Edith Towner was an American artist active around 1940, whose name is closely associated with the Index of American Design, the federally funded visual survey of American decorative arts and material culture produced under the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. Working in watercolor, colored pencil, graphite, and pen and ink on paper, Towner brought skilled draftsmanship and an eye for ornamental detail to the demanding task of documenting objects that ranged from embroidered textiles to architectural elements.
Her contributions to the Index, now held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, include renderings of quilts, wedding dress details, ceiling ornaments in sandstone, furniture chests, feather wreaths, powder horns, plows, and decorative objects from everyday American life. Works such as Chest and Ceiling Ornament, Sandstone — both dating to around 1940 — exemplify the Index's guiding method: each rendering was required to be so faithful to its source that a viewer could determine the materials, construction methods, and dimensions of the original object from the image alone.
The Index of American Design employed approximately 1,000 artists across 34 states during the Depression era, many of whom were highly trained professionals who had lost their livelihoods. Women constituted a significant portion of the Index workforce, and Towner was among those who applied their technical facility to the project's cultural preservation mission. The Index as a whole produced more than 18,000 watercolor renderings, and the National Gallery has stewarded the collection since 1943.
Though detailed records of Towner's personal biography and training have not surfaced in public archives, the quality and range of her surviving Index work speaks to a practitioner of considerable skill. Her careful documentation of folk and decorative arts objects constitutes a lasting contribution to the visual history of American material culture.
