Terry Boyd

Virginia Terry Boyd

Professor Emerita
Design Studies Department
vtboyd@wisc.edu

Terry Boyd is interested in the relationship between the material environment and the people who produce it, inhabit it and give meaning to it. This has led to work as varied as study of the mass produced furniture of Frank Lloyd Wright within the larger context of furniture design, to study of contemporary studio art furniture which she is involved with at present.

In the recent past her work has focused on Frank Lloyd Wright, as a guest scholar and lecturer at both Taliesin West and the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio.

She has served on the Wisconsin Historic Preservation Review Board, Madison Trust for Historic Preservation and consulted on the restoration of projects.

Terry’s teaching includes: Literature of Design Theory, Twentieth Century Design, History of American Interiors and History of European Interiors.

Specific DS courses taught include:

DS 421: History of European Interiors

DS 464: Dimensions of Material Culture

Graduate Student Research Topics

The general focus of research conducted by Terry’s advisees is: historical/cultural aspects of design (material culture). Past MS thesis titles include:

  • A Need of the Time: Vedic City and the American Search for Spirituality
  • Materialization of Irishness in Nineteenth-Century Bog Oak Souvenirs
  • Documentation of George B. Post’s Design for the Senate Chamber of the Wisconsin State Capitol
  • Soldiers on the World War II Home Front: The American Woman and Her House Beautiful Victory Home
  • George Mann Niedecken: Influences on the Development of an Interior Architect, 1897-1917