Page "Parsons The New School for Design" Paragraph 9

In 1904, Frank Alvah Parsons joined Chase ; six years later, he became the School's president.

Anticipating a new wave of the Industrial Revolution, Parsons predicted that art and design would soon be inexorably linked to the engines of industry.

His vision was borne out in a series of firsts for the School, establishing the first program in Fashion Design, Interior Design, Advertising, and Graphic Design in the United States.

In 1909, the school was renamed the New York School of Fine and Applied Art to reflect these offerings.

Parsons became sole director in 1911, a position which he maintained to his death in 1930.

William M. Odom, who established the school's Paris Ateliers in 1921, succeeded Parsons as president.

In honor of Parsons, who was important in steering the school's development and in shaping visual-arts education through his theories about linking art and industry throughout the world, the institution became Parsons School of Design in 1936.