Door Knocker c. 1940

Frank Gray rendered this door knocker on paper with graphite and watercolor. The design features a shield surmounted by an eagle, framed by stylized laurel leaves. The image participates in a long visual history. Eagles have symbolized power since antiquity; shields and laurel wreaths were common heraldic elements denoting honor. Gray’s door knocker adapts these symbols to early 20th-century America, where the eagle became associated with national identity and aspirations to global power. Considering that Gray trained at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, we might see this drawing as a proposal for manufacture. If so, who was the intended consumer? Was the artist hoping to ennoble middle-class homes or cater to wealthy patrons seeking to signal their status? Examining design journals, trade catalogs, and period advertisements could help us better understand Gray’s ambitions and the social forces that shaped his work. Ultimately, this image reminds us that even everyday objects can reflect complex cultural and institutional histories.