The National Heritage Museum in Massachusetts is putting on a massive retrospective on Raymond Loewy, arguably the father of industrial design. "Raymond Loewy: Designs for a Consumer Culture" opens a month from tomorrow and will feature Loewy's drawings, photos, models, ads, actual products, and even rare film footage of the man at work.

Raymond Loewy: Designs for a Consumer Culture" draws heavily on Loewy's personal archives, a treasure collection of images and information not previously available to researchers or the public. A national magazine said of him in 1950, "Loewy has probably affected the daily life of more Americans than any other man of his time.

Best of all, the National Heritage Museum is open seven days a week, and admission is free. Might be worth a New England fall foliage roadtrip.

Show runs through March of 2008. While the NHM website has not yet been updated to include details of the exhibition, you can read a little about what's going on display here.