In 1932, Gilbert Rohde began his partnership with Herman Miller, a collaboration that would make the firm a leader in modern furniture and Rohde a superstar. A year later, he designed furniture, including this writing table, for the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago, which celebrated the country’s strides in technology and innovation. Despite his commitment to modern design, Rohde kept the traditional middle-class consumer in mind, and while his peers constructed entire suites from metal, he limited its use to accents, preferring woods that suggested conventional comfort but whose fine-grain patterns did not distract from his sleek lines.