Anne Swainson

Anne Swainson (1888–1955) was an American product and graphic designer who became the head of design at the national retail company Montgomery Ward in Chicago, which was second in size only to Sears, Roebuck & Company at the time. There, she founded the company's Bureau of Design, which she ran from 1931 to 1955. It was believed to have been the first corporate industrial design department in modern American history.

Biography According to United States census records, Anna Elizabeth Swainson was born in October 1888 in Nevada, Missouri, to the Swedish immigrants Perrie and Bettie Swainson. (It has been reported incorrectly that Anna was born in 1900, in Sweden. From 1915 to 1919, she taught textiles at the famous Hull House, which had been established to empower women and teach residents about social and political issues of the day.

Personal life Swainson remained unmarried and was still a Ward employee in 1955 when she died at her desk of a heart attack in Chicago at the age of 67.