Index Page

x

Introduction

John M Nordquist was born in 1904 in Portland, Oregon.

**********

Chronology

1957

Nordquist has said that his interest in paperfolding began in 1957 when he was shown 'a number of new folds from a Japanese seismologist' (see entries for 1963 and 1966 below).

**********

1958

On 27th June 1958 Meyer Berger's 'About New York' column in the New York Times featured Lillian Oppenheimer and her love of paperfolding. The column was titled 'Origami, the Ancient Art of Paper-Folding, has Gramercy Square Disciple.' It mentions John Nordquist, a seismologist at California Institute of Technology.

***

Nordquist is also mentioned in Volume 1, Issue 1 of The Origamian for October 1958.

**********

According to the exhibition catalogue, Nordquist contributed a design to the 'Plane Geometry and Fancy Figures' exhibition held at the Cooper Union Museum in New York in the Summer of 1959:

**********

1961

Volume 2 Issue 1 of 'The Origamian' for Summer 1961 contains a report by Lillian Oppenheimer of a trip to the West Coast where she met John Nordquist:

**********

Samuel Randlett's book 'The Art of Origami' which was published in 1961, contains diagrams for his designs 'King Tut's Crown' and 'Robin Hood Hat', a photo of his 'One Dozen Eggheads' display, a photo of an 'Origami Family Tree' he had created and another of him holding Randlett's 'New Flapping Bird'..

**********

1963

'The Best of Origami' by Samuel Randlett, which was published by E P Dutton in New York in 1963 and by Faber and Faber Ltd in London in 1964, contained the following biographical details:

And diagrams for a number of Nordquist's original designs:

Ornament

Of the ornament on the right the text says 'Next to the ORNAMENT is a variation ... which begin with two squares.' This would then seem to be the same design as my 2-part Nolid Octahedron, but, of course, of much earlier date.

**********

Super Susan (Cut)

**********

Icicles

**********

Easter Egg

(It is worth noting that this design had previously been published as 'De luchtballon' (the hot air balloon) in 1863 in 'De Kleine Papierwerkers 1' by Elise Van Calcar.)

**********

1966

'The Origamian' Vol 6: Issue 3 of Autumn 1966 includes a profile of John Nordquist, written by Alice Gray:

***

And diagrams for three of his original designs:

Folding Playpen by John M Nordquist

***

Nordquists 'Will-o the-Wisp' base and two designs derived from it.

Bird

***

Turtle

**********

1968

Nordquist's 'Man in the Moon' appeared in Issue 1 of the Flapping Bird.

**********

1974

Nordquist's 'Food Dish' (a dollar bill fold) appeared in Issue 20 of the Flapping Bird.

**********