Design history is more than a tray of slides or a book on the coffee table. It is a collection of experiences that are relevant to our current design processes and decisions. The IDSA Design History Section is committed to the effort of collecting, compiling and sharing these experiences to continue to inspire the design profession. The purposes and objectives of the IDSA Design History Section are to:

• Provide membership with continuing awareness of design history.
• Provide membership with design history informational resource lists.
• Encourage members to contribute personal design history and materials to archival sources, and selected personal stories to section for publication.
• Encourage growth of an IDSA Design History Professional Interest Section.
• We hope that you will aid us in contributing any experiences you have and give us feedback on how we can improve this resource.

Origin of Design History Section
The IDSA initiated the History & Archives Committee in 1989, with Dave Tompkins, FIDSA serving as its first Chair. The Committee was discontinued in 1990, then chaired by Eric Schneider, IDSA from 1991 to 1993, when the list of archival organizations first appeared in the IDSA Directory. Marshall Johnson chaired the committee from 1995 to 1996, but the committee was again discontinued 1997-2000.

In 2001 President Betty Baugh re-organized the Committee, naming Carroll Gantz as chair. Original committee members were Marshall Johnson, IDSA, Nancy Perkins, FIDSA and Vicki Matranga, IDSA. Dave Tompkins, FIDSA soon joined and was instrumental in getting over 20 members, enabling the Committee to become an official Design History Section by March, 2001. By January 2005, the Section had 185 members.

You can visit the IDSA web site at www.idsa.org.