The Collection | Collection of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Explore over 30 centuries of design online, from ancient Roman marble to Pre-Columbian textiles, Renaissance drawings, contemporary 3D-printed chairs, and digital code. Please note that cataloging a collection of over 215,000 objects is a work in progress. You may come across records with very little information, factual errors, or harmful language. We appreciate your help in addressing these concerns and invite your feedback.

Example Searches: Chair Poster Fork Sidewall Matchsafe Sampler

Collection Highlights

View All Highlights

Cross-section and side view of structure, with detail view of human figures on lower right. Signed, in pencil: Calatrava / NY

Architecture on Paper

Yellow field, with macaws in blue, brown and white and branches of the same color.

Bandboxes

Woven plaid in shades of khaki, brown, pink, red, mauve, rust, and white.

Designer Spotlight: Jack Lenor Larsen

Featured Objects

Vining floral design typical of Chinese hand painted wallpapers. In foreground, strange rock formation amid grassy plateaus, waterlillies in pond at right, two large predatory birds amidst smaller birds, hummingbird and butterflies. Painted in bright polychrome color.

Line drawings of summer fruits and vegetables, some color shaded, lined up in rows.

The brilliant black carp (Magoi) windsock (Koinobori) represents sails in the wind to celebrate Boy’s Day, also known as Feast of Banners. This festival takes place May Fifth. It is a national holiday, celebrated during Golden Week. It supports children’s personalities and rejoices in their happiness. Below is a procession of samurai passing over the Suido Bridge on the lower right corner. Other carp, military streamers, (fukinagashi) and vertical banners (nobori) flap in the wind. This vibrant and highly suggestive liveliness frames Mt. Fuji in the background.

Electric fans on a background of curving, radiating lines. Printed in indigo, yellow-orange and red on a white ground.

Woven hanging in which a woman's face and hand fill the height and width. In black and white.

Sketch of John Deere tractor viewed from the side.

Necklace with three large oval pendants containing floral designs; each surrounded by a coiled green and silver border; chain of large links and clasp.

Exhibitions on View

View Past Exhibitions

Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer

Black flag with alternating squares of red and white forming a border. Flag depicts an all-female militia confronting a male intruder who reacts with fear to their presence. The two women closest to the intruder carry a flag and a drum while the others carry rifles and a machete. A small British flag appears in the upper left hand corner. The initials of the militia are embroidered along the bottom edge. The flag is fringed on three sides.

Jon Gray of Ghetto Gastro Selects

Textile design consisting of cream and pink striped flowers with orange centers, along with orange and black-spotted cheetahs, against a pink background with orange spots. The cheetahs initially appear to be part of the background and are not immediately visible.

Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Prints That Made the Fashion Brand

A house in middle surrounded by symmetrically arranged flower and topiary beds. A densely planted border of trees surrounds on three sides. Entrance to garden at center bottom edge of drawing.

The Modernist French Garden: Design by the Vera Brothers

Willi Smith: Street Couture

Silk embroidery in pale colors on dark blue linen. A horizontally and vertically symmetrical floral pattern in the Morris style.

Botanical Expressions

Nature by Design: Cochineal

Large tortoiseshell comb with pierced stylized flower and vine motifs.

Plastics

Anatomical model of Theobroma Cacao glued to a vertical rod mounted on a stepped base with affixed paper label

Botanical Lessons

Collections in Motion

View All Videos

Arc Touch Mouse: Production Process

The Arc Touch Mouse was designed to be portable, comfortable, and sleek.

Curatorial Departments

Horizontal rectangle showing an interior view. At right, two stools, one red and one blue, stand before a bar with a yellow foot rail. Behind are three floating shelves with bottles. At left, a blue banquette stands behind a row of tables with rectilinear decoration in black, white orange and yellow. The walls are white with horizontal detailing. There is a white dropped ceiling with round colored lights.

Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design

Grey-glazed gourd-like form (a), having bulbous lower section tapering up to a curved neck; the rounded top with four holes set off-center; cork stopper (b) in underside.

Product Design and Decorative Arts

Gentleman's waistcoat with standing collar, straight hem edge and pocket welts, with ten worked buttonholes and covered buttons, lined with twill. Embroidered in twenty-five colors of silk floss and chenille on an ivory silk taffeta ground. Overall small floral sprig, with a deep border of irises and other flowers down center front and across bottom. On the larger flowers at the bottom, caterpillars are embroidered in various shades of chenille.

Textiles

Scenes of black lambs in a dressing room or sitting on chairs in between bouquets of flowers, pink perfume bottles, and lipstick cases on a metallic silver ground.

Wallcoverings