Marjorie S. Garfield

Marjorie Garfield was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1904 and moved to Syracuse, New York two years later. She grew up in Syracuse received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Fine Arts from Syracuse University and was head of the Interior Design department there 1926-1948 before coming to Iowa State. Upon retirement she returned to the east coast to live with her sister and brother-in-law and built a studio overlooking the ocean. In 1976 she bought a home in Florida on Marco Island and prior to her death in 1993 found enjoyment painting subjects in the Everglades Myakka wilderness the palms and mangos exhibiting work on Marco Island and in Naples.

Marjorie S. Garfield became head of the Applied Art Department College of Home Economics at Iowa State University in 1948 and served in this position 21 years until her retirement as Professor Emerita in June of 1969. During her administration of the department she built a strong interior design emphasis from a nucleus of required home furnishings courses. Iowa State was one of the first institutions if not specifically the first to require a summer internship as a part of the requirements for a degree in interior design which continues today. At Professor Garfield's retirement in 1969 the department had grown from one major applied art to four: interior design advertising design art education and general applied art and crafts and students were pursuing a great variety of career paths; undergraduate enrollment had grown dramatically.

A superb watercolor painter Professor Garfield's work is widely admired and cherished by all those who recognized her genius and became owners of her paintings. Thirty-nine one-person exhibitions she had in her lengthy career shared paintings and etchings inspired from East coast Boston Cape Ann Rockport Gloucester Quebec and later a Colorado series Mineral Point Wisconsin scenes and depiction’s of historic inns and houses of early America watercolor renderings made after careful and detailed pencil drawings. Her interest in doing these began with her Master's degree study of Spanish Guatemala sketching and painting interiors of palaces and private homes. In photography she made a special study of Spanish Colonial furniture in Guatemala two thousand photographs on this project. A gift in the 1980s to the Brunnier Gallery and Museum they have been exhibited and remain in the University Museums collections.

SOURCE - https://plaza.las.iastate.edu/directory/marjorie-s-garfield/ (Sept 2025)