Charles and Ray Eames are among the most important American designers of the 20th century. They are best known for their groundbreaking contributions to architecture, furniture design, industrial design and manufacturing, and the photographic arts.

Charles Eames was born in 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended school there and developed an interest in engineering and architecture. After attending Washington University on scholarship for two years and being thrown out for his advocacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, he began working in an architectural office.

Ray Kaiser Eames was born in Sacramento, California in the middle of the century's second decade. She studied painting with Hans Hofmann in New York before moving on to Cranbrook Academy where she met and assisted Charles and Eero Saarinen in preparing designs for the Museum of Modern Art's "Organic Furniture Competition."

Charles and Ray married in 1941 and moved to California where they continued their furniture design work with molding plywood.