Eliel Saarinen was a Finnish-American architect known for his work with art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century. His first major work was  the Finnish pavilion at the Paris 1900 World Fair, and his early manner was later christened the Finnish National Romanticism and culminated in the Helsinki Central Railway Station. While in product design for the Wilcox Silver Plate Co he designed his iconic tea urn which was first exhibited in 1934–35 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

He was the father of 1962 AIA Gold Medalist Eero Saarinen.