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.

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Collection Highlights

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In white above: FREE GERONIMO PRATT/...FIGHTING SPIRIT OF THE BLACK NATION: lower right: one of the longest held political prisoners in the U.S. today...[4 lines of text]. Color photograph of a bearded man gesturing with hand at group of children playing.

Angry Graphics

Chair design in form of a growing tree or bush with crossing and intertwined veins forming seat and back. Two sketches at right of leaves intertwined and branching twigs.

From Sketch to Product

Three horizontal bands depicting scenes from the biblical story in which Judith severs Holoferne's head to save her people.

Lace from the Greenleaf Collection

Featured Objects

Elaborately carved mahogany or primavera chair inspired by Chippendale design; the upholstery is modern.

Coffeepot with "Hausmaler" Decor Coffeepot

3920 Vanity, 1939

This children's frieze illustrates chapter eight, "Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition to the North Pole" from "Winnie the Pooh", by A.A. Milne, 1926. The frieze incorporates the original book illustrations by E.H Shephard which have been made continuous by the addition of an idyllic landscape.

Horizontal rectangle. Design for George Lawson’s Hub City transportation system. At upper left, rear view of an automobile with figures of a passenger and driver. At lower right, side view of the front portion of an automobile, with line drawings showing the machinery in the car’s interior. A rectangular box mounted in front of the car’s windshield seems to either sense the rear of the car in front of it or cast a light on the vehicle. One hand on the steering wheel at right edge.

Recto: On a black background, Talking Heads, the letter A upside down, is imprinted in large capital letters in white across the entire top; the album title, centered, is imprinted in small capitals at bottom. The space between the two bands of type is occupied by four computer-enhanced images, representing the four musicians (three men and one woman); the faces are red and the features blue and black.
Verso: The band's name is replicated as it appears on the recto. The bottom black band, in the same size as on the recto, instead shows the song titles, musicians' names and other production information in small white capitals. The design comprises a snowcapped mountain scene in brown, white, and sky blue; four red fighter planes in vertical formation and graduating in size are superimposed.

A chariot drawn by a bullock and a goat. Two female figures seated in the chariot. One has a halo. The reins are held in the beak of a large bird flying ahead of the goat and bullock. Verso: inscription.

Yard goods; a Riverdale Fabric, "Calico Cow" designed by Ilonka Karasz of Associated American Artists, 1952.

Exhibitions on View

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Willi Smith: Street Couture

Contemporary Muslim Fashions

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

Botanical Expressions

Herbert Bayer: Bauhaus Master

After Icebergs

Nature by Design: Cochineal

Face Values: Exploring Artificial Intelligence

Collection Selects: Wyss Institute

Plastics

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

Botanical Lessons

Scenic wallpaper designed for a bathroom. This mural is composed of three different panels making up one underwater scene. Section I, the first of three panels, contains two large fish with striped heads swimming. Two clams rest on the hilly bottom. Plant life is growing up both sides of the scene. The three panels work in sequence, with the right edge of Section III joining up the left edge of Section I, allowing multiple sets to be used to repeat around your bathroom. Printed in colors on an off-white ground.

Bathing Beautiful

Collections in Motion

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Arc Touch Mouse: Production Process

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

Curatorial Departments

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