David Pye OBE (1914-1993), was Professor of Furniture Design at The Royal College of Art from 1964 to1974. Pye was an accomplished wood-turner and carver, as well as an important writer on the theory of design and handcraft. 'The Nature and Aesthetics of Design', first published in 1964, and 'The Nature and Art of Workmanship', first published in 1968, were both hugely influential for the development of craft studies and design history.

Ezra Shales is Associate Professor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and the author of Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Civic Identity in the Progressive Era (Rutgers University Press, 2010).