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Ralph Caplan Collection

About the Collection

Ralph Caplan (1925–2020) was a design critic and design consultant. He began his career in 1957 as a writer for I.D. magazine (then called “Industrial Design”), becoming editor in 1959, a position he held until 1963. Caplan continued to write design criticism for I.D. and several other periodicals. He taught design criticism at the School of Visual Arts from 2009 to 2013. The bulk of the collection comprises notes and drafts (and some research materials) for articles, talks, and speeches (plus related correspondence and printed material). Also included are published work in several periodicals and in printed material for various clients.