This image was sourced from the 1956 Color Guide to Home Decoration...

This image was sourced from the 1956 Color Guide to Home Decoration, which aimed to guide a mid-century modern America through the task of selecting furniture and color schemes for their homes. The "Big Top Room" seen here is a "room that grows up", and is designed to be converted as the child outgrows the "circus atmosphere" and "starts reading adventure stories and collecting school pennants".

The room was designed by the Pittsburgh-based Armstrong Cork Company. Founded in 1860 as a manufacturer of cork stoppers, the company was once one of the world's largest cork suppliers. In 1900, however, it opened a linoleum factory in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to diversify its production line. This expansion was followed by the acquisition of glass manufacturing industries in Millville, New Jersey in 1938.

Color Guide to Home Decoration is call number f NK2115.B8 in the Hagley's Published Collections. You can view the full volume online now by visiting its page in our Digital Archive.