Ruth Adler Schnee (1923-2023, Germany and United States) was one of the founding figures of contemporary textile design in the United States, known for boldly colored and abstract patterns. Born in Frankfurt to a German-Jewish family, Schnee and her family fled Nazi Germany and settled in Detroit in 1938. Schnee received degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design and Cranbrook Academy of Art, where she studied under the tutelage of Eliel Saarinen and interned with Raymond Loewy. In 1946, her design for a modern house featuring improvised abstract window coverings won the Chicago Tribune's Better Rooms for Better Living competition, launching her career as a textile and interior designer. In addition to running a modernist home furnishing store with her husband from 1948 to 1971, Schnee collaborated with architects and designers including Buckminster Fuller, Minoru Yamaski, Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, and Frank Lloyd Wright.