The New White Mazda Lamp
Designer
Charles N. Siebold
Datec. 1925
Dimensions21 1/8 x 28 in. (53.7 x 71.1 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection
Object numberPH.9241
DescriptionIn Chester Siebold’s design promoting General Electric’s new tungsten-filament light bulb, the white elements, seen in the word “white” as well as in the outfit of the little girl as she presents the white bulb to the white rabbit, provide brilliant accents, cleverly suggesting the effect of electric light in the home. Siebold, GE's art director nonetheless otherwise represents this modern invention in the traditional and slightly saccharine style of the children’s book illustration of the time. The light bulbs, developed and issued by GE in 1909, were more durable and three times more energy efficient than the carbon-filament bulbs invented by Thomas Edison 30 years earlier. They were also a lot brighter—and some early consumers, comfortable in the gloom of the Victorian interior, complained that they were too bright. By 1916, however, this kind of light bulb was by far the most used type in the United States. The poster coincides with a period during the 1920s in which GE commissioned posters and advertising designs for magazines from some of the most important illustrators of the day to promote its popular “Mazda lamp.” Among them were Maxfield Parrish and Norman Rockwell, who created a campaign for the bulb that traced the history of lighting contraptions in general. On View
Not on view
