Born in St. Louis, Charles Eames studied architecture at the Washington University. In 1936, he received a fellowship at the Cranbrook Academy of Arts, Michigan. His colleagues there included Harry Bertoia, Eero Saarinen and Ray Kaiser, whom he married in 1941. During the Second World War he and his wife produced plywood splints and litters, developing a new method of bending plywood over three geometric planes into complex curves. In 1940, Eames and Eero Saarinen designed the winning entry for The Museum of Modern Art ”Organic Design in Home Furnishings” competition. In 1946m Eames was given MoMA’s first one-man show (New Furniture by Charles Eames). Charles and Ray Eames worked closely with the manufacturer Herman Miller, creating highly innovative, rational furniture designs. Later, the Eames concentrated on film-making, photography and exhibition design; their patrons for such projects included the US Government and IBM.