10 CURRENT ¢ DESIGN HISTORY the crafts people remain anonymous. These crafts people are part of a larger oral history that describes their role in producing some of the most popular and ubiquitous objects for homes in Western Canada. As a part of equating consumption of products as a citi- zen’s duty, the notion of basic standards of living arose around the same time as catalogues began to be distributed in Canada. This is thanks to the proliferation of etiquette books and magazines, but also due to an emerging cash economy in the west combined with new access to retail goods, such as mail order catalogues. In her book, Standard of Living, Marina Moskowitz states that “the standard of living was not a measure of how people lived, according to what they could afford—it was a measure of how people wanted to live according to shared cultural minima” [6]. In keeping with setting or improving living standards, hybrid tent/ homes were developed during a time when many families in the west were still living in temporary housing, such as sod houses. Developing a standard of housing by selling a prefabricated home was another huge undertaking by many mail-order catalogues in the early 20" century. From 1910 to 1932, Eaton’s supplied sold house plans and all the lumber and supplies needed to build the house. Again, the designers who not only designed and produced the plans for the houses, but orchestrated the delivery system of every supply needed to build these homes, have not been give sufficient acknowledgement for developing a complex DIY system in Western Canada. Eaton’s sold at least 40 different house plans, with varying levels of sophistication. These mail order homes remain a legendary aspect of the history of urban development in Western Canada, “many of them serving the fourth or fifth generation of the same family” [2]. The documentation of the homes themselves in addition to the oral histories of the occupants have been largely taken up by local historians, and are most often contextualized within the framework of local histories rather than within the broader concern of Canadian design history. Ifthe recent history of Canada is so uniquely tied to the produc- tion, manufacturing, distribution, promotion, and consumption of material goods, it remains a mystery why design and designers are now not necessary valued in the public sphere as an implicit part of this nation-building or nation-maintaining system. While the contribution of specific designers and their work in their industry, community, and Canadian culture in general, remains important to identify and record, it behooves designers to also point out that the work produced in anonymity throughout the 20" century have made a major contribution to our material and visual landscape. Our manufacturing history, our relationship with plastics and our relationship with natural materials that are regional and imbedded within culture become lost without a historical account. EMBRACING THE ANONYMOUS If design was a significant component in “enhanc|ing] demo- cratic life, strengthen[ing] the Canadian nation, and creat[ing] citizen fulfillment” one hundred years ago, there is very little reason why it shouldn’t continue to be valued as a component in nation building and cultural contributions now [1]. The roots of Canadian design, no matter how sophisticated or mundane it may be perceived, is located within the acquired material wealth of the average Canadian over the past century. While much of the work discussed in this essay can be criticized as merely nostalgic, mass-produced, unsophisticated, and ordinary, I argue that these works have contributed to a shared visual vocabulary across Canada, and therefore a shared, collective culture worth acknowledging. The massive undertaking in not only designing and producing these consumer goods, but designing and distributing the cata- logues for the goods was unprecedented in Canada, and was one of the most prolific and productive times in our design history. It is by and large undocumented and unarchived. There is little oral history amongst designers in this area, but there still remains a large potential oral history generated by the thousands of Canadi- ans who experienced mail order catalogues and standard-setting products and services first hand. Through these oral histories of consumption, we might better understand our histories of produc- tion. Rather than only celebrate the distinctive and iconic design in our Canadian history, I urge our design communities to embrace the plural, the ordinary, the anonymous. These designed objects mediate daily life. They set standards. They contribute to a complex visual language to the average citizen, and they move through time and space often unacknowledged and more often than not, unattributed. They are a part of our collec- tive heritage and if we begin to acknowledge the current ordinary objects that we depend upon on a day-to-day basis even now, we will see that they remain a part of a collective and authentic every- day experience. REFERENCES Belisle, D. Retail nation: Department stores and the making of modern canada. Vancouver, BC Canada: UBC Press, 2011. Canadian Heri- tage Information Network. Mail Order Houses: The T. Eaton Co, Ltd, 2013. http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/edu/ViewLoitDa.do;jsessionid=74C7A5F- 56740787D6AA976F073028A22?method=preview&lang=EN&id=24759, Davis, A. Art and work: A social history of labour in the canadian graphic arts industry to the 1940s. Montreal and Kingston, Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995. Donnelly, B. Locating graphic design history in canada. Journal of design history, 19 (4), 2006. 283-294. Lindholm, C. Culture and authenticity. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2008. Moskowitz, M. Standard of living: The measure of the middle class in modern america. Baltimore, MD, USA: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. Robinson, D. J. (Ed). Communication history in canada, (2), Toronto, ON, Canada: Oxford University Press, 2009. [8] Vannini, P., and Williams, J. P. Authen- ticity in culture, self, and society. Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2009. [9] Williams, R. Culture is ordinary. In B. Hignhmore, Everyday life reader. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. 91-100.