our rest of the corporation must be furniture, our company and our improved - perhaps through It’s Not Too Late!! Encapsulate designers. Intranet capabilities and online (and other newsletters, outreach programs to preservation/conservation projects) Author! Author! new employees, and contact As a result of constant and Residential and institutional through existing internal continuous use of our oversize furniture designed by Gilbert publications. items including drawings, posters, Rohde, George Nelson, Charles advertisements and other graphics Eames, Isamu Noguchi, and For the archives, this is a time of by corporate legal, public relations, others continues to be hot great change but also great design and development and commodities among designers, challenge. To contribute and several public exhibitions, an design students, art curators and prosper, we must make the encapsulation project is underway. collectors. The archives receives corporation’s mission and Utilizing the services of a local hundreds of requests from authors objectives our own - and consultant, more than 800 items and publishers from around the demonstrate that our collections, will be protected by the end of world for information and/or can and do, support all aspects of 1998. photography pertaining to both the business, from design and "classic" and current designs. development, to marketing and The archives also maintains sales. several thousand drawings of To respond to the needs of serious Herman Miller furniture pieces researchers requiring use of designed by George Nelson & Herman Miller’s archival material, Associates dating from the 1950s we established the Herman Miller and 1960s. These drawings are Author in Residence Program. scheduled to be sorted, arranged, Office space and clerical support labeled and microfilmed. The are provided in the archives for drawings of Charles Eames and individuals making extensive use Gilbert Rohde have been filmed of our collections. Our first "author and are available for research. in residence" Phyllis Ross, will arrive in June. Ross, who worked Herman Miller Meets Henry Ford for the Library of Congress on a Throughout the years, the design current Charles and Ray Eames community has acknowledged Exhibition, will be using our Gilbert Herman Miller’s commitment to Rohde collections. quality, innovation and fine design. Many of our designs are in the The Only Thing We Can Promise permanent collections of major You is Change museums including New York’s Like all corporations, Herman Museum of Modern Art, the Miller, Inc. continues to experience Whitney Museum and the dramatic changes. Old facilities are Smithsonian Institution. renovated or sold, new facilities are acquired or built; long-time In 1989 Herman Miller donated its employees retire; and new 2 .
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