In 1958, Oppenheimer and her art form received widespread publicity across the United States after The New York Times ran an article about her.
Her father was a Polish immigrant named Bernard Vorhaus, while her mother, Molly Grossman, was also born in New York.
Lillian's husband was irritated by her desire to join him in business, believing that she should pursue activities "[more] appropriate for a suburban matron".
[2] Lillian enjoyed raising her children and she acted as the head of her large extended family after her husband died.
After undergoing an operation, she had a long stay in hospital and a longer period of recovery at home, accompanied by frequent medical appointments.
To entertain Molly, the two read Fun with Paperfolding (1928), an early instructional book on origami—then more commonly known as paper folding—written by the magicians William D. Murray and Francis J.
In 1953, Kruskal was invited by her cousin-in-law Judy Oppenheimer to attend one of the adult education classes at The New School for Social Research for something to do after her husband's death.
Kruskal taught origami to her family and friends, including Temko, who went on to be a prolific author of paper folding books.
It also included an introduction which provided a lengthy history of the art form in Europe and Japan, an analysis of common techniques and a bibliography.
Harbin had conducted extensive research; Gershon Legman informed him of the Japanese and Spanish paper folding traditions, where more inventive models were being created than in the West.
The British origami historian David Lister considered Paper Magic the "first time that anyone had written about paperfolding in such a comprehensive way.
[7] Lister, who knew Oppenheimer personally, wrote that Paper Magic changed her perception of origami from a solitary pastime to an active and connected minor art form and movement.
Although she could not meet Legman in France because he was away from home, she began to correspond with him and other notable paper folders, including Akira Yoshizawa of Japan and Ligia Montoya of Argentina.
She also considered the Mandarin term (折纸, Pinyin: zhé zhǐ) but ultimately found it unappealing and difficult to pronounce.
Lourie was able to get three articles in Hokubei Shimpo, an English-language newspaper for Japanese expatriates in New York, but they attracted little attention.
After she was interviewed on Tonight Starring Jack Paar, talk shows started vying to have her on and she appeared on radio and television.
Twenty-five people attended the first lesson on October 6, many of whom would become members of what she dubbed "the Origami Center", including Temko and Lourie.
After traveling extensively in Europe, Lillian went to Japan to see Akira Yoshizawa,[3] considered "the preeminent folder of his time".
Lillian Oppenheimer contributed to the May 1959 origami exhibit at Cooper Union Museum, "Plane Geometry and Fancy Figures".
[10] While Yoshizawa's art was the focus, it also featured the work of American folders who had been discovered by Oppenheimer and contained material on the history and mathematical aspects of origami, which helped it gain approval in both artistic and academic circles.
When Gray retired, the Friends were able to continue using her office at the American Museum of Natural History and they slowly subsumed the Center's functions.
Lillian Vorhaus Oppenheimer died on July 24, 1992, at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, following a heart operation.
[1][4] The New York Times published an obituary crediting her with introducing Americans to origami,[4] concurred by Robinson in the Encyclopædia Britannica's entry on the subject.
[9] According to Robinson, the efforts of Oppenheimer in the United States, Harbin and Legman in Europe and Yoshizawa in Japan turned origami into an organized art form whose practitioners actively communicated.
[6] At the time of Oppenheimer's death, around thirty countries had origami societies, with England's and Israel's being established by her daughter Rosaly.
After her husband's death, Oppenheimer held frequent puppetry meetings in her apartment, where she built a puppet theater.