Loaded with labor and time-saving conveniences, the Hoosier cabinet was among the earliest design innovations of the modern American kitchen. This culinary workstation allowed owners to maintain an efficient and clutter-free kitchen by centralizing utensils, cookware, tools, and ingredients all the while providing a space in which to prepare the meals of the day. Bloomington-based cabinetmaker Nancy R. Hiller draws on her years of specialty cabinet making and thorough knowledge of interior design to deliver an entertaining, beautiful, and informative history of the Hoosier cabinet—revealing its influence on the development of the contemporary American home. Illustrated with original manufacturers' advertisements and sales literature—some of which is previously unpublished—as well as color and black-and-white photos, this long-overdue book on an icon of the early 20th-century kitchen will be an invaluable resource to cabinetmakers, antiques enthusiasts, and homeowners planning a period-inspired kitchen.
One of the last babies born in Miami Beach's Deco-era hospital before its demolition circa 1960. I have always been a fan of old--old buildings, old people, old languages, old books. I studied Latin and classical Greek at Queen's College in London then began pursuing a degree in Hebrew and Aramaic at Cambridge, where I was relieved to find myself in one of the oldest dormitories at Newnham College--unlike my best friend, who picked the figurative straw for a tiny room in an ugly new wing (and yes, it really was ugly). A pathologically serious student, I felt completely out of place amid the elite party school culture that characterized undergraduate life at Cambridge in the late '70s--not to mention clueless as to what I would do with such a degree, since I didn't want to teach. So I dropped out.
Soon after, I enrolled in a furniture making class with 15 or so teenage boys at the Isle of Ely College in Wisbech, near my home. After earning a City & Guilds of London Certificate in 1980, I got a dog and went to work for Roy Griffiths. I later worked for Millside Cabinet Makers of Royston and in the carpentry shop of the Imperial War Museum at Duxford Airbase before moving back to the States in 1987.
A few years later I returned to the classroom at Indiana University and graduated with a master's in religious studies, specializing in ethics.
Since 1995 I have operated NR Hiller Design, Inc., a custom furniture and cabinetmaking business specializing in period-authentic work for homes, businesses, and institutional buildings from the late-nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries. My writing, furniture, and cabinetry have been published in Fine Woodworking, Old-House Interiors, American Bungalow, and other periodicals. Visit my website at www.nrhillerdesign.com and read my blogs at http://ahomeofherown.wordpress.com and http://nrhiller.wordpress.com.
