Suzanne Vanderbilt began her career in design at General Motors in 1955 after graduating from the Pratt Institute. She worked briefly in the Chevrolet studio in interiors and then moved to Cadillac in 1956 as the assistant chief designer. In 1957, she moved to the Advanced studio working on ergonomics in interiors. She returned to the Chevrolet studio in 1965, and in 1969 was named chief designer for Chevrolet I and II interior studios. In 1972, she became chief designer of Chevrolet II working on small cars before stepping down in 1974 due to health issues. Vanderbilt retired in 1977. In her oral history, Vanderbilt goes into detail about being a woman in design, being relegated to interiors only throughout most of her career, being asked to do publicity, and designing “fem cars.” She does note that on the upside, Harley Earl did have women doing actual design work, and they weren’t just there as a public relations stunt. She discusses her work on ergonomics in the Advanced studio working on lumbar supports, safer instrument panels, and inflatable seatbelts. She discusses her work on various cars she worked on including the bicentennial car, Sandpiper, Chevette, and Corvette. Vanderbilt expresses frustration of never just being a “designer” but always a “woman designer” and discusses how she felt limited in what she was able to work on in her career. She discusses the high-pressure environment as chief designer for Chevrolet II, and her eventual retirement due to her health. She wraps up discussing women designers at General Motors and their various roles across the design department.

Collection contains 3 cassettes, 3 compact discs, 3 WAV files, 3 MP3 files, 1 diskette, 1 bound transcript, 1 Word transcript, 1 PDF transcript, and correspondence. Uploaded July 29, 2021 and February 10, 2026.

Related item:
Suzanne Vanderbilt papers, 1958-1986