RL Magazine - Russel Wright

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Wright's home and studio at Manitoga, known as Dragon Rock, blends seamlessly into its surroundings, seeming to sprout organically
from a hillside overlooking a quarry.

Older campers are led on a tour of Wright's studio, which has been carefully restored since the designer's death in 1976.

Campers at Manitoga's Nature and Design summer sessions spend the entire day
outdoors, learning by doing.

Days at the Manitoga Nature and Design Camp begin with an excursion into the woods on Wright's lightly landscaped trails.

One of the Nature and Design Camp's sessions is devoted to reptiles and amphibians. Here, campers examine an albino corn snake.

A forgotten pioneer of design and eco-activism inspires a summer camp with a conscience.

Not too long ago, the name Russel Wright would have carried the same kind of branding authority and feverish following as that of Martha Stewart. The man known as America's first "lifestyle designer" may well have been the Martha of his day. A prolific producer of household items, from dishes to cookware to furniture to linens, and the author, with his wife, Mary, of Guide to Easier Living, Wright spearheaded a small revolution in domestic life in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, moving Americans toward a more congenial, informal lifestyle.

In the aftermath of the Depression, Wright understood the new demands for simplicity, practicality, and affordability, but sought to infuse them with a modern and artistic sensibility (honed during his years at the Art Students League in New York City and as a theatrical set designer). His streamlined creations, hewn from humble materials such as maple, spun aluminum, and melamine, encapsulated his notion that "good design is for everybody"—indeed, his American Modern ceramic line sold 250 million pieces between 1939 and 1959.

Thinking intently about how his products would be used, Wright hoped his organic designs would produce a harmony between people and their environment, beginning indoors and moving outward. "I am more interested in nature than any other subject," he said.

The project that Wright considered his most significant achievement is his home and studio in Garrison, New York. The property he decided to build on in 1942 had been decimated by decades of copper mining, granite quarrying, and lumbering. Dubbing it Manitoga, the Algonquin word meaning "place of great spirit," he spent the next several years designing his house and studio (with architect David L. Leavitt) and painstakingly rehabilitating the site and studding it with native trees and plants. It's landscaped, but one would never know it—and that's the point.

"He was always thinking about how to get people to stop thinking about what's going on in their heads and start paying attention to what's going on around them," explains Kitty McCullough, director of the Russel Wright Center at Manitoga. To this end, Wright would literally throw a stone in your path—by arranging a series of rocks too small to step on, or embedding small logs in the dirt, "so it's like corduroy—you feel it as you walk on it," says McCullough.

Since 1987, Manitoga has opened its seventy-five acres and four miles of woodland trails to local youth each summer as part of an educational initiative Wright spelled out before his death, in 1976. In recent years, the camp has added art and design to its purview, taking on a more defined mission to directly link the campers' experience of the land to Wright's philosophy. "He wanted to live more democratically, more casually, in a more relaxed way," says McCullough. "His cure was nature, and the camp has picked that up."

From July 6 to August 7, each weeklong session of Manitoga Summer Nature and Design Camp for children aged 5 to 12 has a special focus: reptiles and birds; geology; living in harmony with nature; wonders of the plant world; and Shakespeare week, which culminates in a performance of an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Older campers tour Wright's home and studio for a glimpse of how he lived and worked—and of the giant cedar tree trunk that pierces the double-height living room. All sessions feature art projects, guest educators, and a surfeit of time for exploration—no small thing, considering that, by some estimates, just 6 percent of today's kids aged nine to thirteen spend any unstructured time outside. (Wright was clearly onto something: studies show outdoor time leads to lower levels of obesity and stress, better concentration, higher self-esteem, and more creativity among children.)

Camp director Mark Wick, a science teacher at an elementary school in neighboring Cold Spring, admits, "I look forward to this all year long." Though he frequently takes his classes outside, he's thankful for the comparative lack of structure the camp affords. Campers spend the entire day outdoors, for one (barring truly inclement weather), and are encouraged to explore the grounds in supervised pairs or groups. "It's not really a curriculum or teaching, per se, at Manitoga," explains Wick. "I try to help them develop a passion for the outdoors. It enables them to use their imagination and their senses."

Following in Wright's observational footsteps, the lessons come from the surroundings. Days begin with an excursion into the woods, where counselors show campers how to identify trees, take them "sneaker creeking" in the stream Wright diverted into the quarry pit, and impart "leave no trace" principles, along with such skills as orienteering and composting. If it rains, they take shelter in "outdoor rooms" Wright built into the landscape, and afterward they gather to spot the amphibians that have come out. "When you're out in nature, anything can happen," says Wick. "The best part for me is being able to teach from chaos."

And while the youngest campers may have a tough time grasping Wright's theories, they readily embrace his practice. "They can see his respect for nature," says Wick. "And we're breeding a lot of nature lovers here." He concludes, "I want them to come away with a sense of place." Just as Wright intended.

Sarah P. Hanson is a New York–based writer and editor at Assouline Publishing.

Photography credits:

Courtesy Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center
Courtesy Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center
Courtesy Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center