Thomas Lamb (1896-1988) was an industrial designer most noted for his design of physiologically efficient handles.

Lamb was born in New York City on September 18, 1896. From an early age he was interested in anatomy and physiology. His ambition was to become a doctor, but family financial difficulties forced him to abandon this path. At the age of fourteen, Lamb began working afternoons in a textile design shop. On the weekends he apprenticed himself to a plastic surgeon, doing medical drawings in exchange for anatomy lessons. In the evenings, he studied figure drawing and painting at the Art Students League. Lamb also studied merchandising at Columbia University. The combination of anatomy, art, and business was integral to Thomas Lamb as a designer.

At seventeen, Lamb opened his own textile design firm, specializing in advertising, fashion, and magazine illustration. His bedspreads, napkins, and draperies became very popular in the 1920s and were featured in many New York department stores, including Lord & Taylor, Macy's, and Saks Fifth Avenue. In 1924, he began illustrating children's books, the most popular of which was Runaway Rhymes. Lamb also wrote and illustrated The Tale of Bing-O, which was published by the P. F. Volland Company in 1927. Shortly after his success with Runaway Rhymes, Lamb signed a contract with Good Housekeeping magazine to illustrate a series of Kiddyland cartoons. These became extremely popular, and Lamb soon began designing a line of Kiddyland textiles, soaps, talcum powder, and other children's accessories. There was even a Kiddiegram designed for Western Union and endorsed by Shirley Temple Black (1928-2014).

World War II was a major watershed for Thomas Lamb. Like many of his contemporary designers, he began to decry the worst excesses of over-designing that characterized the interwar years. He was determined to contribute to the war effort and he did so with a line of Victory Napkins, and later with his piggy bank "Adolph the Pig." "Adolph the Pig" was a popular item. Emblazoned with "For Victory Make Him Squeal," the bank actually squealed when a coin was deposited. People were encouraged to use the saved change to buy war bonds.

As he watched returning veterans with disabilities stumble and fall while using crutches, Lamb was inspired to begin work on designing a new crutch armrest, but soon discovered that the hand bore the main burden of the physical problem. Lamb began experimenting with a crutch handle or hand grip that would redistribute pressure in such a way as to make it easier to navigate with a crutch. Lamb was convinced that the central problem was to reduce thumb fatigue and he developed a handle that would allocate to each finger and muscle an appropriate distribution of forces and work. After spending tens of thousands of hours studying medical textbooks and the hand, he developed his Lamb Lim Rest crutch. Even though the Lamb Lim Rest never reached manufacture, the landmark patents that he developed for the wedge-lock, and later universal handle, were adapted to cookware, cutlery, surgical tools, luggage, sports equipment, and industrial equipment.

By the late 1940s, Thomas Lamb was known as the "Handle Man." In 1948, his work was featured in a one-man show on functional design at the Museum of Modern Art. This publicity led to contracts to produce a line of cutlery for Cutco and cookware for Wear-Ever. For the rest of his life, Thomas Lamb concentrated on designing products that would relieve pressure on the hand. His focus on designing for people of all abilities anticipated the Universal Design movement.

Thomas Lamb died on February 2, 1988, at ninety-one years of age.

Marc Harrison (1936-1998) was an industrial designer and pioneer of Universal Design. Harrison was born on July 1, 1936, in New York City. When he was eleven years old, Harrison suffered a severe brain injury due to a sledding accident in the Bronx, New York. As a result of the accident, he had to relearn basic functions such as walking and talking. It was because of this event and subsequent years of rehabilitation that Harrison gained insight and inspiration for his future work as an industrial designer.

Harrison earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in industrial design at Pratt Institute in 1958, and his Master of Fine Arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1959. After a brief stint of freelance designing in New York City, Harrison took a position teaching at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he became instrumental in establishing the Division of Architecture and Design. He believed in the importance of organic thought and the inclusion of liberal arts courses to enhance students' education, making them better designers.

The design philosophy of the time was that products should be designed for those of average shape, size, and ability. Although the intention was that these products would work for as many people as possible, elderly people and people with disabilities found products designed by this method to be difficult to use. Harrison turned this philosophy on its head by deciding that products should be designed for people of all abilities. This was the pioneering of a philosophy that came to be known as Universal Design. Harrison incorporated this design philosophy into projects both at RISD and with his private consulting firm, Marc Harrison Associates.

In the early 1960s, while wandering through a restaurant supply company, Harrison came across a set of knives designed by Thomas Lamb (1896-1988). Harrison was so impressed by the knives' designs that he became determined to meet Lamb. Harrison arranged an introduction through a mutual friend. Harrison and Lamb became lifelong friends and colleagues.

Toward the end of his life, Harrison became involved with a RISD project, the "Universal Kitchen," based on concepts of Universal Design. The design study, undertaken by RISD students, analyzed every aspect of the kitchen in order to restructure it to meet the needs of varying abilities. Students documented each step in the process of cooking a meal in a conventional kitchen in order to develop a more efficient, time-saving, and user-friendly model. Based on their findings, the students built a prototype "Universal Kitchen." Harrison, who was one of the pioneers of the philosophy of Universal Design, was not able to see the final outcome of the project. On September 22, 1998, Marc Harrison died due to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The final version of the "Universal Kitchen" was placed on exhibit in October 1998 at the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City.