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

Thomas 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, Thomas 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 Arts Student 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, Thomas 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 of the 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 Thomas 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).

The Second World War was a major watershed for Thomas Lamb. Like many of his contemporary designers he began to decry the worst excess 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.