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Arthur J. Pulos Papers

An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: -
Date: unknown

Biographical History

Arthur Jon Pulos (1917-1997) was an American industrial designer. He earned his undergraduate degree in art education from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University) in 1939 and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in silversmithing from the University of Oregon in 1943. He was an Army Air Corps veteran of World War II, founder and president of Pulos Design Associates (1958-1988), and professor of industrial design at Syracuse University (1955-1982). He also served as consultant and lecturer in more than 25 countries; in 1985 he was the United States delegate to the Budapest Cultural Forum, and he lectured at the Beijing Academy of Art and Design in China in 1987.

Pulos received numerous awards over his career, including honors for silver design at the 1958 World's Fair, the first Design Education Award (Industrial Designers Society of America, 1988), the Premio Mexico (1996), and Japan's Seventh International Design Award (Osaka, 1995). He was an honorary fellow of the Design Institute of Australia and of the Mexican Academy of Design, and was named to the policy panel of the Design Arts Program for the National Endowment for the Arts. His work is in the permanent collections of museums across the United States.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Arthur J. Pulos Papers consists of Design practice/office records, Personal records, and Business records.

Pulos Design Associates' Design practice/office records form the bulk of the collection and includes correspondence, photographs, slides, and drawings for a number of corporate clients of Pulos' company, some local to Central New York and others nationally established. Among the corporations represented are Baldwin Technology, Camillus Cutlery, Crouse-Hinds, Dictaphone, Empire Airlines, Gaylord Brothers, General Electric, Pass & Seymour, Piper Aircraft, Rockwell International, Ridge Tool Company, Satellite Business Systems, Swingline , Syracuse China, Syracuse University, and Welch Allyn. Records are ordered alphabetically by client and job numbers (a two-letter code with sequential numbers) are provided -- for example "AB-1" through "AB-7" for Abbot. Files which include photographs, slides and/or drawings (separately boxed) are so indicated.

Personal records cover nearly thirty years, while Business records includes Pulos' business certificate, empoyee work agreements, and personal time records and calendars.

At the end of the collection is a box listing of the 2000 accession, which has had only minimal processing. This accession contains more than 60 boxes of material from Arthur J. Pulos and from Pulos Design Associates, including correspondence, office records, sketches, photographs, slides, notes, drafts of book chapters, research material, and much more.

Arrangement of the Collection

Design practice/office records are arranged alphabetically by client name, followed by non-client projects and some miscellaneous items. Drawings, housed separately in flat files, are referenced by number.

The 2000 accession has not been processed and remains in original order. Note that this accession has a separate box-numbering sequence, beginning again with Box 1. When requesting a box by number, please specify whether it is part of the 2000 accession.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Related Material

Professor Pulos' records relating to his tenure at Syracuse University are held by the University Archives.

Subject Headings

Persons

Pulos, Arthur J.

Corporate Bodies

Pulos Design Associates.

Subjects

Design, Industrial -- United States.
Industrial designers -- United States.

Genres and Forms

Clippings (information artifacts)
Correspondence.
Drawings (visual works)
Photographs.
Scrapbooks.
Slides (photographs)

Occupations

Industrial designers.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Arthur J. Pulos Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Arthur J. Pulos.

Table of Contents

Design practice/office records

Personal records

Business records

2000 accession

Inventory