Jane F. Thompson Bauhaus Research Archive

Jane Thompson was born on June 30, 1927 and studied Fine and Applied Arts at Vassar College. She completed her graduate work at Bennington College and NYU Institute of Fine Arts. Thompson began her career at the Museum of Modern Art, where she eventually became the Assistant Curator in the Department of Architecture and worked with Philip Johnson. She served as the Architecture Editor of Interiors Magazine, and was the Founding Editor of Industrial Design magazine, later known as I. D. Magazine, published from 1954 - 2009.

Jane Thompson received the Kaufmann International Design Grant by Edgar Kaufmann Jr.’s Foundation and went on to work with Walter Gropius on the pedagogy of Bauhaus. This collection focuses on the research aspect of the Bauhaus project. She also became a partner in her husband Ben Thompson’s retail venture Design Research, and subsequently authored the book ‘Design research: The Store That Brought Modern Living to American Homes’ with Alexandra Lange. As a part of the GSD Talks series ‘Then and Now’, Thompson discussed the book and modern design at the Graduate School of Design in 2014 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nFVSjfve9Y).

Thompson handled programming and planning in Benjamin Thompson and Associates, Architects and Planners, before establishing her own firm Thompson Design Group in 1994. She has received Institute Honors by the American Institute of Architects in 1994 and a Personal Recognition Award of the Industrial Design Society of America for lifetime contribution to the field of design in 1998. In 2000, the President of Finland named Ben and Jane Thompson as Knight First Class, ‘Order of the Lion of Finland’ for their appreciation of Finnish design. Most significantly, she was conferred upon the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in 2010. Thompson was also given an Honorary PhD from Boston Architectural College in 2011 and a Lifetime Award of Honor from Boston Society of Architects in 2012. Jane Thompson passed away on August 22, 2016 at the age of 89.