An essential volume for the modernist library: San Francisco-based photographer Leslie Williamson's Handcrafted Modern: At Home with Mid-Century Designers; $29.70 at Amazon.

Above: The cover shows the handmade staircase in Wharton Esherick's house in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

Above: The desk of architect Walter Gropius in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

Above: Russell Wright's studio in Garrison, New York.