Level: 4B. Theme

Sub-content living inside Content.

  • Household Workers

    When Elaine’s room was finished in 1930, the Wormsers employed three live-in domestic workers: Ina Alam, a 33-year-old Scottish woman who immigrated in 1929; Edith M. Thulim, a 23-year-old Swedish woman who immigrated in 1923; and Amelia Thoridl, a 44-year-old German woman who arrived in 1906. While there is little documentation of these women’s lives, […]

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  • Leo Falk Wormser

    Leo Falk Wormser (1884-1934) was a native of Chicago and a prominent figure in the city. After attending law school at Harvard and the University of Chicago, he became a successful lawyer and was the personal attorney of Julius Rosenwald, one of the richest men in the city’s history. In 1911, he married Helen Goldsmith […]

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  • Introducing Modernism Through a Panoply of Pursuits

    Urban played an integral role in introducing modernism to America and in showing Americans the possibilities of the new style—how it could be used as they fashioned themselves and their spaces. He did this through an astonishing range of creative work: designing opera, theater and film sets, buildings, interior spaces, textiles, and products ranging from […]

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  • The Urban Effect: Hallmarks of His Style

    Looking across Joseph Urban’s many projects, which span a mind-boggling variety of applications and styles, three qualities stand out as hallmarks of the artist’s style: a daring and perceptive use of color, theatricality and approaches drawn from Viennese modernism. Combining these elements, Urban created a visual and spatial language and energy that captured the essence […]

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  • Workers in the Machine Age

    Many talented craftspeople and collaborators worked with Joseph Urban to bring his modernist designs for Elaine’s bedroom to life.

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  • Elaine Wormser

    Get to know the Wormser Family and their household workers. Hear their stories of living and working in the Drake Tower penthouse.

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  • Helen Wormser

    Get to know the Wormser Family and their household workers. Hear their stories of living and working in the Drake Tower penthouse.

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