Historical Color Guide

Historical Color Guide
Adoption Amount: $350
Category: Build and Access the Collection
Location: Museum Support Center Library

Historical color guide: primitive to modern times, with thirty plates in color, by Elizabeth Burris-Meyer.

By Elizabeth Burris-Meyer. New York, N.Y.: W. Helburn, Inc., c. 1938.

There is little to be found about Elizabeth Burris-Meyer’s life, but it is safe to assume that she was a proud aesthete. As the “Dean of the School for Fashion Careers,” Burris-Meyer published two books on color. Her Historical Color Guide draws inspiration from various historical works of art, creating color palettes for both artistic and business use. Utilizing a keen understanding of art history, she sought to evoke not just the aesthetics, but the culture of a time period. Paint swatches, hand glued into the book, are given delightfully descriptive names: “mummy” is an Egyptian-inspired olive green, “pouf du vent” is a pale lavender inspired by Madame de Pompadour. Equally charming is Burris-Meyer’s commentary on each of her carefully curated palettes. She provides historical context (Egyptian colors were mineral-based, e.g. blue from cobalt), in addition to her own opinions on each time period (she dismisses the “swooning bombast and homely clutter” of Victorian England).

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