Elsie De Wolfe: America's First Interior Decorator

Elsie de Wolfe has been credited as America’s first interior designer. She brought celebrity and wit to an otherwise unknown profession, and her designs represent a seductive and obsolete style of whimsical murals, trompe-l'œil wallpaper and frivolity. In her 1913 book, The House in Good Taste, she wrote, “I’m going to make everything around me beautiful – that will be my life.”

Wolfe originally trained as an act...