Campbell Collection of Soup Tureens at Winterthur

This book catalogues the Campbell soup tureen collection at the Winterthur Museum. From the 17th to 19th centuries, soup was a consistent first course for formal meals in Europe and the Americas, and the soup tureen served as vessel, table ornament and prestigious symbol. To provide cultural context, we encouraged the museum to incorporate imagery related to the history of soup and dining in general. We introduced two pale varnishes to organize the tureens by medium, used small details and maps to flesh out the narrative, and attempted to create a structure that gracefully accommodates a variety of complex technical data. It was especially challenging to make soup tureens engaging; to create graceful structures for a range of complex technical information. The tone of the original design comes through, but the book’s structure evolved over the project’s life to work better.