One of the formative furniture designers of the 20th Century, George Nakashima is a central figure in reinventing design in the 20th Century. Trained as an architect, Nakashima discovered his calling as a furniture craftsman while working at a monastery in India. Raymond brought Nakashima to his farm outside New Hope in 1943, after sponsoring his release from a wartime internment camp for Americans of Japanese ancestry. In 1945 Nakashima purchased a plot of land in New Hope, where he built his home, as well as a furniture factory which has since expanded to twelve buildings. Enormously successful, he also opened factories in Japan and India. Nakashima designed every piece of furniture, allowing the form of the wood to dictate the shape of the piece he would design.