1992 Ellen Manderfield, IDSA (1916-1999)
At its WORLDESIGN92 international conference in San Francisco, IDSA honored Mrs. Manderfield for her inspirational achievement as a woman in the design profession. In 1957, she became the first member of ASID (one of IDSA's predecessors) since its inception in 1944.

Ellen received a BA in Art from Mundelein College of Loyola University in Chicago and began her career as a graphic artist at Meyercord Co., Chicago, where she worked from 1939 to 1944, designing advertising and point-of-purchase decals and logos and working with her husband, Walter Manderfield, a designer and art director. She began her design career with the Colonial Radio Company (later known as Sylvania) in Buffalo, New York from 1944 to 1947, where she served as Supervisor of the Styling Department, and designed scores of radios and record players with the "Silvertone" label, sold at Sears, Roebuck & Co. She then worked in the Montgomery Ward design group in Chicago from 1947 to 1951 under Anne Swainson, designing hundreds of products for retail and mail order catalog, including appliances, industrial products and kitchen equipment.

After that, she worked for General Electric Company in Syracuse, New York from 1951-1956, designing television and electronic equipment. Mrs. Manderfield Joined Oneida Ltd. Silversmiths in 1956 and served there for 30 years until her retirement to Iowa in 1986. Over 200 of her flatware designs were produced by Oneida, many of which, including, Chateau, Dover, Marquette, Michelangelo, and Satibque, are still on the market. Omni (1979) was exhibited by the Museum of Modern Art. In 1996, the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design hosted an exhibit of her industrial designs, and she donated her design archives to that institution. She was also an accomplished fine artist and jeweler.

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