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Museum & Library Furniture LLC provides quality furniture for cultural institutions and public spaces.

Photo of Tom Shiner

“Years ago, I admired an ancient wood boat exhibited in a Viking museum in Oslo — a simple, useful, beautiful object hand crafted from wood and iron. It is the duty of architects and designers to ensure that we surround ourselves, especially in our public places, with beautiful, useful artifacts expressive of our own time.”

Tom Shiner is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and an award-winning furniture designer. He founded Museum & Library Furniture 30 years ago after a friend—the museum educator at the art museum in Hamburg, Germany—asked him to design a lightweight carry-around stool for people attending his educational programs in the galleries. Tom created THE MUSEUM STOOL®. The award-winning product is in constant use in an ever-expanding list of collections.

Tom was 16 when, as an apprentice journeyman in a wood mill near Washington, D.C., he began learning about the qualities of solid American wood. During his education as an architect at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, he won a national, professional furniture design competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Later, launched by his graduate studies of furniture design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art in Copenhagen, Tom created a furniture business espousing the following principles:

  • Use solid wood. Nothing beats it. Wood is beautiful and warm to the touch.
  • Use American wood. Wood is a sustainable resource but should be sourced locally to keep products environmentally responsible.
  • Embrace restraint. Visitors will have plenty to look at in the spaces around them; they don’t need expressive designs that try to capture the “look” of an era. Furniture should be style-neutral and recede into its surroundings.
  • Make it last. Long-life is not only cost-effective, it’s protective of the environment.
  • Make it accessible. The Americans with Disabilities Act is the law of the land. Know the guidelines and create barrier-free and universal design.

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