• • Designers: Charles Eames, American, 1907-1978; Ray Eames, American, born Bernice Alexander Kaiser, 1912-1988
  • Manufacturer: Playhouse Division, Tigrett Enterprises
  • Medium: Enameled metal, painted wood
  • Place Manufactured: USA
  • Dates: Designed 1953; Manufactured 1953-1961
  • Dimensions: 16 x 19 3/4 x 6 1/4 in. (40.6 x 50.2 x 15.9 cm)
  • Markings: Unmarked
  • Collections: Decorative Arts
  • Museum Location: This item is on view in Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
  • Accession Number: 2001.50
  • Credit Line: H. Randolph Lever Fund
  • Rights Statement: Creative Commons-BY-NC
  • Caption: Charles Eames (American, 1907-1978). “Hang-It-All” Coat Rack, Designed 1953; Manufactured 1953-1961. Enameled metal, painted wood, 16 x 19 3/4 x 6 1/4 in. (40.6 x 50.2 x 15.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, H. Randolph Lever Fund, 2001.50. Creative Commons-BY-NC
  • Image: overall, 2001.50_transp4963.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
  • Catalogue Description: Coat rack; metal and wood; wall hung; horizontal, rectangular, white-painted metal wire support structure with fourteen projecting arms, each capped with a colored wood ball terminal. Four vertical bent metal arms attach to rectangular frame and bend forward at the top at oblique angle and at the bottom at acute angle. Upper ends are vertical and lower ends cant outward and to the right giving them a sense of momentum. Each end of the metal arms capped with a wood ball. Arms spaced at regular intervals asymmetrically placed on the frame. Two smaller metal arms with projecting V-shaped configurations and upturned ends with ball terminals are placed on second and fourth upright arms and attached at the juncture of the rectangular frame and the vertical arms. A third simpler V-form wire with ball caps projects from third upright arm, attached to the vertical support mid-way between the upper and lower horizontals of the support grid so that that series of small balls create a v-shaped horizontal rhythm against grid of large balls. Ball colors reading horizontally left to right: (top row, large balls) black, pink, gold, green; (second row, small balls) green, black, red, natural; (third row, small balls) pink, yellow; (bottom row, large balls) red, natural, black and pink.

Playfully evoking the molecular structures revealed by the electron microscope, the Hang-It-All was designed with children in mind. The colored balls, for hanging coats, hats, and scarves, seem to move around each other as one passes by. Although by no means a literal model of molecules or atoms, the Hang-It-All transforms the popular scientific imagery of the 1950s into a dynamic design.

collection:  The Brooklyn Museum